Brats, anyone?
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OP
OP
BTW, the yellow in them is Irish butter. They're pretty good 
Oldskewl
Well-Known Member
What kind of casings did you use. I like the ease of Collagen casings. But prefer the texture of hog casings for my Keilbasa.
OP
OP
Hog. I get them fresh from local Italian deli (well, they are wet, anyway). I don't believe I had one blowout with them. I used to buy dry/salted casings online, but man I had some nightmares with those blowing out all over the place.
Oh Hell Yeah!
Oldskewl
Well-Known Member
Nice! I'll hae to ask the local butchers to see what they use. The hog casings I use have their share of blowouts if you get carried away. I don't enjoy sorting through them and loading them onto the stuffing tube. The collegan casings are so much easier, but the texture is not as enjoyable.
OP
OP
I do a whole 10-15# batch with one casing. That casing goes onto the tube so easy, no effort at all. The ones I used to rehydrate barely fit onto the tube (smaller?). Also, your butcher might give you free pork fat on trimming day - mine does.
OP
OP
I did andouille a few weeks ago. Here you can see exactly one casing slid onto the stuffer tube. That held 10# of andouille. Note how loose that casing is - went onto tube fast. That's what I get from Felice's Pork Store (yes, that's the name of the little Italian deli haha).
beren
Well-Known Member
Nice! We used to make Kielbasa a lot. We always used salted casings and didn’t have many issues that I remember. Our stuffer is a stainless cylinder with a wooden shaft about 6” in diameter that fits tightly inside. We’d load the meat, put the wood in, load the casing then pull the cylinder into your stomach to push the meat out. Great ab workout
Back in the day, our family used to make kielbasa for the holidays. It took a few of us to mix the meat and ingredients by hand. Ah, the good old days.
Here's a pic that resembles the 'sausage press' we used.
Here's a pic that resembles the 'sausage press' we used.
I've done a few batches. Got a grinder/stuffer attachment off ebay for my kenwood and do about a 2kg batch at a time. The grinder is fine, but using it as a stuffer is a bit annoying, if I did bigger or more batches I'd invest in a stuffer like you have I think. I just do 100% pork shoulder into hog casings. Usually cured with no1 as I like the flavour then whatever spices. Some get smoked, some dont
Butter in sausage? Magnificent. I sneak butter into everything.
I love homemade bratwurst. I wonder if I can find casings where I live now.
I love homemade bratwurst. I wonder if I can find casings where I live now.
OP
OP
Yep. Lemme tell you, it's a game changer. I don't tell people it's butter in there though. It's my little secret.
Regarding casings, lots of places to buy them online. Sausagemaker.com, butcher-packer.com, etc. But as I blathered about above, find you a local sausage maker (many italian delis make their own) and you're in business.
Thanks for the help. I had no idea casings were sold online. I live in the horse capital of the world, so I don't know if I should buy them locally.
I don't mind bulk bratwurst, though. It's all good.
I don't know what it is about butter. It spreads food's flavor around like nothing else.
I don't mind bulk bratwurst, though. It's all good.
I don't know what it is about butter. It spreads food's flavor around like nothing else.
OP
OP
ocala
kaffeenjunkie
Well-Known Member
You can buy casings from Butcher&Packer or The Sausage Maker. I have purchased sheep and hog casings from both places. Both have excellent quality. The pack size might be a bit much. They also sell them on Amazon. I have not been too happy with the LEM products although I am sure there are those who love them.
OP
OP
Delish. Glad I made a lot. Very tender sausage, would be great on a roll.
AZ Maverick
Well-Known Member
Mmmm, I love it.
I don't make it as much as I should.
And I don't have a proper sausage stuffer so I'm using the KitchenAid attachment - not the best, but I'm getting by.
Brats and Summer Sausage - heck yeah!
I don't make it as much as I should.
And I don't have a proper sausage stuffer so I'm using the KitchenAid attachment - not the best, but I'm getting by.
Brats and Summer Sausage - heck yeah!
? packing animals in their own intestine, but butter would put people off? lol
OP
OP
I've never even tried to stuff from my kitchenaid. But those look pretty good.
OP
OP
Yea, you make a good point there. But then, people...
kaffeenjunkie
Well-Known Member
OP
OP
why the suck?
kaffeenjunkie
Well-Known Member
Thinner, smaller diameter, not used to working with them, but… I embraced the suck and got it done. 25 lbs ready to go.
I got some sheep casings recently for this batch
but the horn I had was too big, bit of an oversight by me. Thankfully I had hog casings spare. This was 2kg pork shoulder 500g pork belly, salt, cure, msg, pepper, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, lemon zest, egg white, water.
OP
OP
I grilled some of these two days ago. Good stuff there Hanglow.
Using that same attachment @AZ Maverick it works fine for grinding but just ok for stuffing. Might have to get one of those stuffers.
beren
Well-Known Member
This is basically ours but less fancy: Sausage Stuffer Tin Tube, Wood Plunger Pusher, Antique Primitive Sausa
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I got a cheap meat grinder and a sausage stuffer from Amazon.. not bad for the first try. Need to work on my twisting as I had a couple split.
Was out of casings so made some square sausage today. The typical scottish sausage is square, called Lorne sausage. It's a beef sausage with rusk though, I made a cured pork one so it'll be quite different. 1.65kg of meat made a 2lb cake tin and a 1lb loaf tin worth of sausage.
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