What went wrong????

[69firefowl]

Made a 5lb batch of Greg's sticks.  Followed instructions.  Internal temp never hit 152.  The casings are very loose and tough to bite. Had them on the smoker for 6 hours.  The meat inside tastes good. But the texture IOC the outside is off.




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[Habanero Smoker]

There could be a few reasons. Where they natural or collagen casings? Collagen casings are usually tougher than natural casings. If collagen, did you get edible or non-edible casings?

The link below is a good guide in trouble shooting problems with sausage casings.

Sausage Casings 101
NOTE: Sausage maker recommends soaking collagen casing for 5 minutes; most others state do not soak collagen casings.

[69firefowl]

These were Lems collagen edible casings. 17mm.

It is like the meat shrank, but the casing didn't. 

[KyNola]

I'm guessing that maybe you smoked/cooked them at too high of a temperature and rendered out all of the fat.

[Habanero Smoker]

Besides fat rendering out, in that link that I provided; some of the other causes of meat separating from the casings; it could be that you under stuffed them, and/or you may need to soak the casings for 3 - 5 minutes, but not any longer. Having enough moisture is important for the meat to cling to the casings.

[Edward176]

I had a similar problem when I used edible casings too. After several tries it appears that I under-stuffed the casings and used too high of heat too soon. My last batch was perfect sausages and nice and firm/plump in the casings.