Has anyone made cased sausage? Worth the trouble?

Josh

Josh

Dead in the water
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Has anyone gone through the effort to make cased sausages? We had a local butcher shop in our area for a number of years. An actual proper butcher shop and it was pretty awesome. The guy would make up custom sausages for dietary requirements, specific recipes/styles, etc. But for whatever reason, he got out of the game a few years back.

We make up patty style sausage for various recipes. But sometimes you just want a brat or some breakfast links. Due to dietary stuff, store bought won't work for us. A while back I was wandering around Cabelas (great place for a road trip bathroom break) and started looking at all the game processing equipment, and of course, sausage making is a big part of that. So it got me wondering how easy/hard it would be to make my own cased sausages.

Who can tell me more about this while deal? What gear would I need? How much of a hassle is it? Does it go on the list of "Not worth the effort" for a few dozen links once in a while?

And just to end on a joke, here's a nicely awkward sausage related clip from Letterkenny

 
I've done it many times, with different types of sausage, casings and meats.
Best done in bulk, as in 25 pounds or more at a time. Good sausage is worth making, using quality meats, seasonings and such. It's a process, so once set up, it's not much harder to do 25 pounds than 10, just a bit more time.
Making from scratch, with a meat grinder, meat mixer, and stuffer, there's a lot of equipment involved, plus spices, and casings.
We used the collagen casings more often, as natural casings tended to tear more often when filling, at least for us.

These guys have all the stuff, recipe books, casings, seasonings, equiptment etc., and was the place we used.

 
Grew up poor in the woods, so I am familiar with lots of things like this, at least a long time ago. Don't underestimate the commitment aspect: there is a bunch of equipment costs involved, as Mossback states. Lots of cleaning. Plus it's a somewhat time consuming bulk food process, so you make a lot at one time, which is its own challenge. I am guessing you have no hogs in the backyard, so you should have an excellent source of meat and ingredients lined up at a price you are willing to pay. When you make a mistake, you have to slog through all that mass of food to get on the other side. You also need the storage end of things in place.

Things like this were community or large family events for a good reason. I recommend finding a mentor and helping for awhile first, then find your help team.

Suspect your butcher got out of the game because it's a decent amount of work and time for a not so high value end product.
 
Tallguy said:
I am guessing you have no hogs in the backyard, so you should have an excellent source of meat and ingredients lined up at a price you are willing to pay.
Click to expand...
This. ..

We raised hogs with the neighbors, so had quality meat and fat on hand.
It's a short days work, and yeah...the cleaning afterwards isn't to be overlooked...a good point.

The upside is its a good project for a rainy, shifty day inside, and done right, a very good product is made, exactly how you like it.
 
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Good advice!

Perhaps what I should be doing is looking for another quality butcher. Even if I have to drive for a bit to get there.
 
I have done it several times, but I had the good fortune of doing it with a group of guys who had all of the commercial equipment, walk-in cooler, massive tables and space for all of that, along with a giant commercial smoker. It was a spectacular facility! Despite all of the advantages I just described, it was a LOT of work. We made it an event, so it was fun, but finding a new butcher would take way less time and definitely cheaper.
 
I've probably cased ~150 lbs of sausage at home over the last 15 years. Like others have said, I wouldn't do less than 15 pounds at a time considering the setup and cleanup process. Fridge and freezer space is a crucial element, when the meat gets warm the sausage quality drops. We have a main kitchen fridge/freezer, a basement beer fridge/freezer, and a moderate size chest freezer that makes the process doable.

I started doing it with the KitchenAid grinder attachment, it's grinds ok, but slowly, but stuffing is a real PITA. I was gifted a Cabela's heavy duty grinder/stuffer and that works MUCH better.

Last time I made sausages it was me, a buddy, and my wife. We made 45 pounds total in 4 varieties, with about 30 lbs stuffed. We also vacuum sealed all but 5 lbs. It took us about 7 hours from opening the meat packages until the final freezer door closed. I really enjoy the process and results so the work was worth it to me.
 
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