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Vegetarian Sausage Casing


mikeysoundtrack

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Or has anyone encountered ANY source of vegetarian sausage skins, at all?

Edited by dougal (log)

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch ... you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan

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I have never seen any vegetarian casings, ever. I wonder what kind of product these could be made out of to have that "snap"?

Have you looked to see what companies like Morningstar are using? A quick search produced their list of ingredients for their vegetarian breakfast sausage:

TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, WATER FOR HYDRATION), EGG WHITES, CORN OIL, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF SALT, SODIUM CASEINATE, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, SUGAR, CELLULOSE GUM, MODIFIED POTATO STARCH, CANOLA OIL, SPICES, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (SOY, WHEAT, AND CORN), CARAMEL COLOR, GUAR GUM, SOY SAUCE (SOYBEANS, SALT, WHEAT), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS FROM NON-MEAT SOURCES, GUM ARABIC, ONION POWDER, MALTODEXTRIN, VITAMINS AND MINERALS (NIACINAMIDE, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE [VITAMIN B6], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], VITAMIN B12), DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, SUNFLOWER OIL, XANTHAN GUM, SESAME SEED OIL.

I also found the VegiCase system:

http://www.vegicase.com/

Hope this helps.

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A Dutch company called Ruitenberg has an edible synthetic casing called VegaCasing. They are alginate-based and are supposedly vegan. I have doubts that you could get small quantities but no harm in asking them.

http://www.ruitenberg.com/page.php/25/vegacasing.html

They are used in large-scale regular (meat) sausage production in Europe and apparently have that 'snap'.

edit: grammer

Edited by HKDave (log)

Hong Kong Dave

O que nao mata engorda.

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thanks for the help.  At least I know they're out there.  Now I just need to buy the kitchenmaid attachment.

But are they "out there"?

As far as I can tell, BOTH those systems are industrial alginate coating systems where the liquid 'casing' is painted onto (or extruded around) the outside of the sausage, and then "cured" somehow (calcium chloride probably) to set it solid. (There would be some clues for you about handling alginate in the eGullet alginate thread http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=86839)

I think the main part of the "casing" is likely to be the cube of cream-coloured gel that the chap in the video tips into the hopper... (about a minute or so into the Ruitenberg video)

... and not an obvious match for any standard kitchen "attachment".

Edited by dougal (log)

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch ... you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan

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Thanks, I obviously didn't investigate the sights deep enough. 

I want to make vegetarian sausages.

What do I do if I can't find the right product?

I wish you good luck on your veg. sausage casing journey ... but I'm pretty sure you won't find what you need.

Just pump the sausage mix into some synthetic casing, poach them, decase them and grill 'em. They won't have that snap your looking for but trying to make an entirely vegetarian sausage with the texture of meat sausage = square peg -> round hole.

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