# Cautionary tale regarding sausage casings.



## mdboatbum (Nov 14, 2011)

I bought natural lamb casings form a local Amish butcher recently for Italian sausage. I was cutting the one LOOOOONG piece into manageable lengths and I guess I lost track. One ended up in the garbage disposer. I worked on it for an hour today trying to free it up to no avail. Looks like I'm getting a new disposer. Ugh. That stuff is TOUGH!


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## shooterrick (Nov 14, 2011)

Just a late tip.  I place a large collindar (sp) in the sink when cleaning my casings just in case I lose one.  Sorry you have had a problem.


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## venture (Nov 14, 2011)

Those casings are slippery little critters.  Sometimes I think they are still alive, especially when I am trying to turn them inside out or fitting them over the stuffing horn? (think more water!)

For Italian, I use hog casings.  How did you like the sheep casings?

Good luck and good smoking.


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## daveomak (Nov 14, 2011)

MD, evening... If you are still at it... try throwing ice cubes down there... the ice may cut the casings up into little chunks and your troubles may be over..... with any luck at all.....    bride uses that method for chicken fat that gets down there... seems to work at times....   Dave


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## scarbelly (Nov 15, 2011)

If you are not on a septic system you can also use egg shells. The shells break up into sharp pieces that could possibly cut thru the casings. If you are on septic do not use this method as the shells are not biodegradable.


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## venture (Nov 15, 2011)

In the old days they told us to run a Coke bottle thru the disposer.  I definitely would not recommend that!

As Gary said, some egg shells or a wedge of lemon now and then wouldn't hurt.

I do not recommend potato skins, and at all cost please avoid parsley stems!  LOL

Good luck and good smoking.


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## mdboatbum (Nov 15, 2011)

Unfortunately the casing was apparently in there for a few days. Didn't realize it until the disposer stopped spinning, so ice or eggshells would be a moot point. I've tried using the allen key to spin the motor from underneath, and it will turn but slowly and with a bit of effort. My guess is that the casing is wrapped around the shaft of the grinder. My last ditch effort will be drano, in hopes it might dissolve the casing. After that I'll just get a new one. The good thing is we live in an apartment so it shouldn't cost us anything. The bad thing is we have to wait until they get around to it and live with the cheap contractor grade disposer they'll put in, and hope they don't screw it up too badly. The maintenance staff here are notoriously nonchalant and sloppy.

As for the sheep casings, they were pretty good. I was looking for hog casings but sheep was all they had.


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## retread (Nov 15, 2011)

When I was a kid, we would use a strong stick of some kind, when the disposer jammed (Broomstick or hockey stick or something like that).  We'd stick it down from the top and rotate the grinder backwards. That generally worked back then and I have used a similar idea a couple of times in the past few years.


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## SmokinAl (Nov 15, 2011)

I bet drano will work.


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## smokeamotive (Nov 15, 2011)

As a former apartment maint. man, many many moons ago, I had seen a number of obsured items put in a garbage disposal. As far as your problem goes, if you have a decent disposal and don't want them to put in the heapy cheapy one, you can remove the disposal and break the case open at the grinder plate and extract the casing. It requires a few tools, but isn't that hard to do.


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## daveomak (Nov 15, 2011)

Also hydrogen peroxide may work... it attacks anything organic... (if I remember correctly)... couldn't hurt...  Dave


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