MAHOGANY OR PLAIN COLLAGEN CASINGS

[hondabbq]

When I started this sausage making adventure I purchased several "kits" for producing them to see if I like it. I do.

I am coming to the end of my run of kits for making snack sticks and want to venture out and create my own custom blends for myself and friends.

In these kits always came mahogany casings. I can buy plain or mahogany, but the mahogany are more expensive. Really we are talking about 3 cents per stick.

Does the color really appear that different from mahogany to plain?

 

[crankybuzzard]

Plain is kind of translucent, you can sort of "see" the meat and such that's inside.  The mahogany casings are the "more traditional smoked" look.

Once you smoke, the plain casings will get a nice color on them anyway.

Personally, I use what I have in the frig at the time when I'm ready to stuff.

 

[cal1956]

this is what your sausage should look like using  plain old hog casings

DSCN5822.JPG

• cal1956
• Oct 12, 2015

 

[crankybuzzard]

 
this is what your sausage should look like using  plain old hog casings

DSCN5822.JPG

• cal1956
• Oct 12, 2015

But the OP was asking about collagen...  

 

[hondabbq]

 
Plain is kind of translucent, you can sort of "see" the meat and such that's inside.  The mahogany casings are the "more traditional smoked" look.

Once you smoke, the plain casings will get a nice color on them anyway.

Personally, I use what I have in the frig at the time when I'm ready to stuff.

Not all of my meat sticks I actually "smoke".

I have a proofer at work that can either be moist or dry and it goes from 100f to 240f. Its the perfect environment for making sticks especially in large volume. Electronic, no weather elements, its big, and perfect temp control.

Im planning on a 30 lb run of sticks ( my biggest run ever) and doing it from scratch, meaning no kits like I have in the past. the kits are getting too pricey and I can source all the pieces in the kit much much cheaper.

I guess if im going to want the finish look of it smoke and not actually smoke it my question has been answered.

Thanks for helping me get over the hump in my thinking. Mahogany casings it is.

 

[cal1956]

when i 1st started doing sausage i tried the collagen casing and the look i got was the same , but the hog casing cook better once you take them off the smoker

 

[SmokinAl]

Take some photo's & let us know how they turn out!

Al

 

[crankybuzzard]

 
when i 1st started doing sausage i tried the collagen casing and the look i got was the same , but the hog casing cook better once you take them off the smoker

But those 32-42mm diameter casings sure make for a BIG snack stick!  

Sheep casings make for good snack sticks, but they do have a natural shape to them and will not always be uniform in size.

If you want to stay with the collagen, you can add paprika (just normal, not smoked or hot) to your recipe and it will change the color of the meat itself somewhat and will show through the plain casings. 

I like that setup you've described, and like you said, great for cooking the links and sticks with the very controllable temperatures.  For smoke flavor do you use liquid when you make these in the proofer?

 

[hondabbq]

This first run will net me about 200 25 cm sticks.
This run will be jalapeño and old cheddar. I have made the before and they don't need smoke. I don't think that every meat stick need a smoke profile on it. Some just call for it like my double smoked pepperoni. That shit is awesome especially on some pizza.
I have smoke vault 24 that I have used in the past with no smoke and even my oven with no smoke.


Sent by me from here.

 

[hondabbq]

Well stuffed the snack sticks last night. A friend and I stuffed 30 lbs, cut, and cleaned up in 1 hour and 10 minutes. They sat in the fridge overnight and I just put them into the proofer. I expected 180-200 sticks based on previous builds, but I had some casings left over from a Hi Mountain kit I had used in the past. They say they are 21 mm and I think they are but the ones from this kit were much darker and larger diameter. They were different from the first couple strands we did plus they were not snug in the horn like the previous ones.
Anyway, I ended up with 168 sticks in total.
The temp dropped a bit when they were loaded inn but we are on our way.

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