Sausage Casings - Sausage Casings 101
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Sausage Casings
Why Use Sausage Casings?
All sausage casings, whether they are natural, collagen, or fibrous, are going to offer some uniformity to the diameter of your product. This is important because it will allow the product to cook evenly. If you had a product that was half as thick in some areas as others, then the thinner parts would be overcooked before the thicker parts were safe to eat. In commercial processing, uniformity is even more important for appearance and to be able to consistently track the amount of sausage being produced.
Appearance of Sausage Casings
Casings also give the sausage a certain look, it is generally easy to determine what casing was used to make a sausage vs. when it has been extruded. Natural casings will often have a curve in them that can be anywhere from slight to fairly extreme, while collagen casings will be more uniform and straight.
Mouth Feel of Sausage Casings
Mouth Feel is a term that refers to the sensations associated with eating certain types of foods. For casings, this will be determined by a few factors, some of which will depend on the cook cycle but to keep things simple, Collagen will have less of a snap than natural casings will. In surveys, it was found that the reduced snap of collagen was generally preferred to natural casings. Different types or variants of collagen casings will also have different mouthfeels as they have different levels of toughness.
Inedible Casings
Some types of sausage casings, such as cellulose, are inedible and are made to be peeled off after thermal processing but before consumption. These cellulose casings have a stripe down the middle to let you easily identify if the casing has been peeled or not yet. However, some of the ring bologna casings are also inedible collagen, but they do not have any markings on them, so you have to be careful when using them. Trying to consume inedible collagen isn’t going to be harmful, but it will give you a very tough and chewy bite.
Shop waltonsinc.com for Collagen Casings
Shop waltonsinc.com for Fibrous Casings
Shop waltonsinc.com for Natural Casings
Shop waltonsinc.com for Cellulose Casings
Shop waltonsinc.com for Non-Edible Casings
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One method I have been using lately, in addition to poking holes, is to fire up my smoker at 225 and cooking them (with or without smoke) until they hit an internal temp of around 150-155 (about an hour) and then finishing them on the grill to add some color until they reach 165.
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Tex_77 Team Blue Power User Traeger Primo Grills PK Grills Canning Sous Vide Community Moderator Kansasreplied to mrwoody on last edited by
mrwoody there is a little bit of difference in the bite. Natural will have somewhat of a snap to them, where as collagen is more of a cleaner bite with less snap. Collagen casings also won’t hold a twist.
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T Tex_77 referenced this topic on
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I have used smoked collagen casings for my snack sticks. I don’t hang them, I lay them on the grates in my smoker. Which casing should I use to achieve an as little to no snap when biting into the finished product? I read the collagen casings are the least amount of snap but not all casings are the same that they vary in the degree of toughness. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of any collagen casings that have no or almost no snap to them?
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expertreplied to Weekend Smoker on last edited by
Weekend Smoker I have mostly used the smoked collagen 19mm and 16mm casings for snack sticks. However, my last batch I ran out, and used 21mm FRESH collagen casings, these are clear and used for breakfast sausages. They turned out exactly as you request, little to no snap and almost a “pure meat stick”. I really liked them and will use again! The only issue is they are not strong enough hang, but as you lay horizontal anyways, should work perfect!
P.s. I’ve used these fresh 21mm casings 3 times now for snack sticks, using willies spice mix, personal pepperoni mix, and a personal kabanosy mix, they are excellent.
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Dave in AZ I was leaning that way but I needed someone to tell me I was right. Thank you sir.
