# Traeger Smoked Collagen Casing Snack Sticks?



## tayrob04 (Mar 23, 2013)

I just made 50 lbs of snack sticks using a smoke colored collagen casing. I hope to use my Traeger Lil Tex Elite to smoke them. Will the smoke penetrate and collagen casing?


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## boykjo (Mar 25, 2013)

Collagen casings are mainly produced from the collagen in beef or pig hides, and the bones and tendons. It can also be derived from poultry and fish. They have been made for more than 50 years and their share of the market has been increasing. Usually the cost to produce sausages in collagen is significantly lower than making sausages in gut because of higher production speeds and lower labor requirements.

The collagen for artificial casings is processed extensively and, as a raw material, it is similar to bread dough prior to final production. It is then extruded through a die to the desired diameter, dried and shirred into short sticks up to 41 cm long that contain as much as 50m of casing. In a newer process, a form of dough is coextruded with the meat blend, and a coating is formed by treating the outside with a calcium solution to set the coating.

The latest generation of collagen casings are usually more tender than natural casings but do not exhibit the “snap” or “bite” of natural casing sausages. The biggest volume of collagen casings are edible, but a special form of thicker collagen casings is used for salamis and large caliber sausages where the casing is usually peeled off the sausage by the consumer.* Collagen casings are permeable to smoke and moisture*, are less expensive to use, give better weight and size control, and are easier to run when compared to natural casings.

Yes


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## roller (Mar 25, 2013)

Thats alot of sticks...


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## driedstick (Mar 25, 2013)

Roller said:


> Thats alot of sticks...


X2


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## BGKYSmoker (Mar 25, 2013)

boykjo said:


> Collagen casings are mainly produced from the collagen in beef or pig hides, and the bones and tendons. It can also be derived from poultry and fish. They have been made for more than 50 years and their share of the market has been increasing. Usually the cost to produce sausages in collagen is significantly lower than making sausages in gut because of higher production speeds and lower labor requirements.
> 
> The collagen for artificial casings is processed extensively and, as a raw material, it is similar to bread dough prior to final production. It is then extruded through a die to the desired diameter, dried and shirred into short sticks up to 41 cm long that contain as much as 50m of casing. In a newer process, a form of dough is coextruded with the meat blend, and a coating is formed by treating the outside with a calcium solution to set the coating.
> 
> ...


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