about sausage casings.
I was making spaghetti with sausage and beef on the last week (simulataneous to the chicken chili - my apologies, writing a lot about food these days!) and once again began thinking about sausage casings. We buy hot Italian sausages from the local butcher in hopes that they might be a bit more normal than grocery-store sausage. I end up cutting the sausages from their casings and 'browning' the meat - a whole new experience given the spices in the pork sausage meat makes the cooked ground beef an even brighter red than when it is raw. I digress!
So, what is the composition of sausage casings? I think the original method was some sort of sheep intestine type product but I can't imagine that is the current method (thankfully). Jim mentioned some sort of product made by Dupont (i.e. maybe a plastic derivative) - not possible, I say? I did ask one of the teacher's at school whose partner is a butcher - response is pending.
However, I also decided to google to address this question! I am shocked at the resources - 'The International Natural Sausage Casings Association' seemed to be a great source but proved very disappointing (i.e. no clue what a natural casing is). Nevertheless, I did google Dupont sausage casing - and it appears the wise husband was right. A huge portion of the sausage casing industry seems to be a plastic like device created by a mega-chemical company.
I love sausages but neither the stuffing nor the casing seems that appealing when you really think about the products.
3 comments:
Definitely a good reason to go for bulk sausage, rather than links. Eywww!!
Ugh, best to consume in moderation, methinks, and try not to think about what you're eating!
Apparently, many sausage casings are, indeed, made of animal intestines...often pig, sometimes sheep. And it's usually the higher end ones, like the ones you'd get from your butcher. The alternative product you might be thinking of is a kind of cellulose. And then there's the kind you find in the grocery store that have so much stabilizer in them that they don't even need a casing. It's those last ones that worry me the most. And if you're wondering why I have this info at my fingertips, remember who my dh is! We actually have sausage casings packed in salt in our freezer because he'd like to try his hand at making some.
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