Why Does Sausage Have Casing?

[johnmeyer]

The title may seem like a stupid question, but I am quite serious.

Ever since I started making my own pork meat topping to go on the pizzas in my new pizza oven, I've been thinking about this. As I have tried to find an "authentic" Chicago-style Italian sausage recipe, all the recipes include instructions for stuffing into the casing, but for my situation, this isn't needed.

So why do we put ground meat into casings? We don't do it for hamburgers, and they are served on a bun with relish and mustard (or ketchup, yeech), so the reason can't be just to put it on a bun.

In the past, before I started grinding my own pork and adding spices, I'd buy pre-made Italian sausage, and the first thing I'd do would be to take it out of the casing so I could drop small bits on the pizza. I then realized that for my meat sauces and other dishes, I've been doing the same thing for years. Probably 80% of the Italian sausage I've ever bought has been removed from its casing before being cooked.

So, besides holding the meat so it has a certain shape when served on a bun, is there another reason to spend considerable effort to stuff the meat into these little flexible tubes?

Tonight I'm cooking up my leftover homemade pizza topping ("sausage") that didn't get used for our last pizza, and am going to serve it on a burger bun as a patty, like a hamburger. Near as I can tell, this will taste exactly like it would if it were in a casing.

I'm not trying to be controversial in any way whatsoever, and instead am just curious.

Oh, and BTW, I haven't even come close to creating sausage that tastes like Italian sausage you get on Chicago pizzas, or at Chicago Italian beef joints. That quest continues.

 

[Braz]

Interesting question. Kind of in the vein of "is a hot dog a sandwich?" I'll posit that any sausage is by definition a tubular shaped meat product. Casings are the traditional way to get those tubular shapes. What you are seeking is not really sausage, rather it is ground meat (flavored as you like).

 

[noboundaries]

Probably a natural progression from curing meats in casings.

Or somebody stuffed a casing, was too hungry to cure it, threw it on the fire and went......Hey, this is pretty dang good! (only in Italian).

 

[bill ace 350]

As far as italian sausage goes, I can get it in the case, or in ground form.

Don't think a casing is a requirement to define something as a sausage.

 

[kit s]

The title may seem like a stupid question, but I am quite serious.

Ever since I started making my own pork meat topping to go on my pizzas in my new pizza oven, I've been thinking about this. As I have tried to find an "authentic" Chicago-style Italian sausage recipe, all the recipes include instructions for stuffing into the casing, but for my situation, this isn't needed.

So why do we put ground meat into casings? We don't do it for hamburgers, and they are served on a bun with relish and mustard (or ketchup, yeech), so the reason can't be just to put it on a bun.

In the past, before I started grinding my own pork and adding spices, I'd buy pre-made Italian sausage, and the first thing I'd do would be to take it out of the casing so I could drop small bits on the pizza. I then realized that for my meat sauces and other dishes, I've been doing the same thing for years. Probably 80% of the Italian sausage I've ever bought has been removed from its casing before being cooked.

So, besides holding the meat so it has a certain shape when served on a bun, is there another reason to spend considerable effort to stuff the meat into these little flexible tubes?

Tonight I'm cooking up my leftover homemade pizza topping ("sausage") that didn't get used for our last pizza, and am going to serve it on a burger bun as a patty, like a hamburger. Near as I can tell, this will taste exactly like it would if it were in a casing.

I'm not trying to be controversial in any way whatsoever, and instead am just curious.

Oh, and BTW, I haven't even come close to creating sausage that tastes like Italian sausage you get on Chicago pizzas, or at Chicago Italian beef joints. That quest continues.

Well maybe sausage is in casings but I see a lot of sausages (as labeled) in patties. If you like it that way make it that way, just my two cents.

 

[johnmeyer]

... If you like it that way make it that way, just my two cents.

I was just wondering if it was done for taste or some other reason. noboundaries mentioned curing and since I've never cured anything, I don't know if it makes a difference to have a barrier from the air, which I assume the casing provides. Maybe that's the answer to my question: you need it in casing to cure the meat.

 

[pops6927]

I will make Italian sausage and stuff some, and bulk some. Same with breakfast sausages - bulk and little links. Brats usually in casings, but I've done bulk patties too. Bulk I'll form into patties and lay on a cookie sheet with 2 layers of wax paper in between and freeze the entire sheet overnight, then bring them out and separate them and put into ziploc bags to store in the freezer for future use. Either way the flavors are the same with both tubed and bulked. Ever try casing hamburger and making links? Especially adding high-temp cheese cubes. That is good, too. I've made polish sausage patties as well as rings, too.

 

[dward51]

Sausage usually has more fat than the typical hamburger. It's a lot harder to handle sausage, especially in any volume without casings. Couple this with commercial distribution and they use casings. For home use and DIY recipes I don't think it really matters. I have done casing-less sausage that were hand rolled and then smoked before. Did it the first time when I was out of casings and did not realize that until I had the meat mixed up and ready to go. It was a 5 pound batch so it was still manageable. The color looked better to me as the meat directly took in the smoke, but flavor wise it was about the same. Now 25 pounds, I'd have to make a run to the butcher for casings.

 

[smokininthegarden]

Well just my thoughts on this. But my take would be that back in the day, when they used the
entire animal for something, no waste, unlike the throw away world that we live in today. When they
butchered an animal they had a natural casing/package to use. Lacking refrigeration it also
would have been easier to hang links from the ceiling of the cave or root cellar that they had.
Also they didn’t have plastic wrap or zip lock bags to put meat in so storing bulk meat on
a dirt floor may not have been ideal.

I also read somewhere once that the original reason for making sausage was to mask the
taste of meat that was on the verge of spoiling or already spoiled, due to lack of refrigeration.
So the intestines would have been the ideal package to store sausage in.

Cal

 

[old sarge]

So it won’t fall a part

 

[HalfSmoked]

I've as much without as with casings. Only country style breakfast sausage though.

On a bun with fried onions and peppers sounds like a winner to me.

Warren

 

[petewoody]

I rarely bother with casings anymore. I usually make up 8 ounce and 1 lb lots and vacuum seal them for later use in pasta sauces or for pizza and lasagna. I found, like OP, that I spent most of my time uncasing them.

 

[JckDanls 07]

Pending on how much you make and what you want the end product to be...

Sure, you can make your sausage casingless (is that a word?) but I think it takes more room. effort, and accessory's (meaning grates, that also have to be washed after use) when not using casings since you won't be able to hang it... You'll have to somehow catch it on a grate as it's coming out of the tube of the stuffer .. I do recall a member (don't recall which one) making an elevated stand for his stuffer so the grate would slide back and forth underneath the stuffer to catch the formed sausage...

And then when/if they are cooked hot and fast on a grill what's gonna hold all that goodness (juices) in without a casing ? And how do you keep turning it (so it won't burn) and it holds together in it's long tubular form ?

I do 3 twin packs of Butts (between 40 and 50 lbs) and it's all made into snack sticks each run... whatever's left (less than five lbs) of making up 5 lb chubs to mix I make into pops breakfast sausage patties... so to try and do that much into casingless ..

just my thinking ...

 

[PAS]

Why Does Sausage Have Casing?
So it can cross the road??...sorry , talking abut chickens.

 

[indaswamp]

Probably a natural progression from curing meats in casings.

^^^^this^^^^^