Favorite sausage casing?

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

cristina7

Dev Team
Original poster
Mar 4, 2010
20
10
San Francisco, CA
About a year ago, I bought my brother a meat grinder for his birthday.  We had taken a cooking class together and make some breakfast sausages so we were inspired.  Not to mention, his fiance has a health condition which requires her to limit her sodium intake which means she can't eat store-bought sausage.

However...a year later, they still haven't used it!  The main reason is because they're having a hard time figuring out which sausage casing to use and where to find casing generally speaking.

Any suggestions of what to use or where to look?  Thanks!
 
Just recently bought my first grinder and I love it.

For the time being they can just make loose sausages and do patties or form into longer shapes for sandwiches or whatever.

As for casings my understanding is that hog casings are the most common but are tougher than sheep casings which are preferred by many.

If you have places like a Cabela's or Bass Pro you could check them for hog casings but if not then they may need to be ordered by mail.  Sheep casings are almost ordered by mail as most places don't carry them.

Hope thathelped any.

Lots of sausage making sites and even Amazon sellers carry casings, one I noticed was $8 for enough casings to do 277 links.
 
The casing you use will depend on the sausage you want to make. Hog casings are larger then sheep, and like fire it up said they are easier to find. Your local butcher or grocery store that makes sausage will sell ya some. hog is for larger Italian, kielbasa etc... Sheep are for hot dogs, breakfast sausage and the likes. give it a shot and let us know how it goes.
 
I generally use hog casings they do come packed in salt but you rinse them. They may want to look at getting some collagen casings they can get either at Butcher and Packer if they can't find them locally, Heres a link

http://www.butcher-packer.com/
 
Thanks for the suggestions!  After doing some research, I think in our cooking class, we used caul fat (or lace fat) to encase our sausage patties.  That might work too, especially if we can get it from a butcher locally.  I'll do some more digging locally too to see what I can find around town.  :-)  I'll post some pictures from the inaugural grinding, which will hopefully be happening soon!
 
I buy all my casings from Syracuse Casing Company.  They are premium casings, either hog or sheep, and aren't all hairy or brittle.  You can get them preloaded on sleeves also so they just slide on your stuffing horn.  Here's the link:

http://www.makincasing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=EM419&Category_Code=2

And, they don't charge shipping either, so it's a pretty good deal!  Make sure you rinse them thoroughly and add a bit of vinegar in your water bucket that they're soaking in, it will make them more tender.

Here's a package of them:



and one unrolled showing the center pull strip to load them:
 
I just found out that my favorite Chinese grocery store sells caul fat!  It's not quite sausage casing but I think it'll work for my purposes.  Hopefully I can pick some up in the next couple of weeks and give it a whirl.  Thanks for all the help!  I'll post some pictures when we get the meat grinder usage underway.  :-)
 
I have tried several types of casings and the best casing are fresh casings packed in a salt solution (brine). When I buy casings I have to get it in a hank which fills about 100lbs of meat. I stuff around 60 lbs at a time but for those who do small batches its a big waste because they do go bad over a perod of time. ask around at your local butchers to see if they sell fresh casings or if they know where you can get some. I have tried casings packed in salt, vacuum sealed in a pkg and on a stick and they may have there purposes but not for me. Fresh is the best
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky