Making your own homemade sausages can be incredibly satisfying. If you’ve recently started to get into this hobby, then you probably know how fun it can be to learn.
It can admittedly be a little hard to get things down at first, but once you get good at it, it’s really great. Those who are really new to making sausages might be confused about certain aspects, though.
For example, you might be confused about the sausage casings that you have to use. When you put the casings on the sausage, are you meant to eat the casings along with the sausage?
Should you try to remove the casings before serving the sausage? If you don’t have anyone to teach you, then you might not be too sure of what to do.
Keep reading to learn about whether you can eat sausage casings or not. This should allow you to enjoy sausages with your family without having to worry if you’re doing the right thing or not.
Some Sausage Casings Are Edible
The thing that you should know about sausage casings is that some of them are edible while others are not. Many types of sausage casings are edible, but you’ll want to make sure before digging in.
You wouldn’t want to eat sausage casings that aren’t meant to be consumed. It could wind up being harmful to you, but thankfully, it isn’t that hard to tell.
Sausage casings that aren’t edible will usually resemble cellulose or they will appear to be somewhat plastic-like. If you think that the sausage casing on your sausages looks like this, then you’ll want to remove it.
It’s also recommended to remove any sausage casings that you think are too thick. If a sausage casing is too thick, then it can negatively impact the sausage-eating experience.
Many of the sausages that you’ll find at stores will have edible casings. When you go to buy casings for your homemade sausages, you can specifically seek out edible ones if you’d like to go that route.
Pay Attention to What You’re Buying
Perhaps the best advice is to pay attention to what you’re buying. You don’t need to buy sausage casings that cannot be eaten if you don’t want to.
If you’re new to this, then you might not have put much thought into purchasing sausage casings. Perhaps you just bought the first thing that you saw.
You should be able to go back and look at the product’s packaging or the website to learn more details. This will allow you to determine what type of sausage casings you purchased.
Moving forward, you should try to read about the products before you choose what to purchase. If you’d like to make things more convenient, then buying edible sausage casings will be a great idea.
It’s just one less thing that you have to worry about when serving sausages. If people can just eat the sausages with the casings still on, then they might find the experience to be less cumbersome.
How Can You Remove Sausage Casings?
Removing sausage casings isn’t that tough, but you might not know how to approach things if you’ve never done it before. Luckily, you’ll be able to read about what to do below.
If you’re trying to remove the casings from uncooked sausages, then you’ll want to grab a knife. Cut the sausage from one end to the other using the tip of a sharp knife.
You want the cut to be fairly shallow. It should cut through the casing, but it shouldn’t cut all the way through the sausage.
Now flip the sausage upside down. Grab the casing where you split it with your knife and start pulling it back.
You should be able to free the sausage inside without it being a problem. Now you’ll be ready to cook the sausage or you can use the meat in some type of recipe if you’d like to.
One thing that can make this process easier is using frozen sausages. If the sausages are just coming out of the freezer, then it’ll be less likely that the meat will stick to the casing.
You could also place an uncooked sausage in your freezer for around fifteen minutes. It might make it easier to avoid issues with sticking.
What About Removing a Cooked Sausage’s Casing?
It’s still possible to remove a cooked sausage’s casing. It’s a little harder to do, but it’s not that bad once you get used to it.
After simmering the sausage in hot water for three minutes, you’re going to need to remove the sausage from the pan and run it underneath cold water. Dry your sausages using a paper towel before continuing.
Now use a knife to cut the casing from end to end. Remember to only do a shallow cut since you’re not trying to cut through the sausage.
You should be able to safely peel the casing back and remove it now. It might take some time if the sausage starts to stick to the casing.
Do your best to be gentle when peeling the sausage casing off. If you’re too rough, then it’s more likely that you’ll break the sausage apart.
When you have all of the casings off of the sausage, you’ll be able to finish cooking them. Sometimes it’s good to remove the casings when you want to use the sausage meat as a part of a dish.
There really isn’t an advantage in waiting to remove the casings until after they have been cooked a bit, though. This only makes your job harder, and that’s why it’s recommended to remove the casings before the sausages are cooked.
Eating Edible Sausage Casings Will Be Satisfying
In many ways, eating edible sausage casings is part of the experience. Many people find that the snap that is provided by the sausage casings will add to the experience of eating the sausages.
It changes the experience somewhat, and many people wouldn’t dream of taking their edible casings off of the sausages. When it comes to homemade sausages, it makes sense to find edible casings that you’re very happy with.
