Preserving sausage casings

[Stephie]

I bought a bunch of natural sausage casings packed in water this weekend. Despite the best intentions, I didn't get around to using them. Any suggestions on preserving them for later use? Salt? Freezing?

Thanks.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Normally they come packed in salt and last indefinitely that way, so I'd try packing them in coarse salt. They need to be soaked and rinsed out before use.

[Alcuin]

Don't freeze them--it weakens them and they might break on you. Like David says, just pack them in salt and keep them in the fridge and they should be fine. I've had some packed that way for probably 8-9 months now and they're fine. I'm going to use them again in a couple of weeks.

[djyee100]

The salted casings that you buy will last indefinitely in the fridge--as long as you keep the package well-sealed from moisture. I dunno about water-soaked fresh casings that you try to salt yourself. Maybe I'm being overcautious. As always, a good sniff before you use the casings might tell you something.

[michael_g]

The salted casings that you buy will last indefinitely in the fridge--as long as you keep the package well-sealed from moisture. I dunno about water-soaked fresh casings that you try to salt yourself. Maybe I'm being overcautious. As always, a good sniff before you use the casings might tell you something.

Well, you might not want too good of a sniff. Even well preserved, those casings don't smell like roses!

I've kept salt preserved hog casings in water to no ill effect, though I used them within six months.

[Alcuin]

When I kept casings in highly salted water (on the advice of a butcher, who's now closed) they went bad. It was a couple of months, I think, but maybe more. I've never had this problem when I just kept them in salt.

[Okanagancook]

We've always vac-packed our casings and frozen them without any problems with them breaking...they are hard to get where we live so have to purchase them in large amounts when we find them.

[OliverB]

I have some dry ones (salted) that will last for ever, but I also bought one at Whole Foods a while ago, hoping to make some sausages that week. Never got around to it so I froze them, putting them back into the state that Whole Foods (according to the guy that sold them to me) keeps most of theirs. I doubt they'll break any easier on you, though that's just gut feeling. After all, sausages are often sold (or kept) frozen too, and don't pop apart once you cook/bbq them? You don't want to overstuff anyway, and make sure to pop air pockets with a needle.

[Blether]

It doesn't help with the casings you have, but when in the UK recently I asked the butcher if he could let me have some sausage casings. He handed a bunch to me loose ("this is what we use"), and I omitted to ask, but I suspect they're collagen. Anyway they look like these ones

- dry, wrinkled-up tubes. I'm guessing they will keep this way for a long time - I have mine kept simply in a plastic bag in my 'dry stores' cupboard. They've made good sausages (err, just like from a real butcher shop... ) - no doubt someone around here could tell me the disadvantages of collagen, but as it stands I don't see myself going back to wrestling with those slippery, easily-torn salt-packed natural jobs again

[michael_g]

Yep, those are collagen. I used them for my first few projects, when I was making kosher sausage with my father. They work great and store easily, but I miss the "snap" of natural casings. Definitely less trouble, though. I think they're also (slightly) more expensive than natural.

[OliverB]

I really prefer natural casing personally, I don't even buy a sausage if it's not in natural casings. I often find the artificial ones to be too hard and for some reason it's hard to get the meat out of some of them. Natural casings you just slit open and the meat falls out, with some of the artificial ones it's close to impossible to get everything off.

Why take meat out of a sausage? Well, for pasta sauces or to put on pizza. Of course I'd not make my own sausage to then slit it open