Sausage Casings
How to make sausages
Casings are the forgotten super-hero of the humble sausage. That’s because without a good sausage casing, you can’t have a good sausage. Your sausage casing is what keeps all your carefully chosen ingredients, flavours and juices in and it also dictates the texture and eating experience of your final sausage. Sausage making aficionados (aka gurus) are obsessed with having the right sausage ‘snap’ when you bite into a sausage, which all comes down to the casing you use. Natural casings give the best sausage snap. So don’t ruin your wieners, choose a natural casing.
Natural versus Collagen Casing
Sausage casings generally fall into two camps – natural casings or collagen casings. Natural casings are made from the intestine of an animal – usually hog or sheep. The craft and use of natural casings dates back to Ancient Greece and Rome, when the philosophy was about honoring making use of the whole animal. More recently, man has developed the collagen casing, which is made from highly processed hides of cows or pigs and has still to this day can not match the tenderness, texture and the all important sausage ‘snap’ of a natural casing.
Sheep verus Hog Casing
Sheep casings are not as wide as hog casings (aka they have a smaller diameter). As such, a sausage made with a hog casing will be a lot fatter/wider than a sausage made with a sheep casing. The wall of sheep casings are also thinner than hog casings which means they are less prone to chewyness/being rubbery. We believe sheep casings give the best sausage texture and delivery, with the much prized sausage ‘snap’ you only get from a natural sausage.
