Hog Casing Problem

johnsbrewhouse

Has anyone had problems with 28-30 mm hog casings disintegrating in the pot of boiling water? I made two small batches of chicken sausage today and decided to check out my experiment. I put the links in my pots with water and started to heat them and noticed the casings starting to split even before it hit anywhere near a boil. I did have a small problem with the end knots coming loose on two links, but no blow outs or the links themselves having problems. The casing was a repack of un-used casing from a previous batch, packed in kosher salt a chamber sealed as well as being refrigerated. This has me baffled. Has not been a good sausage day, thought I would salvage the sausages by smoking them and the Traeger decided to go wild and take off un-controlled while I wasn’t looking. I caught it before it got to do any damage to my sausage. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

processhead

If you put them in boiling water, that could be part of the problem.
I would not exceed 180 degrees.

johnsbrewhouse

processhead Wasn’t boiling, didn’t even get to 180, was bringing up from cold. They started to come apart I would say around 140 degrees. Protein break had not even started to for on the water.

processhead

In that case, I’m not sure. Could be some deterioration of the casings?
I use your exact method for repackaging casing and have never experienced that, but I also don’t do much of my thermal processing in a water bath.

johnsbrewhouse

processhead That is what I am leaning towards. I know they weren’t overstuffed since I intentionally left them under a bit. I think next time it will be fresh casings. The chicken sausage is different to work with as well. I bought commercial ground chicken (mechanically separated) , not the store type. Seemed awfully wet, that’s why it was an experiment. Next time more binder. Got to work on this, the flavor was fairly decent.

glen

johnsbrewhouse Strange, I just finished a hank of hog casings I probably re-packed a 10 times over at least 3 years

mdseaside

When I have casings left over I put them in a zip lock bag or a quart jar with kosher salt and water and keep in the fridge. Never had a problem.

johnsbrewhouse

glen The whole batch is really strange, I just pull them off the smoker thinking they might set up tighter. I was at 180 degrees when I pulled them and they were like jello. I’ve got enough sure gel in there and added no water because the chicken was very moist. I’ve re-packed my casings multiple times without problems and this one was well packed in salt and in with the un-used one and sealed tight. I threw what little bit was left over away. Time to rethink the binder too for the recipe. One of those days.

johnsbrewhouse

mdseaside I’ve never had a problem either, mine are always packed in salt and chamber sealed and back in the fridge.

johnsbrewhouse

OK folks lesson learned about Mechanically Separated Chicken. It definitely is not made for regular sausage, you can use it for hotdogs or bologna but not sausage. It never set up even after I put it in my smoker and brought it up to 180 degrees. I have even cooled it in the fridge overnight, it still loose, I did some research on it and it not what I thought it might be. It a really high fat product separated from the bones by high pressure and then run through screens. It’s not ground, more like an emulsion and can contain Ammonium hydroxide as an anti-microbial agent. This could be causing the degradation of the casing as well. MSP is well used in the processed meat industry where they use cellulose casings and it only an ingredient rather than a whole product. It’s really cheap for a reason $1 lb… The processors use this to take every bit of scrap off the carcass of the chicken. Next time, I grind my own chicken!

processhead

Thinking about what you said and wonder if the process starts out as an emulsion after the deboning process, but then dilutes or degrades the protein such that it can’t bind without the addition of some freshly ground protein? Depending on the fat to lean ratio, the high fat content could have something to do with poor binding qualities as well.
Totally conjecture on my part here.

Oh well. You can always use it to make chicken soup stock. lol

glen

johnsbrewhouse Good information, thanks

twilliams

johnsbrewhouse so just to be clear what you used was not a fresh hog casing? Was it a collagen casing? I believe i remember seeing a post about those splitting when pan fried as a breakfast link. Guessing thats the same thing happening if you didnt use actual fresh hog casing. However you dont have to package collagen in salt so im a bit confused at the moment

processhead

Sounds like definitely a hog casing . No reference made to any other type.

johnsbrewhouse

twilliams Tubed hog casing, it has something to do with the chicken product is what I am thinking. I’ve used the same casing from the same batch previously with no issues. I don’t buy collagen casings, so it can’t be that.