cdavis I have 5 roasters, I used to supply meals for my dog club at hunt tests, now they are taking up a lot of space, tried to give a few to brothers and sisters but either didn’t want one or already had one. Guess I won’t have to worry about buying one for a long time.

OK, that’s good enough for me. Thanks for your insight and, once again, saving ma a lot of problems.

Good info makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

KLee The ratio is up to you on the beef to pork as that is mostly a personal taste issue. When I make snack sticks I use 100% pork and I go with pork butt. Now, I would use at least 50% pork because the pork fat is better than beef fat for making sausage as it is creamier than beef fat.

Yes, if you are adding fat to reach 70/30 or 75/25 then you should add pork fat as it’s better quality than other fats.

Wapiti67 I also used ECA in my summer sausage and thought the tang covered up the meaty taste that I wanted. So I tried smoked meat stabilizer and I’ve been using it ever since.

Cured Sausage Using Fat (For Sausage)
Fat Melting Fat Taste & Texture

Fat has a few different functions in sausage making, but two of the most important are its taste and its effect on the texture. Pork Fat is what we generally recommend as it has a creaminess to it that most other types of fat just can’t match. You can use other fats, beef is a popular one if you want, but you might not end up with a product that is as good as it could be. Pork fat also tends to be very white, beef, buffalo, and sheep can tend to be a little yellow, so pork fat will also give you a better appearance.

Adding Flavor

Fat adds flavor in two ways, it obviously has its own taste, but it also coats the mouth, allowing seasoning and other flavors to linger longer. Pork Fat starts to melt at 82°, so when you are eating a hot cured sausage, that fat is going to be already melted, and it’s self-explanatory on how it coats your mouth. But how about when you are eating a summer sausage or snack stick that is at room temperature or below? The “mechanical” action of chewing plays a large part in it, as does your saliva. If you don’t believe me take a bite of cold summer sausage, start chewing, and pay attention to how the roof of your mouth and the inside of your cheeks feel.

Too High of Fat Content?

When we say 30% fat content, some people tend to balk and think that is too high. Well, if you have bought sausage from the store, I can almost guarantee you that it is at least 30% and probably closer to 40 or 50. Fat is inexpensive and gives a good taste, meaning it allows the company making it to use less seasoning. Do you really think that they are going to use more lean meat, which is more expensive and requires more seasoning to flavor? Now, some people do have legitimate reasons that they want to cut down on the amount of fat they eat. In my opinion, however, the vast majority of the US would be better off worrying less about the amount of fat they eat and more about the amount of processed food and carbs, but I digress.

If you are looking for a lower fat content sausage, it can be done. I have made a lot of sausages made from chicken breast. If you want to do this, we would absolutely recommend you use Cold Phosphate to increase the water holding capacity and Super Bind or Carrot Fiber to help with moisture and binding. You will also want to grind it an extra time to really break the product down, this will end up giving you a texture that is closer to a hotdog, but it is preferable to a dry and crumbly product.

Shop waltonsinc.com for Heavy Duty Meat Lugs Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Mixers

Joemy96 cure #1 and Sodium erythorbate

Also the casings used were not 19mm as stated at the bottom of the video, they were more like 1-1/2" (40mm) to 2-1/2" (60mm)diameter.

Here is the proper breakout quantities for seasonings, cures and additives. The meat block and proportions are not covered here.

https://meatgistics.waltons.com/topic/617/seasoning-conversion-chart-for-1-lb-and-5-lb-meat-batches
https://meatgistics.waltons.com/topic/700/cure-conversion-chart
https://meatgistics.waltons.com/topic/811/additive-conversion-chart

Cured Sausage Smoked Sausage Casings Clear Collagen Tubed Hog Casings What Are Common Styles Of Smoked Sausage Casings?

Smoked Sausage covers a wide variety of products; technically, snack sticks and summer sausage would fall under this category. For our purposes, though, we are talking about a bratwurst-like product that has cure added to it and will be smoked in a smoker. The type of casing that is used for this will be important as not all collagen casings are suitable for this.

The two most common styles of casings for smoked sausage are Collagen and Natural Casings, like Hog or Sheep intestines. Collagen Casings come in 3 different styles, Fresh, Clear, and Smoked. For a smoked product, Fresh Collagen Casings should not be used; they won’t stand up to being hung in the smokehouse like Clear and Smoked will.

What Are The Sizes Of These Casings?

Collagen - Smoked Sausage will generally be 30mm or larger. Both Clear and Smoked Collagen have many options above this size.

Natural Casings - Smoked Sausage like Boudain or Kielbasa will almost always be 32-35mm or larger. However, you could make a strong argument that Hot Links belong in this category, and those can be as small as hotdogs, around 26mm. So natural casings can range from 26mm sheep casings all the way to 42mm hog casings.

How Are Casings Prepared For Use?

