Sausage

[uncle jo]

I recently smoked some venison sausage that I had made.  The sausage tasted good, and had a good color but I found the skin to be tough.  What am I doing wrong?

 

[rbranstner]

Any clue what kind of casings they used? You can remove the casing before you cook them and that will help.

 

[boykjo]

First off Welcome to SMF. Tuff skins can come from not soaking enough, packed in salt for too long or brand. No one has really been able to pin point the reason(s). I use fresh casings packed in a salt solution and never had bad results so I stick with it...

Good luck and happy smoking

Dont forget to fill out your location in your profile

Joe

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Welcome to SMF!

If you're using natural casings packed in salt....
Try initially soaking the casing in warm water for about 30 minutes , then flush them out.
Soak overnight in the fridge in water with lemon juice added (1 teaspoon lemon juice per cup of water)
Change to warm water (helps with casing expansion) before stuffing and do not under-stuff, you want maximum expansion of the casing.

I would stuff immediately after grinding/mixing so that the mix doesn't begin to set-up....again, so that you get maximum expansion of the casing.

Take special care when cooking, too high of a temp, especially initially, can make casings tough.

HTH


~Martin

 

[uncle jo]

Thanks for the information, I will give that a try.  BTW - it was natural hog casing packed in salt

 

[alblancher]

Uncle Joe,  they should be packed in salt water.  I am assuming you had some moisture in there.

 

[solaryellow]

For what it is worth, the casings I get from Butcher Packer are also packed in salt. I haven't experienced tough casings with those. Martin has some pretty good advice.