why collagen casings

[don24]

i have just recently started making sausage and have made about 30lbs so far with natural casings with no problems.i see alot of more experianced makers on here use colligen casings.what are the pros and cons of both .it seems from all the pictures ive seen yuo need to tie colligin cassings

[classicrockgriller]

I am kinda new in the sausage making world. I have made:

snack sticks (17,19 & 21mm casing) 32mm collagen venison

sausage, 1 1/2 x 12 summer sausage, 2 3/4 x 20 old fashion

bologna, bulk sausage in 1 and 2 lbs bags, and Boudain in hog

casings. The hog casings were the hardest for me, but still was

worth the effort. The collagen casings don't require soaking and

are edible. Easy to load, and can be packed tight. The larger

fibrous casings require soaking and are non-edible and can be

packed tight. The only blow-outs I had are once on snack sticks

and 4 times using the hog casings. But I still like using them also.

[dbondy]

I'v only used hog casings once and was very happy how they turned out, I,ll will use them again on brawts. But I still like to use collogen on snack sticks and I like to use the 1.5 x 12 fibours casings for kolbasa and summer sausage because they are faster to use. The hog casings require a lot more work but are worth it for brawts.

[RAF128]

If you're making snack sticks you have 2 choices.    Collegen or natural sheep casings.    I bought some sheep casing and a package cost me over $40.   Collegen are cheap and easy to work with.     Most sausage makers have gotten away from the natural casing and go with collegen.

[Drac]

In certain apps (snack sticks) I like the snap of bitting into the collegen casings.

Jim

[LoftyNotions]

I use 32-35mm pork casings for Bratwurst and Italian type sausages and  38-42mm pork casings for Kielbasa or other tied ring style sausages. I cut 2 foot lengths, stuff them and tie them in rings.

For smoke stix I use 20 or 21 mm edible collagen casings. The main reason for my choice of Collagen is that sheep casings are very fragile and as mentioned above, smoke stix can stand a little snap.

I do prefer pork casings for other sausages. I think they're worth the extra work.

For Salamis, Summer Sausages, Thuringer, etc. I use various inedible Collagen casings, mostly 60 mm but sometimes larger.

You're right. Collagen casings need to be tied. You can link natural casings. I've heard that someone makes a curved Collagen casing that can be linked, but I've never seen it.

Larry