Sausage making Tips

[bigwheel]

Re: Meat Purchase

I usually buy bone in butts and debone myself. After having deboned a few will say removing he bone will knock about 3/4 lb off the weight of the meat. I mostly boil em up and feed em to the dawgs. Now if for some reason the boneless models are 20 cents or less per pound I buy the boneless ones..if I'm gonna use em real soon. The bone in models is usually in cryo and the boneless models is usually in saran wrap..meaning they getting old and not meant for long term holding.

bigwheel

Hey everyone, just trying to get a head count as to how you like to purchase your pork for sausage making.
On the bone or off?
I'm an on the bone meat trimmer myself!
Northsmoke [/url]

 

[ronbeaux50]

Nice tips. Wish I would have read this before I tried my first.

 

[grumpyoldman]

the big problem i have are the casings always seem a bit tuff , i wish i could solve that problem , we stuff them pretty tight but after smoking they are always tuffer than i would like them to be . any suggestions ?

 

[caseydog]

the big problem i have are the casings always seem a bit tuff , i wish i could solve that problem , we stuff them pretty tight but after smoking they are always tuffer than i would like them to be . any suggestions ?

Same thing happens to me with some sausage casings, especially boudin. Of course, boudin casings are usually not eaten. But, some casings do better than others.

CD

 

[grumpyoldman]

yea it seems like as soon as the sausage starts getting that nice smoked color to them the casing start to get tough , my 1st thoughts were to stuff the casings tight to stretch the casing thin but that doesn't seem to help much. and by the way , we always use top of the line pretubed 32 mm casings

 

[grumpyoldman]

i was just sitting here wondering if going to a bigger casing might help , maybe a 38-40 mm ?
update:
i just checked sausage makers website and can get the pretubed casings in the 38-42 mm range

 

[grumpyoldman]

i have been doing more research on "tough" sausage casings and have found a couple of things (1) says to soak the casings over night with a tablespoon of baking soda to make them more tender (2) says to soak tham over night with a tablespoon of white vinager . not being a chemist i don't know which one would be best , any thoughts ?

 

[caseydog]

i have been doing more research on "tough" sausage casings and have found a couple of things (1) says to soak the casings over night with a tablespoon of baking soda to make them more tender (2) says to soak tham over night with a tablespoon of white vinager . not being a chemist i don't know which one would be best , any thoughts ?

I know I wouldn't mix the baking soda with the vinegar, unless you want to clean up a mess.

CD

 

[grumpyoldman]

no no casydog , its 2 different methods

 

[dragnlaw]

I think casey was aiming for some grade school humour. LOL!

 

[grumpyoldman]

the wife thinks it might have something to do with the smoke time and temp, i want to keep digging and see what kinda fix i can come up with in the next couple of weeks before we do another large batch