# Sausage Question



## roadkill cafe (Sep 6, 2020)

I was going to grind/stuff some brats today but now find myself running short on time. Meat is cut into cubes and chillin in the freezer in bowls. Tubed natural hog casing has been rinsed well and soaking for a little over an hour. Would I be able to pick up where I left off later tonight when I return home? I know I’d have to let the meat thaw some as it’ll be 2 large chunks. What about the casing? Can I leave it soaking or should it cover with salt and place in the fridge? Also, I’ll be using my favorite beer instead of water to mix with my seasoning. Do I use the same amount as it calls for in water? Sorry folks for all the noob questions.


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## DanMcG (Sep 6, 2020)

casing's  will be fine, just change the water with some warm stuff. I've been known to leave casing in fresh water for days till I use them.
As far as the meat goes, just put in in the frig if ya can.


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 6, 2020)

DanMcG said:


> casing's  will be fine, just change the water with some warm stuff. I've been known to leave casing in fresh water for days till I use them.
> As far as the meat goes, just put in in the frig if ya can.


Yeah, moving the meat from the chest freezer to the fridge. I’ll pop it back in the freezer when I get back home tonight for a partial freeze for grinding. I already pulled the casing, placed in a ziplock bag and covered with kosher salt in the fridge. Can always re-rinse. Thanks, Dan!


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## chopsaw (Sep 6, 2020)

roadkill cafe said:


> Do I use the same amount as it calls for in water?


Yes . 
I'm making Hot Italian . Be-boned and cut up  yesterday . Mixed the seasonings on the cubes , then in the fridge . I plastic wrap down tight on the meat . Didn't get to it today , so I'll grind it tomorrow .


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 6, 2020)

chopsaw said:


> Yes .
> I'm making Hot Italian . Be-boned and cut up  yesterday . Mixed the seasonings on the cubes , then in the fridge . I plastic wrap down tight on the meat . Didn't get to it today , so I'll grind it tomorrow .


Thanks, Chopsaw!


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 9, 2020)

I got back late and after having huge ribeyes on the grill, scallops and fresh caught vermillion snapper (and a few libations to go with it), I was slipping into a food coma. Next day I popped the meat back in the freezer with the head unit for an hour or so and re-rinsed/soaked the casing. Got to work on things and they turned out pretty good. Grilled few for supper and taste was very good. Gave some to neighbors and vac sealed the rest for the freezer. Thanks for the advice guys!


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 9, 2020)




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## DanMcG (Sep 9, 2020)

They look great!


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 9, 2020)

DanMcG said:


> They look great!


Thanks, Dan


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## chopsaw (Sep 9, 2020)

I agree . Looks great .


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 9, 2020)

chopsaw said:


> I agree . Looks great .


Thank you, Chopsaw. Learned quite a bit on this first run. Like 2 people would be easier than 1. Tubed casings don’t go on SS tubes as easy as I thought they would. Maybe apply a little vegetable oil first next time. Leave more room in casing for twisting links and get better at judging lengths while twisting. Oh, and don’t forget which direction you twist.


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## tallbm (Sep 9, 2020)

roadkill cafe said:


> Thank you, Chopsaw. Learned quite a bit on this first run. Like 2 people would be easier than 1. Tubed casings don’t go on SS tubes as easy as I thought they would. Maybe apply a little vegetable oil first next time. Leave more room in casing for twisting links and get better at judging lengths while twisting. Oh, and don’t forget which direction you twist.



There is an excellent natural casings prep post on the forums somewhere.
The short story of it is to basically leave your natural casings in fresh water for like a week or longer before you use them.  This will cause them to get silky smooth, super pliable without breaking, and they just simply behave 100X better.

I still do this even with my tubed casings.

Try this out with your next stuffing attempt and you will be amazed at how true it is :)


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 9, 2020)

tallbm said:


> There is an excellent natural casings prep post on the forums somewhere.
> The short story of it is to basically leave your natural casings in fresh water for like a week or longer before you use them.  This will cause them to get silky smooth, super pliable without breaking, and they just simply behave 100X better.
> 
> I still do this even with my tubed casings.
> ...


I’ll look for it. Thanks for the tip.


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## chopsaw (Sep 9, 2020)

How to handle natural casings
					

Thought I would post up what I do with natural casings. I use naturals 99.9% of the time when making sausages be it sheep or hog casings. I get compliments about how the casing are very delicate and have a perfect snap when you bite into the sausage.  I believe the quality of the casings is part...




					www.smokingmeatforums.com
				



I didn't mention before , because you had tubed casings . If it works with tubed as well , then give it a look . I buy bulk , and keep mine like shown in that thread .


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## tallbm (Sep 9, 2020)

chopsaw said:


> How to handle natural casings
> 
> 
> Thought I would post up what I do with natural casings. I use naturals 99.9% of the time when making sausages be it sheep or hog casings. I get compliments about how the casing are very delicate and have a perfect snap when you bite into the sausage.  I believe the quality of the casings is part...
> ...



Yeah i just throw my tubed ones in a rectangular Tupperware tub the week I do my big hunting trip so when i get back they have a few more days to go before stuffing occurs during the processing (hunt 1 week, process the next).

