sausage problems

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smoky

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 11, 2006
13
10
iowa
I just finished my first try at making bologna. I bought a kit from High Mountian to make 30 lbs. When it was finished the casings that were tight when I started out are now loose and wrinkled. I haven't had a chance to taste it yet and I doubt this will have an effect on the meat quality it still doesn't look as nice as some of the pics I see from others on this site.
I followed the instructions to the letter. Anyone have any ideas on what happened? Did I not get the casings stuffed tight enough?
 
smoky

after your sausage gets up to temp of around 152 i will remove from the smoker and fill a cooler with cold water enough to cover the sausage leave sausage in the cold water for 30 mineutes or so till they are nice and cool remove from water and then i let them sit at room temp for a while cooling the sausage off quick keeps the casing from getting all wrinkled up your sausage should taste fine they just dont look pretty being all wrinkled up hope this helps
salmonclubber
 
Thanks salmonclubber, I'll try that on my next batch. I am thinking of doing another this weekend.
 
Hey Smokey,Salmon it right on the money there with his fix.I always let mine cool to 90 deg. internal and hang them to dry and bloom.This should produce a nice smooth pretty sausage.Good luck on your next batch and remember you still get to eat your mistakes.
 
I got a chance to try out my first batch of sausage on the family and while the casings didn't turn out the way I would have liked it was still a big hit! It turns out the sausage tastes great anyway,so I at least didn't waste 30 lbs of meat. Thanks for the help guys. :D :D
 
Can you guys explain why this is? It would seem that cooling something down would make it contract rather than stay plump. I was always under the impression that cold water makes meat shrink.
 
Sometimes when we did sausage we would have the casing wrinkle and loosen up on us. The guy that ran the smokehouse told us that the problem was- a) to much fat in the lean to fat ratio and the fat rendered out, b) not enough binder, c) letting the internal temp get too high & d) not cooling the product down fast enough.
 
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