Ref; Finished Summer Sausage and a new idea in mind!

[jimmyinsd]

No? Woops. Well. I mean thats what I got in a 25 pack. Also the only thing I've ever seen locally in stores for casings. Guess online orders for me it is! I just wish edible natural casings didn't come in such huge amounts. I can't see my self doing 25+ pounds of sausage in them a year.

just wait until you get going on this... you will find plenty of uses for those casings.

brats, ring bologna, polish, country style smoked breakfast, italian, lots and lots of uses. you will go through more than you think you would if you really enjoy the process.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I already got friends requesting chorizo Lol.

 

[donr]

I have seen 2 types of chorizo. Fresh and dry cured.
The fresh is just stuffed into hog casings like Italian sausage.
The dry cured uses Cure #2, is fermented and dried slowly at room temperature.

You can certainly use chorizo seasoning with cure#1 and slowly hot smoke it just like you did the summer sausage. But it will give you Chorizo flavored summer sausage, not a hard, dry cured sausage.

Don

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Ahh...yah my friend doesn't want the crumbly chorizo like you get in stores...which I don't know what brand it is, but there is chorizo you can buy frozen, and when you cook it, it basically dissolves. He asked me to do semi dry, which I'm guessing he means cased. I always thought Chorizo was like smoked or some thing. Fermented Sausage is pretty beyond what I can do right now.

 

[tallbm]

The Pit Boss Competition Blend (PBCB) is a bit on the mild side. Burn two rows of it at the same time in your AMNPS and you will get MUCH more flavor out of it. I use it is my inexpensive go to base of pellets. Most of the time I supplement it by adding 100% Hickory, or some other wood to help add more flavor of a different flavor. I often do 50% PBCB and 50% pure Hickory pellets (its all hickory no blend).

As for natural casings people are right to not buy the little packs you see on the store rack at places like Academy or Bass Pro. Buy a "Hank" and you will get the better castings.

As for LEM natural casings I use them without. The KEY is that I buy the pre-tubed casings. They come on a giant straw-like plastic sleeve. You slide the sleve (with the casings on it) onto your stuffer tube and then slide the casings off the sleve onto your stuffer tube then toss the sleve! You can load 20-25 pounds worth of casings onto the stuffer tube in like 15-30 seconds hassle free!!!

Now the LEM pre-tubed Hog casings are a breeze to use.
The LEM pre-tubed Sheep casings are still a little bit of a pain but that is the nature of sheep casings it seems. I couldn't imagine using a home pack of sheep casings and the frustration involved there lol

I hope this info helps :)

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I just saw those LEM pre tubed ones; I was wondering how big they were. I'd much rather buy a buncha pre cut natural casings. Then I'm not soaking 12 feet or what not of them and I know how things go in my house; they'd end up tossed out or some thing.

I don't really want to go over the 3 pound mark per casing I do for any sausage. To much hassle on a little jerky gun and then comes 'Will we eat it all before we're tired of it and it sits there' as just happened with some pulled pork I took out of the freezer.

 

[tallbm]

I just saw those LEM pre tubed ones; I was wondering how big they were. I'd much rather buy a buncha pre cut natural casings. Then I'm not soaking 12 feet or what not of them and I know how things go in my house; they'd end up tossed out or some thing.

I don't really want to go over the 3 pound mark per casing I do for any sausage. To much hassle on a little jerky gun and then comes 'Will we eat it all before we're tired of it and it sits there' as just happened with some pulled pork I took out of the freezer.

You will run into the issue of how much casing to use no matter what. If you use a pretubed or pull a casing out of a Hank stored in solution you will still need to cut the casing down to only do 3 pounds. No way around that.
The easiest approach for you would be to get a Hank that comes in solution and then pull a single casing out and cut only the length you plan to use and leave the rest of the casing back in the solution.

Fighting with stubborn (home pack) natural casings on a dedicated stuffer tube is bad enough as is so I can't even imagine the frustration of fighting with a casing on a jerky gun tube. Definitely avoid the home pack natural casings that are in packaging like the following:

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Are LEM ones the stubborn kind? I can buy LEM ones at Fleet Farm.

 

[jimmyinsd]

Are LEM ones the stubborn kind? I can buy LEM ones at Fleet Farm.

its my finding that if its at a chain store, and its a fresh casing....pass. hard pass.

 

[tallbm]

Are LEM ones the stubborn kind? I can buy LEM ones at Fleet Farm.

I agree with Jimmy. If it looks like it is packaged anything like this (small vac seal bag) then pass:

If you want to brave it then soak them suckers in water in your fridge for 7-10 days changing the water every couple of days and pray that does the trick to make the casings easier to work with.

It is my understanding that the stuff that doesn't qualify to go in a Hank gets put into those little vac seal bags and used. That is why these little home packs are such a pain. They have already been passed over once but still have value to sell to anyone who wants to fight with casings to do smaller batches of sausage.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Aha. Well I'll likely end up ordering from The Sausage Maker sooner then later. Are their seasoning blends pretty top notch?

 

[jimmyinsd]

I agree with Jimmy. If it looks like it is packaged anything like this (small vac seal bag) then pass:

If you want to brave it then soak them suckers in water in your fridge for 7-10 days changing the water every couple of days and pray that does the trick to make the casings easier to work with.

It is my understanding that the stuff that doesn't qualify to go in a Hank gets put into those little vac seal bags and used. That is why these little home packs are such a pain. They have already been passed over once but still have value to sell to anyone who wants to fight with casings to do smaller batches of sausage.

I tried 2 or 3 home packs (including the dewied and lem) before I said screw it and went and bought a hank form a local sausage maker. I threw away the left overs from the home packs as they were that much of a pain.(even with all the suggestions) they were just junk. That hank lasted about a year, but was no problems at all and has been as good at the end as it was at the start.

 

[tallbm]

I tried 2 or 3 home packs (including the dewied and lem) before I said screw it and went and bought a hank form a local sausage maker. I threw away the left overs from the home packs as they were that much of a pain.(even with all the suggestions) they were just junk. That hank lasted about a year, but was no problems at all and has been as good at the end as it was at the start.

I hear ya on the home pack. I probably have enough leftover home pack to do maybe about 25 pounds of sausage. I stored in water, vac sealed, and froze.

I've heard it is not good to freeze natural casings but I have had no issues.
Actually I think the left over home packs might have gotten easier to work with due to the freezing process. I had to open some up a year or so ago to finish off some sausage and they did 10x better than what I remembered. I wouldn't count on that being a trend but next time I need to do a small batch of sausage I'll defrost them and give them a try again and hopefully I can use them up hahaha.

I'm in love with the pre-tubed hanks. As mostly a 1 man operation for my big yearly processing anything to save time is a huge help. The pre-tubed casings are a huge time saving... along with having a 22-23lb sausage stuffer so I can do my 20 pound batches in one shot :D

 

[TomKnollRFV]

As much as I would love to do 20-30 pounds of sausage at once, the house hold may not ;) I'd also probably end up eating a pound of pepperoni every week at least.