So long as you’re buying edible casings, you’re never going to need to bother to remove them. Unless you’re trying to use the meat in some type of a recipe, you won’t need to remove the sausage casings.
If you ever do need to remove the casings, then you understand how to do that now. It can be a bit annoying to have to take the casings off, but it’s not something that can’t be accomplished using a standard sharp knife and a bit of patience.
Whenever you’re serving sausages normally, people will just be able to eat them casings and all. So long as you remember to use the right types of casings, it’s never going to be an issue.
Keeping all of this in mind should allow you to have a good experience when making sausages. You’ll be proud to serve the sausages to your family, and you’ll never have to worry about whether the casings are okay to eat or not when you pay attention to what you buy.
Where Can You Buy Sausage Casings?
Depending on how new you are to the world of sausage making, you might not even know where to go to buy the casings. Sausage casings won’t necessarily be sold at your local grocery store, but they aren’t that hard to find overall.
Sometimes local butcher shops will sell casings to people, but this might not always be the case. You could call up the local butcher to ask about sausage casings just to be safe.
It’s likely that you’ll be able to get the best sausage casings from your local butcher. If you’re going to be making homemade sausages regularly, then it’d probably be good to get to know the butcher.
An expert such as this can give you advice about which casings will be good for your needs. Plus, you’ll always know that you’re getting the freshest casings possible when going this route.
Large department stores might carry sausage casings, too. If you can’t find what you need in the physical store, then you’ll definitely be able to purchase sausage casings online.
Many of the most popular online retailers sell high-quality edible sausage casings, too. You could simply buy some and have them delivered to your home within a few days.
How Do You Store Sausage Casings?
Sometimes you might be tempted to buy sausage casings in bulk. Buying more than you need isn’t a bad idea at all since they can stay good for a very long time.
Of course, ensuring that the sausage casings stay good will be up to you. You’re going to need to store them properly or they will wind up going bad.
How do you store sausage casings to ensure that they will last? You’re supposed to refrigerate them.
Natural casings, the edible kind that you’ll want to use, will go bad over time. However, they can last a very long time when stored in a refrigerator properly.
A natural sausage casing is supposed to be able to stay good in the refrigerator for up to two years. That gives you plenty of time to make more sausages.
You’re not supposed to store them in the freezer, though. Normally, you might assume that freezing the casings would be the best way to store something for a long time, but that isn’t the case here.
This is because sausage casings will become damaged when stored in the freezer. The temperatures are too low, and they won’t be in as good of condition when you thaw them out.
Storing the sausage casings in the refrigerator will be recommended by all butchers. The temperature will be just right for keeping the casings safe.
If you were to leave the sausage casings out at room temperature, then they wouldn’t last very long. Be sure to make some room for the casings in your fridge if you don’t wish to waste them.
Final Thoughts
Knowing more about sausage casings will help you to make the right choices. Most of the sausage casings that you find people using are meant to be edible, but some casings aren’t.
There are synthetic casings out there that aren’t meant to be eaten. You can usually tell whether the casings are meant to be eaten by looking at them.
Inedible sausage casings usually appear to be cellulose in nature. Sometimes they will also have a plastic-like appearance.
Natural casings are generally going to be edible, but sometimes you might want to remove the casings for various reasons. For example, you might want to utilize the meat inside of the casings in some type of recipe.
You could also want to remove a sausage casing that is too thick. A very thick sausage casing might make eating the sausage a bit tough.
Removing the sausage casing is easy when you know what you’re doing. You’re supposed to cut the sausage from end to end with a sharp knife.
The cut is meant to be shallow so that you don’t cut through the entire sausage. You can then peel back the casing to reveal the sausage inside.
It’s always important to be gentle when removing the sausage casing. Otherwise, you might wind up breaking the sausage apart, and it’ll come out in chunks.
You’ll have a bit of an easier time removing the casings if you stick the sausages in the freezer for a bit. Put the sausages in the freezer for fifteen minutes and they won’t stick to the casings quite so much.
It’ll always be easier to remove the casings before cooking the sausage. You can still remove the casings after the sausages have been cooked, though.
Remember to pay attention to what types of casings you’re buying when making homemade sausages. Always endeavor to purchase high-quality edible casings from reputable sources.
You should be able to get what you need from the local butcher. Just call ahead to ensure that they have sausage casings that they can sell in stock.
Ben has a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, you can find him at home with wife and two daughters. Outside of family, He loves grilling and barbequing on his Big Green Egg and Blackstone Griddle, as well as working on projects around the house.
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