I need help with casings

[PapaRed]

WANTED: Sausage lessons
Seven years or so ago I purchased a new Weber Performer charcoal grill, and a Weber Smoky Mountain (18”) smoker to compliment my Weber kettle. Smoked briskets, ribs, turkeys, hams and butts on my WSM, and numerous other meats on my Performer. Purchased a rotisserie and a pizza attachment for my kettle.

All was good until I started to make sausage. Nearly copied my favorite Texas sausage recipe after many ingredient adjustments, but discovered that maintaining a WSM temperature less that 155℉ was difficult, if not impossible. Most cooks resulted in fat out conditions or crumbly sausage, plus tough casings.

The “experts” recommended a MES in order to maintain stable lower temperatures in the cook chamber. My results were the same, so invested in a PID controller. Sausage texture and taste improved, however the tough casings continued to frustrate the sausage making effort. Numerous casing sources to include a local butcher were tried, (salt packed and salt solution pack) varied preparations, to include numerous washing sessions over a 7-day period without improvement.

Sausage making failure resulted in disposal of the PID, MES, WSM, and kettle with rotisserie and pizza attachments. The Weber Performer has served me well, and tests have resulted in 2 hours of smoke at around 145℉ with stable 225℉ temperature during cooks. I miss sausage and am anxious to try again, thinking casing treatment may be the cause of unsatisfactory casings. Sausage lessons – to include “casing care” needed.

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

I’d start here as far as casing care… a lot of folks have found this very helpful… myself included!

How to handle natural casings

Thought I would post up what I do with natural casings. I use naturals 99.9% of the time when making sausages be it sheep or hog casings. I get compliments about how the casing are very delicate and have a perfect snap when you bite into the sausage. I believe the quality of the casings is part...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[PapaRed]

I’d start here as far as casing care… a lot of folks have found this very helpful… myself included!

How to handle natural casings

Thought I would post up what I do with natural casings. I use naturals 99.9% of the time when making sausages be it sheep or hog casings. I get compliments about how the casing are very delicate and have a perfect snap when you bite into the sausage. I believe the quality of the casings is part...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Thanks! I will review these procedures once again. No doubt I've missed something there.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I just have to wonder if chasing these low temps is a lot of the problem. I've just smoked Texas sausages at 225 to 250 and they turn out great. I've done the whole super long cook at 150 and the bumping up to 180 and the casings are sometimes kind of tough. Some people even go crazier with the electric smokers setting up specific temp program. It's all trying to soak up as much smoke as possible and making sure not to ruin the emulsion. But are people being way too anal about this? I've never done both methods at the same time for a side by side comparison. People way more experienced than me are doing the slow smoking method. I do sometimes.

In the barbecue world we talk about thin blue smoke and clean smoke, and them everything goes out the window in the sausage world. I'll tell you that sausages cooked with thin blue smoke are great. If you made the sausages well and don't overcook them, they won't grease out.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Sausages that are smoked longer than 2 hours will greatly benefit from a poached finish. Either a pot of water maintained between 150 and 170* or a SV bath at 151* is how I finish all of my smoked sausage. I arrived at the poached finish specifically because of tough casings. The poach fixed this problem and gives my sausage a real nice snap with no toughness. The final IT of my sausage is 151*

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I think I'm going to do a side by side soon. I'm making a batch this weekend. I could be way off base. I can't say hot smoked is better than warm smoked, but I'll say it's still pretty darn good.

BTW, when I warm smoke bacon or sausage in the WSM I've been using the Thermoworks Signals and Billows lately just using minion method. However, I've done them without an ATC plenty of times in the WSM using the snake method. It's great for cooking around 150 even in hot weather. I'm doubting the ATC will work with minion method once it warms up.

 

[thirdeye]

Either a pot of water maintained between 150 and 170* or a SV bath at 151* is how I finish all of my smoked sausage.

What is your time in the SV bath? And are you bagging them?

 

[SmokinEdge]

What is your time in the SV bath? And are you bagging them?

No bag, this is a very popular finish method (pot of water) in Poland. For me, the sausage comes out of the smoker somewhere between 130-140* IT so the bath time is relatively short on 30-40mm cases, about 30 minutes is all that is needed. Bigger 4-5” sausage like Krakowska or bologna take longer from 45 min to an hour. They are then soaked in cold water to cool below 100* and then hung to dry and bloom up to 2 hours, then bagged and rested a day in the fridge before vac sealed.

 

[Fueling Around]

The referenced thread on casings is a great start.

I'm going to try the poaching on my next batch.

 

[chopsaw]

I'm going to try the poaching on my next batch.

You going to poach on the stove / pot of water ?

 

[chopsaw]

I just have to wonder if chasing these low temps is a lot of the problem. I've just smoked Texas sausages at 225 to 250 and they turn out great.

That's where I've landed . Get it cooked .

 

[PapaRed]

I've understand, from reading several sources, that smoked sausage should be smoked at temperatures of around 140 - 150 degrees and that fat will melt at 160 degrees. So, do you begin your sausage smoking with pit temperatures of 225 - 250?
I understood smoking temperatures vary and are typically less than 155 °F (68 °C). At a temperature of 152 °F (67 °C) these sausages are fully cooked.

 

[PapaRed]

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding.

 

[boykjo]

Sausage texture and taste improved, however the tough casings continued to frustrate the sausage making effort. Numerous casing sources to include a local butcher were tried, (salt packed and salt solution pack) varied preparations, to include numerous washing sessions over a 7-day period without improvement.

I suggest using high quality casings packed in a salt brine. ( I use butcher and packer) Follow the instructions above how to handle casings. If you want to make the casing as soft as posibble do the par boil to finish. If their still too tough go with cellulose casings and get rid of the casing all together.

 

[PapaRed]

I suggest using high quality casings packed in a salt brine. ( I use butcher and packer) Follow the instructions above how to handle casings.

Casings on order from B&P as recommended by the master! Plus, I must revisit your complete instructions!

 

[Fueling Around]

You going to poach on the stove / pot of water ?

That's my plan. Dont't have a SV tool.

 

[Fueling Around]

... If their still too tough go with cellulose casings and get rid of the casing all together.

That's a confusing statement. Collagen Cellulose is essentially a manufactured casing that also remains on the meat. I often find cellulose casing are tougher than natural casing.
The easiest way to discard the casing is with cellulose or peel-able casing

edit Ignore my brainfart original post
My best method for a final product is getting the casing properly prepped.
I soak out for for a lot longer before hot soaking for many hours then rinsing in hot water to stretch the casing and finding any attached tissue (whiskers) to carefully remove and preempt any blow outs.

 

[chopsaw]

That's my plan. Don't have a SV tool.

Good . I asked because some consider the 2 things the same . I've done it both ways , and in my opinion poaching works better .
If I use the SV I cook at 140 and go the length of time per the size of the casings .
I do like to use it for start to finish cooking of sausage , but to finish I like to poach at 175 ish for 30 minutes .

I get the pot ready / close to temp , then stop adjusting the burner , and add water to the pot to dial in the poaching temp . Holds pretty steady doing it that way .
Smoked for color then poached .

30 minutes at 176 ish .

Bockwurst . No cure or smoke . Poached start to finish .
Same , 30 minutes at 176 .

 

[jnorth]

As far as good quality casings go, I've had very good luck with Syracuse Casings (https://www.makincasing.com/), I haven't tried tossing them in the SV after smoking, I'll have to give that a try when things warm up, I'm too far north for my smoker to work this time of year.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I use Syracuse Casings as well and have had better results since I switched. I was buying the homepacks off amazon.