They cardinal for having the perfect sausage is not only on the ingredients or in the process. There is also a very of import thing chosen "casing" and it is what keeps the stuffing together for yous to savour. After all, a sausage is not a sausage without something to stuff it in.

But of form, they are not only meant for compacting the ingredients and keeping them together, but they're too responsible for ensuring a flavorful and groovy textured sausage, and in that, depends the blazon of casing that you use or the processing technique applied (yes, there are many types of Sausage Casings and many means to fill up them)

Welcome to the Ultimate Sausage Casings Guide with The Artisan'southward Bottega:

Natural Casings
Natural sausage casings are fabricated from the submucosa of the minor intestine, a layer of the intestine that consists of naturally occurring collagen. They have been used for a very long time and are even so the most popular choice today because they're also flexible, tender, easy to stuff, and are durable enough to hold up to smokehouse processing.

Your natural casings will come up either packed in common salt or a saline solution. Casings packed in table salt must be flushed so soaked overnight before stuffing. Pre-flushed casings are ready to stuff after a xx-minute soak in warm water. Both can be repacked in common salt and stored in the freezer for up to a year.

TAB Tip: Natural sausage casing are from the intestines or stomachs of various animals and is permeable to air and outside flavourings while too existence very strong and edible.

Withal, as you are imagining, there are many types of natural casings, depending on the animal they are extracted from. Take hold of pen and paper and get ready to learn all about them

  • Hog Casings: they are made from the intestines of pigs and they provide a very meaty flavour to sausages. They are as well the traditional choice when making any type of link sausage similar bratwurst, Italians, kielbasa and many more.
  • Sheep casings: They tend to be smaller than the other types of natural casings and are used for small or thin sausages. The smaller bore of sheep casings makes the perfect for making small link sausages like breakfast sausage and hot dogs, to snack sticks.
  • Beef rounds or casings: These are very durable, tin be very large and can be used for a variety of large sausages or salamis. Beefiness rounds get their proper name from their characteristic circular shape. They have minimal fat and are ideal for fresh, cooked or smoked sausage such equally Ring Bologna, Polish, Mettwurst, Holsteiner, and Blood Sausage.
  • Beef middles: These straight long casings have a heavier texture wall with some fatty. These casings are ideal for dry and semi-dry out sausages like Salami, Liverwurst, Bologna, or Summer sausage.
  • Beef bung caps: Made from the cease of a cow'southward large intestine, beef bungs are large-bore casings that are typically used for large bologna, headcheese, souse, capicola, and mortadella.

Now that we take discovered the variety of natural casings, we're prepare to move onto the artificial sausage casings, that can be made from collagen, cellulose, cotton wool or plastic and are more often than not not edible or as flexible as a natural casing but are much more than cost effective and consistent in size and quality.

Collagen Casings
Collagen casings are processed, edible casings produced from the collagen in cow or pig hides, bones, and tendons. While they do not give much of a snap, they are inexpensive and give more uniformity in weight and size compared to their natural counterparts. Collagen casings are packaged in sheets effectually a tube that can easily exist loaded on your stuffing horn, with no soaking required. They also come in two varieties based on processing:

  • Fresh: fresh collagen casings are used specifically for fresh sausages similar bratwurst and breakfast links. These tend to be more tender casings that are unable to withstand hanging in a smokehouse.
  • Fume: smoked or processed collagen casings are great for making any blazon of smoked sausages like snack sticks or wieners. Their immovability holds up well when hung on fume sticks during processing and are bachelor in clear and mahogany colors (no taste variation).

Fibrous Casings
Gristly casings are inedible casings made from a form of cellulose cloth that peels away easily when cooked. They are most commonly used for making pepperonis, summer sausage, bologna, liverwurst, and other fine smoked sausages. Their durability allows tight stuffing, making them ideal for fine or emulsified sausages. Fibrous casings can be made from different types of fibers and are very strong; a lining of proteins inside the casing also gives them the power to shrink as a sausage dries.

Fibrous casings should be soaked for at least 25-30 minutes in warm h2o (80-100 F). Lay the casings flat in warm water and submerge completely, with the tied ends lower so that whatever trapped air can escape. Later on soaking, squeeze backlog water out earlier stuffing.

Alternative Casings
If you practise non have access to natural or artificial casings, or just practise not want to use them only still want to make sausage links, you can make casings from strips of muslin. To form casings about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, cut strips near half-dozen inches wide and 16 inches long. Fold lengthwise and stitch edges together to form tubes. There is also vegan style casings.This vegan Sausage Casings are suitable for you DIY sausage making.

If you do not use casings at all, you can yet form links by rolling upward the mixture in foil or plastic wrap and refrigerating until firm. You lot will need to add together a binder (breadcrumbs, soy poly peptide concentrate, etc.) to the sausage mix, normally 5% to x% of the mix, to keep the meat from separating during cooking.

Later all of this information, you might be wondering: what is the all-time blazon of casing for the sausage I have in mind. Well, nosotros take made it easy for you with this guide for choosing the perfect casing:

HOG CASINGS SHEEP CASINGS Fibrous CASINGS
Length Usage Length Usage Length Usage
29-32 mm Minor Brats, Link Sausage or Landjaeger 20-22 mm Breakfast Sausage or Pocket-sized Snack Sticks i" Thuringer, Pepperoni, Salami, Cracker-Sized Sausages
32-35 mm Brats • Italian Sausage • Rope Sausage 22-24 mm Breakfast Sausage or Snack Sticks 2-2 .v" Traditional Summer Sausage
35-38 mm Polish • Kielbasa 24-26 mm Pocket-size Hot Dog or Wiener four" Big Summer Sausage or Hard Salami
38-42 mm Bologna 26-28 mm Large Hot Dog , Wiener or Landjaeger 8" Olive & Pimento Loaf, Mortadella, Cafeteria & Sandwich Meats

And don't worry if y'all don't know how much meat should you use per type of casing, because we have the ultimate guide for you to respond this question easily. If y'all want, you can download this following image on your calculator or smartphone and recheck it anytime:

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