If you are using Collagen Casings, there is no preparation necessary; simply remove them from the package, load them onto your stuffing tube and begin stuffing.

For Natural Casings, you will need to rinse the salt off of the outside of the casing with clean running water and then soak them for 60 minutes in warm water before they are ready for use. If you purchased your natural casing in a “home pack,” you will also need to flush the inside of the casing by running water through the middle of them. Then you load them onto your stuffing tube, and you are ready to stuff.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The main advantage of collagen is the convenience; no preparation is needed for these casings to be ready to use. Another benefit of collagen is uniformity; they will be the same diameter throughout the entire run, this is especially important for commercial processors. Collagen casings are also less prone to blowouts than natural casings are. The biggest drawback of collagen is that it does not accept a twist as natural casings will. You can twist them, and they will stay that way until you go and cut them, at which point they will unravel and open slightly.

The main advantage of Natural Casings, both hog and sheep, is that they will accept a twist, and once cut, they will remain closed. Some people also prefer the snap of natural casings. The biggest drawbacks are the difficulty in getting them ready and the fact that they are prone to blowouts.

Other Styles Of Casings

Cellulose Casings can be used for skinless smoked sausage products like some types of hot dogs. Cellulose is made from plant material, is very strong, smoke permeable, and even has a black stripe down the side to let you know if the casing has been removed or not.

Other Notes

*For beginners, we always recommend collagen casings over cellulose or natural hog or sheep casings. They require less work and make the entire process less complicated, and the fewer complications, the better!

Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Casings Shop waltonsinc.com for Poly Bag Sealers Shop waltonsinc.com for Holly Regular Pork Sausage Seasoning

Cured Sausage Summer Sausage Casings Stuffed and Hanging Stuffed and Hanging Stuffed and Hanging What Are Common Styles Of Summer Sausage Casings?

There are two styles of casings that are commonly used for making Summer Sausage, Fibrous Casings and certain types of Inedible Collagen Casings. Fibrous casings are made from a paper-like product that will be dry when you take them out of the package, closed on one end, and can be clear, mahogany, or have some pattern or picture printed on them. Collagen casings are a specific type of collagen that is inedible; they will be dry, tied on one end, and clear when you get them.

What Does Pre-Stuck (PS) Mean?

Pre-stuck means that the casings have been manufactured with small holes in them. The purpose of these holes is to allow some pressure to bleed out of the casings during the smoking process but more so to help the casing conform to the meat after the cooking process has finished. If you purchase non-stuck casings, you will need to purchase something like a Casing Perforator to create these holes.

What Are The Sizes Of Summer Sausage Casings?

Casing size varies in summer sausage, maybe more than any other casing. You can get standard casings as small as 1.5" x 12" all the way up to 2.9" x 24". Because of this variation, these casings can hold anywhere from a 1/2 lb of meat up to 4 - 5 lb of meat.

How Are Casings Prepared For Use?

Fibrous Casings - These need to be soaked in warm water for 30 minutes before being used. This will make them pliable enough to be stuffed full. You should only soak how many casings you are going to need, but if you soak too many casings, you can let the unused ones dry back out and use them again in the future.

Inedible Collagen - The easiest way to remember how to prepare these casings is to remember the rule of 15s. They need to be soaked for 15 minutes in a 15% salt solution that is 15°C (59°F). Doing this will rehydrate the casings and make them pliable enough to be able to be stuffed. Even though this is inedible, it is still made from the same basic process as regular collagen, so it is made from the hide of beef and/or pork.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Fibrous and Collagen Casings

The main difference between these two casings is the preparation that is required for the inedible collagen casings. The rule of 15s is very simple to follow, but with fibrous casings, you do not even need to do that. Because of that, Fibrous Casings are the more common casing for summer sausage.

Both of these casings are very strong; blowouts should not be a concern when stuffing them. The tie that already comes on one end will have a loop in it so that you can slide this over a smoke stick and hang them in your smoker.

Other Notes

*Because you will be hanging these from the side that is already tied, you need to secure the other end very well, as all the weight from the meat will be pushing down against whatever you used to seal it. The best way for the home user to do this is with Hog Rings and Walton’s Hog Ring Pliers.

Shop waltonsinc.com for Casings Shop waltonsinc.com for Poly Bag Sealers Shop waltonsinc.com for Holly Regular Pork Sausage Seasoning

Thank you for all your help! I am an Ag Science teacher and teach a food processing class. I plan on using this for a lesson 🙂

Cole1996 I have seen people do it before, as long as you sterilize everything and that is the main use of both the bucket and the mixer it should be okay. Now, obviously this won’t fly if you are doing this to sell your product.

D R Baron Burning is the vernacular for this, however, obviously, it isn’t known as well as I thought it was! I will get something in there to make it more clear. We occasionally run into this problem where we think the terms we use in house are more common than they really are. Thanks for pointing it out!