I hate sheep casings

[Laripu]

I made two 5-lb batches of fresh sausage today:
• sweet Italian sausage in hog casings
• merguez sausage in sheep casings

The Italian sausage took about an hour. The merguez took 3.5 hours, because the casings knotted up, were hard to open at the end, had holes, broke during stuffing and/or linking, and generally were a pain in the ass.

It's not my first time having these problems with lamb casings, and I've user different brands (deWeid, LEM, Eastman), with the same result. Is this normal, or is it me doing something wrong?

I'm not overstuffing and I never have these problems with pig casings.

[DanMcG]

Yeah they can be a pain sometimes.
Buy them preflushed and tubed, it takes a lot of the stress out of it.

https://www.makincasing.com/x/home.php?cat=10

[badjak]

I soak them individually so the knotting up is a bit less of a problem.
I also soak them a bit longer than the hog casings

[wheels]

Like Badjak, I soak them individually. I open the end in the water, allow some water to enter, then lift it up and flush the water through the casing, leave them to soak overnight, then flush them through again. They fly off the stuffer!

If you're finding lots of holes before stuffing you need to change supplier, they're an absolute pain if they're like that.

HTH

Phil

[DiggingDogFarm]

Try the ones from Syracuse Casings that Dan suggested.
DEFINITELY stay away from home pack sheep casings!!!





=Martin=

[Laripu]

All of the above is probably good advice, but I have two more 5 lb batches worth of sheep casings to use up, so I'll be cursing and moaning two more times.

[yotmon]

A poor batch of sheep casings is one of the few things that can make a grown man cry - I have empathy !

[BriCan]

I do like the 'sane' people due to the fact that I use constant

Soak them overnight (or longer)

I put the whole hank into lukewarm water for about half hour then re-do the lukewarm water bath twice more (gets rid of the salt and starts the making them pliable)

Leave in a cool place overnight ... not in the fridge

the following day they will separate (come apart) with little to none tangling

Use a turkey baster (minus the rubber bulb) to put water into casings to flush as well as help place on the horn

I love sheep casings

[kimgary]

Nice tip about the turkey baster Brican, have you done this type of work before?

Regards
Gary.

[BriCan]

Nice tip about the turkey baster Brican,

Thank's

have you done this type of work before?

Nah, still learning