Hog casing, Collagen casing and ethics
Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 15:11
I continue on with my quest for producing a cured, smoked lamb sausage (I could write an essay on my frustrations about this. I tell you what, on my next day off I will write on my saga). Back to this post. I make a lovely lamb, garlic and rosemary fresh sausage. I like it, and other people tell me that they like it. Sounds good so far, but I use a hog casing. That is fine for my own consumption, but if I take along a load of lamb snaggers to a bbq and people who do not eat pork consume one or more; erm that sounds not so good. It would sound a bit pompus me anouncing that my lamb sausages should not be eaten by people who do not eat pork.
I know what you are thinking, why not use lamb casing, well lamb casing is 4* more expensive than hog casing (I do not understand why, but that is the nature of things in NZ, we produce many more sheep than pigs!!!). Ok well then why not use Collagen casings. I bought a box and gave it a go. They were a nightmare to stuff (I like coarse grain mince). I have two stuffing horns. One which is about the size for pork casings and another which may be suitable for lamb casings. Well the collagen casings would not fit on the standard stuffing horn. I then had to add so much water to the mince mixture to be able to stuff the sausages. I then fried the sausages. This worked well, but they shrank and the casing did not. The other half, I had added cure to, I hot smoked (they tasted, well not good, will tell you about that in my lamb saga). The sausages shrank a great deal and the casing did not. so I ended up with a filling that slides inside a baggy casing. I had stuffed the sausages so much that they burst at times.
what did I do wrong?
I know what you are thinking, why not use lamb casing, well lamb casing is 4* more expensive than hog casing (I do not understand why, but that is the nature of things in NZ, we produce many more sheep than pigs!!!). Ok well then why not use Collagen casings. I bought a box and gave it a go. They were a nightmare to stuff (I like coarse grain mince). I have two stuffing horns. One which is about the size for pork casings and another which may be suitable for lamb casings. Well the collagen casings would not fit on the standard stuffing horn. I then had to add so much water to the mince mixture to be able to stuff the sausages. I then fried the sausages. This worked well, but they shrank and the casing did not. The other half, I had added cure to, I hot smoked (they tasted, well not good, will tell you about that in my lamb saga). The sausages shrank a great deal and the casing did not. so I ended up with a filling that slides inside a baggy casing. I had stuffed the sausages so much that they burst at times.
what did I do wrong?