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Took me 3 weekends to figure out why my sausages kept splitting in the casing
I've been making fresh brats and Italian sausage at my shop in Boise for about 9 years now, and for most of that time I had this one problem that drove me nuts. About 1 in every 5 links would split open during the poach or right on the grill, and I just kept blaming the casings. I ordered from three different suppliers, tried hog and sheep, soaked them longer, soaked them shorter, nothing worked. What I finally figured out after talking to an old German butcher named Walt who's been at it for 40 years is that my stuffer was pushing way too hard and I was overstuffing by probably 15 percent. He told me the casing should feel like a soft sausage link, not a packed one, and that I should be able to pinch it flat with two fingers. I backed off the tension and started pricking a few holes before the ice bath, and the splits basically went away overnight. Wish someone had told me that back when I started instead of me burning through 40 pounds of pork shoulder on trial and error. Anybody else out there have a fix that seems stupid obvious once you hear it?
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jennifermurphy4d ago
My buddy Sal in Twin Falls had the same issue until his butcher told him to stop stuffing so tight.
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