Nice write-up! I also make sausage from time to time, and I have to agree: dealing with those casings is a pain. They DO smell bad, they ARE creepy to handle, and it can be quite difficult to get them onto the stuffing tube in one piece. You're not done then, at that point you have to manage to get them filled without any blow-outs or tears. It's definitely a two-person job, one to feed the grinder and the other to mind the casings.
Now I usually skip the casings, and just make patties or wrap the bulk sausage up in 1lb packages to freeze.
If your casing smell, you do not have ones that have either been cleaned right, or kept right. Our family has made sausage for decades, and I have for the better part of 30 years, and I have worked at packing plants that clean and salt casings. Take my word for it: They shouldn't smell!
If you need recipes, let me know... got a ton of 'em! Oh, and try making Bratwurst and making the patties as mentioned above... serve as burgers with onion and mustard... wow!
edit: The Sausage Maker, Inc. - Sausage Making Equipment & Supplies his book is good, but salt-heavy.
We tried it once and it all came out dry. I am guessing it was our choice of meat. What cuts do you recommend?
I used my kitchenaid just once to stuff, then I bought a dedicated stuffer. With all that plastic and all that fat, even cold, I ended up basically using the plunger to push the meat through. Not fun.
a sausage stuffer is key. Using the grinder to stuff the sausage doesn't work well and just makes bad sausage.
I recommend the book Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas. It is the definitive manual on sausage making. I made mediocre sausage until I read that book. He was a friend of my father (Rytek is now deceased) and was truly the Sausage King!
I was a meat cutter for over 17 years, and made bratwurst, Italian sausages, Polish, etc several times a week. A hank of hog casings always comes packed in salt. You need to let them soak in water for several hours, or maybe even a day, to get them to the point where you can handle them. But if you let them sit for too long in just plain water, they will get stinky. (BTW, if you think that stinks, try handling tripe).
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