Thanks Thirdeye!

[JamesB]

The best tip however is cranking a little nub of meat out the end of the tube. Wet it with a little water. This will make the gut almost thread itself.

Copied this from one of my other posts... This has proven to be the most useful tip of all that I've gotten to enhance my sausage making experience! This does indeed make it super easy to get the casings onto the feeding tube!

James.

 

[thirdeye]

Copied this from one of my other posts... This has proven to be the most useful tip of all that I've gotten to enhance my sausage making experience! This does indeed make it super easy to get the casings onto the feeding tube!

James.

Thanks man, it's always the little things that make a job easier. :mrgreen:

I'll try to go two for two.... When you rinse out your guts and go to the holding bowl, drape one end over the edge. Do this with all the other ones, then when you use them, take them out in reverse order. (last one in is the first one out) This will eliminate any tangles. Just snip an inch off the end before going on to the tube.

 

[swamprb]

I've been following the progress and taking in these tidbits of information in preparation for my first time, but is there a ratio of meat to casings? Can I re-freeze the unused soaked casings? I have an 8oz. Homepack but it dosen't say what the capacity is.

 

[bbqbull]

Brian, no expert here at all but im sure if you contacted a dealer of casings they could give you a very good estimate of how much casing you would need for say a 5# batch of sausage or whatever your making.

I believe you can resalt the unused casings by resalting them and storing them into the fridge.

 

[thirdeye]

I've been following the progress and taking in these tidbits of information in preparation for my first time, but is there a ratio of meat to casings? Can I re-freeze the unused soaked casings? I have an 8oz. Homepack but it dosen't say what the capacity is.

I get around 20 or 25 pounds from those small packs. It can vary because of the diameter of them. I'm guessing you have the salt packed ones.....I snip the little thread that holds the hank together and sneak out what I think I will use then re-freeze the rest. I don't save left over ones after they are rinsed and soaked.

 

[thirdeye]

Brian,

One thing I forgot to mention, if you are stuffing different flavors save the ones that can also be packaged into fatties or bulk for last in case you do run out of casings (like breakfast or Italian). I buy these 1# plastic tube bags for fatties. Since you will have your stuffer already set-up it's easy and quick to fill a few of these.

 

[JamesB]

All good tips! This was only my second time stuffing the sausage.. In the past, I've experimented with buying pre-ground pork and adding stuff to it, but this is much more fun! Especially since I got that stuff tube whooped!

Well, clean up and cold hands still s_ck, but the results are more than worth it!

Will be trying out another recipe next week...

Thanks again!
James.

 

[smokestack]

here is one of the many sausage making sites that I often go to for info
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/
some where, just a couple of days ago I saw info on foot of casings/pounds of meat-If I can find it I will post-
Ground 20 pounds of pork last night- getting ready to stuff this AM

 

[smokestack]

just found this :
Casings
Casings come in a variety of sizes and are usually sold by the hank, bundle, cap or ounce. It is always difficult to estimate how much casing you will need to stuff your batch of sausage. A few rules of thumb:
1 pound of meat will stuff about 2 feet of medium-size hog casing (32-35 mm)
1 pound of meat will stuff about 4 feet of medium-size lamb casing (20-22 mm)
1 ounce of medium-size hog casing (32-35 mm) will stuff about 8 feet of sausage
1 pound of medium-size lamb casing (20-22 mm) will stuff about 16 feet of sausage