Stinking Casings

[2ndstage]

Well i tried my hand at making Bratwurst today. I picked up a spice kit at Gander mountain that had spices and some natural casings (beef middles) i believe. Well i got my pork shoulder ground up and was opening up the package with the casings and it smelled like death. It was horrible I had to take the trash out it was so bad.

Is this normal I've never used natural casings, only collagen casings once before when I was helping a friend. They can't smell this bad.

I guess the question is what else can you do with ground up bratwurst mix? I'm thinking up just making part of it into like bratwurst burgers and grilling em up. Its only about 6.5 lbs so not a huge loss, but I want to know in case I end up using natural casings sometime in the future.

Thanks
Michael

 

[deejaydebi]

They shouldn't smell that bad! They do smell funky though. I bet they went bad. I can't stand the smell or feel of natural casings - just can't bring bile to my throat! Ewwww

I use only colegen and I had really good luck with them.

 

[chrish]

No they should not smell like that, was there alot of salt packed in with the casings?
if your making brats the casings would be Hog. beef middles are around 2 inch dia.

 

[cheech]

I have made patties out of brats before but have not had great luck with them staying together

 

[deejaydebi]

Make them into hamburger like patties on plastic wrap and freeze them right away. Cook them stiff but not solid and it will work. Brats are much easier in casings.