Due to the craziness of this year and lack of work hours, my yearly hunting trip is getting scrapped :(
I have a cousin and some friends that are all on a deer lease overrun with feral hogs so I'm gonna try and get out there a few weekends and hopefully score 4-8 hogs this year to fill up the freezer.  
If i can run into a ton of hogs I may just go full extermination mode and drop as many as I can and just harvest backstraps and back legs.  Feral hogs are rightfully classified as a pest  in TX... so not regulated.  

Cleaning feral hogs is not a fun adventure and since what is really needed on their lease is an impossible eradication effort.  I might be able to  get a ton of bag legs and backstraps.  We'll see what happens though :)


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 11, 2020)

chopsaw said:


> How to handle natural casings
> 
> 
> Thought I would post up what I do with natural casings. I use naturals 99.9% of the time when making sausages be it sheep or hog casings. I get compliments about how the casing are very delicate and have a perfect snap when you bite into the sausage.  I believe the quality of the casings is part...
> ...


Thanks for the link, chopsaw. It’s a very good tutorial.


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 11, 2020)

tallbm said:


> Yeah i just throw my tubed ones in a rectangular Tupperware tub the week I do my big hunting trip so when i get back they have a few more days to go before stuffing occurs during the processing (hunt 1 week, process the next).
> 
> Due to the craziness of this year and lack of work hours, my yearly hunting trip is getting scrapped :(
> I have a cousin and some friends that are all on a deer lease overrun with feral hogs so I'm gonna try and get out there a few weekends and hopefully score 4-8 hogs this year to fill up the freezer.
> ...


I hear what you’re saying with the craziness! I’m skipping the S FL Gathering this year and was going with a close buddy to his hunting lease in SW Georgia. Lots of deer and hogs. Now it looks like that may be scraped as well. I take care of my 92 year old mom and my nurses I have/had aren’t able to work any longer. Curious as why only back legs and backstraps? It’s the same here in FL where feral hogs are considered the property of the land owner and unregulated, except on public lands. We always take the front shoulders too. Good meat, admittedly not as much as the rear quarters, but good nonetheless. I’ve been getting pork fat trimmings from a local grocery store a friend manages and freezing it for use with the wild hogs. A few pounds of beef fat too for venison. Lost almost 40 lbs. of Cajun and Italian wild hog sausage when hurricane Irma came through and knocked out power and I was in GA. Needless to say I wasn’t a happy camper. Lost a bunch of prime steaks and ham too. Another friend has a hunting lease in Central FL and regularly brings me quarters which I vac seal for the freezer. Good luck with your hunt and thanks for the info on the casings.


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## tallbm (Sep 11, 2020)

roadkill cafe said:


> I hear what you’re saying with the craziness! I’m skipping the S FL Gathering this year and was going with a close buddy to his hunting lease in SW Georgia. Lots of deer and hogs. Now it looks like that may be scraped as well. I take care of my 92 year old mom and my nurses I have/had aren’t able to work any longer. Curious as why only back legs and backstraps? It’s the same here in FL where feral hogs are considered the property of the land owner and unregulated, except on public lands. We always take the front shoulders too. Good meat, admittedly not as much as the rear quarters, but good nonetheless. I’ve been getting pork fat trimmings from a local grocery store a friend manages and freezing it for use with the wild hogs. A few pounds of beef fat too for venison. Lost almost 40 lbs. of Cajun and Italian wild hog sausage when hurricane Irma came through and knocked out power and I was in GA. Needless to say I wasn’t a happy camper. Lost a bunch of prime steaks and ham too. Another friend has a hunting lease in Central FL and regularly brings me quarters which I vac seal for the freezer. Good luck with your hunt and thanks for the info on the casings.



Hard times this year, sacrifices to the hunting trips seem to be happening to many people.

I'm specifically targeting back legs and back straps as an efficiency thing because I should be able to remove them faster in the field and get more meat WITHOUT having to actually haul off the animal to clean them.  If I drop 3 hogs in the morning and 3 in the evening, the amount of cleaning would be crazy each day!   Plus I would be afraid of not being able to clean, cut, and ice the meat fast enough in our not so cool temps in TX.

Doing just back legs and backstraps I'm pretty sure I can remove those fast in the field.  I would only need to to then skin the legs (backstrap removed without skin) and I can toss it all into a giant cooler with ice.  

It's simply about being most efficient.  Maximum meat in fastest amount of time knowing the place is overrun and there are a ton of hogs I should be getting into.  If I go for 3 days at a time and take about 9 hogs per trip you can see how I simply cannot manage all the animals and meat while still having an endless job of hog eradication.

That sucks about the loss of all that good meat of yours.  Hopefully you can fill the freezer back up with some nice wild game sooner rather than later.  Hopefully that friend comes through with plenty of amazing wild pork :)


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## roadkill cafe (Sep 11, 2020)

tallbm said:


> Hard times this year, sacrifices to the hunting trips seem to be happening to many people.
> 
> I'm specifically targeting back legs and back straps as an efficiency thing because I should be able to remove them faster in the field and get more meat WITHOUT having to actually haul off the animal to clean them.  If I drop 3 hogs in the morning and 3 in the evening, the amount of cleaning would be crazy each day!   Plus I would be afraid of not being able to clean, cut, and ice the meat fast enough in our not so cool temps in TX.
> 
> ...


I understand and that makes sense. Hope you fill your freezers. Mine are now just about filled back up to capacity. Time to start working it down a little to make some room.


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