storing collogen casings

[Jonathon]

TimC 0 Are you in meat processing somehow? Thats an extremely high level of knowledge for someone who just does it at home. Plus the Bur thing is something that commercial operators check for but wouldn’t cross most people’s minds.

[TimC 0]

I joined the site because I enjoy hearing about the challenges and rewards of people making sausage. I’m semi-retired now - still work part-time remotely for a major producer after 45 years of commercial sausage-making. I try to answer questions or comment where it makes sense.

[deweymeats]

TimC 0 said in storing collogen casings:

Collagen casings have different strengths based on the amount of cross-linking when the casings are made - breakfast sausage casings are made with little cross-linking so they’re very tender. Cooked sausage like brats or smoked sausage are medium strength & snack stick casings are usually higher strength. Breakfast sausage casings will break easier in handling. The last step in manufacturing the casings is to put them in a humidor to bring them to a uniform moisture before packing, around 20%, I think. Too wet & they mold quickly, too dry & they get brittle. Drying out is usually the cause of breakage and what we tried in the past was putting dried out casings in a smokehouse of fermenting sausage at 110F & 85% RH for a couple of hours . You might try something like a cigar humidor for a few hours or a vaporizer with the output directed into a plastic container see if they can be rescued. The casings are treated during manufacture to prevent “stickers” where the top of the pleats stick together when the casings are shirred. Otherwise as they separate coming off the stuffing horn, they tear where they were stuck together. You might be able to see if that is an issue if you stretch out a foot or two of the dry casing slowly to see if all the pleats separate easily. A small burr on a stuffing horn can tear the casing . If the stuffing horn is high off the table (10-12") so there is a sharp bend in the stuffed product dropping off the horn can cause breakage.

[glen]

TimC 0 Great post Tim, thank you

[java]

TimC 0 Thank you for your input, VERY helpful, I think they were just dried out.

[dawg]

TimC 0
Great answer! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

TimC 0 thanks for offering you expertise here. That was a great response for this thread

[cdavis]

TimC 0 great writeup. Thank you.

[bocephus]

TimC 0 That is a great explanation on casings, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[samspade]

Good info.tks