Sheep Casing Question

[bill ace 350]

Never tried sheep casings.

Planning on making some more breakfast sausage and want to make links.

I have heard they are a little more difficult to work with than hog casings.

What should I be aware of?

Thanks.

 

[chopsaw]

I have heard they are a little more difficult to work with than hog casings.

I never bought any for that reason . " I heard " the same thing .
Finally got my first hank from TSM a few years ago . 28mm . Zero issues .
I have a rule for myself . If I can't get it opened and on the tube in 3 tries , I grab a different one .
Also , make sure you have enough slack when loading onto the tube .
I hold the long end with my left hand , and leave a loop from there to the tube .
Fill the hopper first , and run the meat out to the end of the tube .

The ones I have now are 22mm from Syracuse . Great casings . They come pre tubed , which I'm not a big fan of , but it helps some with sheep casings .
I leave them tubed , but cut the flared end off , then feed the casings on the tube .
Don't overload the tube either .

 

[smokerjim]

Maybe soak in warm water for a while, also before loading on tube try and put a little water inside casing, that may help.

 

[PolishDeli]

Like you said, they are a little more difficult.
A little smaller and little more delicate. But no reason to avoid them.

I always rinse the inside of casing. Hog or otherwise. This makes a big difference, especially with sheep casing. The sheep casing is more likely to knot up when doing this, so make sure the length of casing is untangled before passing the water through.

 

[Brokenhandle]

What chopsaw said is good advice, he helped me quite a bit on my 1st journey with sheep casings. After trying several times trying to get the 22 mm ones opened up to just try another one was helpful.

Ryan

 

[SmokinEdge]

Never tried sheep casings.

Planning on making some more breakfast sausage and want to make links.

I have heard they are a little more difficult to work with than hog casings.

What should I be aware of?

Thanks.

Biggest thing I think to be aware of is they are delicate, more so than hog casings. As such they are not very forgiving when stuffed to tight, which is very easy to do. I think most problems folks have with sheep casing can be traced back to over stuffing. Either they blow out while stuffing or the pop when linking, so it’s better to slightly under stuff than over stuff.

Go slow as the casings fill much faster than hog do. And couple other things I do are, leave about 6” of tail on both ends of the length and don’t knot them off until after linking. This will let you massage out any tight spots along the casing and let the mince move along the length, if you knot the end to start with the mince can only move one way to balance out.

Also after flushing the casings in warm water I fill a small bowl about half way with warm water and put about 1/2tsp of baking soda in and dissolve then place the casings to be used in that bowl to soak 30 minutes or so. The baking soda will velvet the casings making them more supple, plus the soda makes the casing a little slick so it will slide on and off the horn easier. If sheep casings stick a little on the horn while stuffing this can contribute to over stuffing.

 

[Fueling Around]

They answered well.
The only other thing to add is use a correct size stuffing tube.
Yeah, been there, done that.