Cautionary tale regarding sausage casings.

[mdboatbum]

I bought natural lamb casings form a local Amish butcher recently for Italian sausage. I was cutting the one LOOOOONG piece into manageable lengths and I guess I lost track. One ended up in the garbage disposer. I worked on it for an hour today trying to free it up to no avail. Looks like I'm getting a new disposer. Ugh. That stuff is TOUGH!

 

[shooterrick]

Just a late tip.  I place a large collindar (sp) in the sink when cleaning my casings just in case I lose one.  Sorry you have had a problem.

 

[venture]

Those casings are slippery little critters.  Sometimes I think they are still alive, especially when I am trying to turn them inside out or fitting them over the stuffing horn? (think more water!)

For Italian, I use hog casings.  How did you like the sheep casings?

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[daveomak]

MD, evening... If you are still at it... try throwing ice cubes down there... the ice may cut the casings up into little chunks and your troubles may be over..... with any luck at all.....    bride uses that method for chicken fat that gets down there... seems to work at times....   Dave

 

[scarbelly]

If you are not on a septic system you can also use egg shells. The shells break up into sharp pieces that could possibly cut thru the casings. If you are on septic do not use this method as the shells are not biodegradable. 

 

[venture]

In the old days they told us to run a Coke bottle thru the disposer.  I definitely would not recommend that!

As Gary said, some egg shells or a wedge of lemon now and then wouldn't hurt.

I do not recommend potato skins, and at all cost please avoid parsley stems!  LOL

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[mdboatbum]

Unfortunately the casing was apparently in there for a few days. Didn't realize it until the disposer stopped spinning, so ice or eggshells would be a moot point. I've tried using the allen key to spin the motor from underneath, and it will turn but slowly and with a bit of effort. My guess is that the casing is wrapped around the shaft of the grinder. My last ditch effort will be drano, in hopes it might dissolve the casing. After that I'll just get a new one. The good thing is we live in an apartment so it shouldn't cost us anything. The bad thing is we have to wait until they get around to it and live with the cheap contractor grade disposer they'll put in, and hope they don't screw it up too badly. The maintenance staff here are notoriously nonchalant and sloppy.

As for the sheep casings, they were pretty good. I was looking for hog casings but sheep was all they had.

 

[retread]

When I was a kid, we would use a strong stick of some kind, when the disposer jammed (Broomstick or hockey stick or something like that).  We'd stick it down from the top and rotate the grinder backwards. That generally worked back then and I have used a similar idea a couple of times in the past few years.

 

[SmokinAl]

I bet drano will work.

 

[smokeamotive]

As a former apartment maint. man, many many moons ago, I had seen a number of obsured items put in a garbage disposal. As far as your problem goes, if you have a decent disposal and don't want them to put in the heapy cheapy one, you can remove the disposal and break the case open at the grinder plate and extract the casing. It requires a few tools, but isn't that hard to do.

 

[daveomak]

Also hydrogen peroxide may work... it attacks anything organic... (if I remember correctly)... couldn't hurt...  Dave

 

[BigW.]

Does anyone know how to fix a garbage disposal that has backed up. I guess I put too many tater skins in there because now I can't get it to drain. DH is on the warpath....I told him I have put tater skins down there before, but he thinks I did something wrong. HELP!

Does the disposal turn on? Are the teeth clogged with tater skins or did you send a bunch of skins thru and now the p-trap is clogged? If the disposal is currently stuck, remove some skins and turn on. I throw the majority of potatoes skins in the trash.

 

[chopsaw]

Does anyone know how to fix a garbage disposal that has backed up. I guess I put too many tater skins in there because now I can't get it to drain. DH is on the warpath....I told him I have put tater skins down there before, but he thinks I did something wrong. HELP!

You probably clogged the drain . Is it a dual sink ? I've seen the dual sink clog up from this at the crossover connection .
Throw potato skins in the trash .
Points for the oldest thread bump .