Cooking at home offers many benefits, including contributing to a healthier diet, giving you more control over the foods you eat, and simply bringing more joy to your life.
And making your own sausages at home can be fun and rewarding. It allows you to control the quality of the ingredients, season to your tastes, and save you money.
The key to good sausage is quality ingredients, including ground meat and casings. Sausage casings come in many different varieties, so keep reading to learn about all-natural sausage casings.
The Importance of Sausage Casings
You may be wondering, what is a sausage casing? The sausage casing is the material that encloses the ground meat and seasoning of a sausage. It provides a protective film and the shape for the link.
There are two main categories of casings: synthetic and natural sausage casings.
Many commercial sausages are encased in artificial, or synthetic, casings. These casings are made from cellulose, collagen, or even plastic. They are sometimes inedible and meant to be peeled off after cooking.
Natural casings are made from a farm animal’s intestine (usually pigs, cattle, sheep, or goats). Natural casings add flavor and are usually edible.
Hog Sausage Casings
Hog casings are made from pig intestines and are the most common type of natural casing.
They are most often used to make breakfast links and provide a deep, meat flavor to sausages. These casings are durable, but not too thick or chewy.
Because of their size and durability, hog casings are also often used for link sausages such as kielbasa and bratwurst.
Beef Sausage Casings
Beef casings come in three varieties: beef middles, beef rounds, and beef bung caps.
Beef middles casings are made from cow’s intestines and are thick and extremely durable. Beef middles casings are often used for making salamis and are usually peeled off the sausage after cooking.
Beef rounds have a ring shape and are very often used in the production of polish sausage and rim bologna. They also have a lower fat content than most other casings.
Beef bung casings are made from the cow’s appendix. Bung caps are the largest of the natural casings. These casings are incredibly durable and never edible.
Sheep and Lamb Sausage Casings
Sheep casings are made from sheep intestines. They tend to be fragile and smaller in size than other casings, and they are the tenderest choice for casings.
Because of their softness and size, they are often used for breakfast sausage links, hot dogs, and smaller snack-size sausage sticks.
The Natural Choice
Natural sausage casings offer the best flavor and versatility for your homemade sausages. Check out all of our products for your casing needs.
Our company is a multi-generation, family-owned business with more than 65 years of experience. You can trust our products and our customer service. We are the largest independently-owned casings processer in North America.
Contact us today to get a free sample and experience our high-quality casings.