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For y’all sausage experts:
What makes the casing wrinkle like this
It was doing great until the last couple minutes on the grill. Still tasted great. Just cosmetic.
Some hit on aspects of this (large grind = space in casing = understuffed wrinkling; someone also mentioned post cook cooling as well) but the following link covers some typical issues and might be useful for others having additional problems. I included the text on wrinkled casings below too.
Sausage Casings 101: Casings FAQ
The official blog of The Sausage Maker, an online resource for food makers of all kinds.
blog.sausagemaker.com
Why did my casing wrinkle during smoking or cooking?
1.) The casing was under-stuffed. If the sausages are loosely stuffed, there is more casing material than is needed for adhering. So when casings naturally shrink and adhere to meat, if there is excess, it may cause wrinkling to appear.
OR
2.) Sausage was not cooled fast enough after cooking. Typically, right after cooking, sausage should be rapidly cooled under cold water to a meat temperature of 110F (but less is even better). This rapid cooling, usually no longer than 5 minutes under cold water, prevents the casings from shriveling/wrinkling in the cold, dry air that it is exposed to when removed from heat source.
OR
3.) If you're smoking sausage (or cooking in low/slow smoker) for prolonged periods of time (over 8 hours), the moisture from the meat escaping through the casing and into the air will become evident by wrinkling casings. This can be prevented by either smoking sausage with a bowl/pan of water inside (but away from heat source) or by cutting down on time exposed to air/smoke in the smoker. Often smoking is done in the first 3-4 hrs. At this point sausage may be taken inside and finished in an oven, or temperatures should be increased in the smokehouse to 170F in order to reduce cooking time.