Natural hog casings

[buckbros]

Read a post by Boykjo from quite a while ago about preparing natural casings for stuffing. I followed his instructions & they did separate
easily but I had trouble putting them on the stuffing tube. They stuck to the tube and kept twisting when putting them on the tube. Obviously I did not do something right. He had pictures posted of his on the tube and mine did not look like that. I only had 4 lbs. to stuff & the stuffed sausage came out great but it was a pain getting the casings on the tube.

 

[smokerjim]

Try opening one end of casing and scoop some water up so you get it inside of casing that should help

 

[sawhorseray]

What Jim said. Have the casing in a little bowl of water right below the stuffer tube and slide it on nice and wet. Your whole sausage board should be wet too. RAY

 

[chopsaw]

Both good points above . You do need to flush and rinse the casings before you use them . I open one end then run water through the whole length . You need to flush the salt out .
Also fill the canister and run the meat paste out to the end of the horn to push the air out . Then slide the casings on .

In my experience it's always harder to load casings when the stuffer and horn are empty .

Also where and when did you buy the casings ?
The last bunch I bought about a year ago have never completely softened up . I've been picking through then and throwing out the ones that look thick and have tags on them . I've always bought from TSM , but will switch when these are gone .

 

[buckbros]

Thanks for the replies. We were running the water thru the casing before trying to put on the tube which helped a lot. Putting the casings in a bowl of water below the tube seems like the way to go. We were carrying the casing from the sink to the press and that was when the casings were twisting and losing water.
We did learn to install the casing after we had the sausage at the end of the tube. This was after we tried the first one & put air into the casing! Although we have made many pounds of deer bologna, we use fibrous casings for that, this was the first time for sausage & stuffing in natural casings for us. The casings was a small pack, not a hank, from

The Sausage Maker - North American Natural Hog Casings for Home Sausage Making.​

​

 

[Fueling Around]

All of the above
My last step before slipping on a tube is to fill with warm water and stretch the casing and look for blow outs, too..

 

[SmokinAl]

You did great for your first time with natural casings. We also use Joe’s method for storing the casings, & run water thru them & leave the casing in a metal bowl while flushing them out. Then while my wife slides them on the horn I slowly pull them out of the water bowl. If they are twisted up as they come out they untwist. We only make small batches, so at about 18” a pound, we don’t need to mess with a lot of casing. I know there are other sausage casing suppliers that some of the guys swear by, but we have always had good luck with the SM. When stuffing sausage, water is your friend, it’s like oil in an engine. We also found that the S/S horns are easier to use than the plastic ones, but both need to be wet.
Al

 

[jimmyinsd]

I echo what is said above. water is the key, I also typically soak mine a lot longer than what the instructions say, changing the water multiple times. I want to add that I have tried the pre tubed ones and typically they dont fit on the stuffer tubes I have so I end up sliding them off the sleeves and then feed them onto the tube the slow way. I did a bunch of brats last week and really fought the first sleeve of casings, the second sleeve I went to the sink and completely flushed them for a minute with warm water and the slid on like silk. I know in the past when I have had sleeved casings that did fit the tube they didnt want to slide off very easily so I think I will just make sure and flush them all going foward. loading the tube should not be the laborious part of making sausage.

 

[indaswamp]

Try opening one end of casing and scoop some water up so you get it inside of casing that should help

Have the casing in a little bowl of water right below the stuffer tube and slide it on nice and wet. Your whole sausage board should be wet too. RAY

Also fill the canister and run the meat paste out to the end of the horn to push the air out . Then slide the casings on

In my experience it's always harder to load casings when the stuffer and horn are empty .

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Yep.

 

[boykjo]

IMO its the casings. Home packs packed in salt wont soften up like a hank packed in a salt brine. Get ones that come in a salt brine or solution. You'll have a much better experience. I had the same experiences as you did with salt packed casings.