Homemade Sausage Making

I wonder if a washing machine wringer or a pasta roller would work to turn guts into casings?

Ross,
They would work very well, saves sqeezing them by hand. I have seen it done by the wives of my Italian friends. This guys got them well trained.
Personally I prefer to buy them, cleaned, salted and threaded sometimes on plastic strips.
IF you decide to clean them yourself, make sure you wear long waders and work at knee level or below.
Good Luck,
Jan.

The only reason to clean you own would be if you were doing your own butchering.

Yeah, right! Even then, it would take an iron constitution, strong hypnosis, and a good set of nose plugs (or an industrial gas mask).

Thewitt wrote:My customers have been extremely impressed with the quality of these fresh sausages and they are really not available in the local market.

What a sausage are available on the local market? Do you have pictures?

Most of the local sausages are halal beef and chicken sausages.

There are a few shops selling pork, but with very limited options at severely inflated prices.

Though Malaysia is a Muslim country, the population where I live is 60% Chinese and they buy lots of pork from the wet markets.

I bought samples of all the pork sausages available at the non-halal sections of the area grocery stores, and only one locally produced product stayed moist after cooking. It was a sweet Italian sausage that was very well made - however the price was very high end and the market owner says they don't really sell well to locals, only to ex pats... Though locally made they are frozen and delivered once a month.

Thanks thewitt... How if i want to find the hog casing from the local slaugther..How i explain to them? Like which part of the body?

EricLam, Sausage casing starts out as intestines. The entire digestive system can be used for various purposes. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/wi/county/c ... asings.htm This link will take you to a very complete explanation of the process of converting the fresh intestine to usable casings.

I'm pretty much with CW on this one. I know when gutting a wild hog who's been gut-shot a lot of the ambiance is lost to the stink as soon as they are opened up. Having what's inside their intestines is just about as vile as having their pee or poop touch the meat, has to be water washed, and fast. That's just another reason to have a 5-gallon bucket or two of fresh water in the truck when hunting. Even if I rummaged around the gut pile to sort the intestines for casings I doubt I could ever flush them enough to pass inspection. Are they flushed out with more than just plain water? Maybe some kind of vinegar solution? Chemicals? RAY

After some investigation there seems to be a bit more involved for processing guts into casings. I'll stick to buying what I need, some things need to be left to pros. RAY

http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/ai407e/AI407E20.htm

I have never done it, but I have read that nowadays people flush out intestines with a garden hose. My 85-year-old father remembers seeing the women shaking out the intestines on hog killing day (and that it was nasty work). You'd probably need to get the intestines somewhat empty before running water through them with a hose.

Ross, thanks for the post - I really enjoyed it.

Jeff

Ray wrote:

Are they flushed out with more than just plain water? Maybe some kind of vinegar solution? Chemicals? RAY

I would have to wear a HazMat suit with self-contained breathing device and only then, flush them with hot, nuclear, sand slurry!

All the "slime" has to be removed from the inside of the casing by being squeezed out, then some hi-tech flushing. Pigs being the pigs they are, I'd imagine any missed "slime" in the casing could manifest itself in a most unhealthy manner. It's always critical when field dressing wild game that the guts remain intact so as to not contaminate the meat. I don't even want to think about "bungs" for the larger sausages. RAY

Kinda gives an increased understanding of the term "bung hole".

Hey guys, actually the digestive system is rather fascinating. Tissues of the same type make up the gastrointestinal tract, including the large intestine. The cavity where digested food passes through and from where nutrients are absorbed, is called the "lumen". This digestive tube is made of three distinct layers. From the inside out, they are the mucosa, the submucosa, and two layers of smooth muscle running at right angles to one another, called the muscularis externa. (The inner layer encircles the wall of the intestine, and the outer layer runs lengthways.) Lastly is the serosa. And just what is it that breaks down food to separate vitamins which pass through the intestinal wall? Our old friends... bacteria! In the ascending colon, bacteria digest the transitory fecal matter in order to release vitamins.

The intestinal wall absorbs water, nutrients, and vitamins from the feces and deposits these materials into the bloodstream. Yep, now you know what makes the contents so... uh... odiferous! I remember the first deer I shot and dressed out. I was just a boy and I learned quickly to stand "up-wind" from the critter while cleaning its innards. Wheeee doggy!

Back to the mucosa. Yes, it is possible to use a garden hose to clean the lumen, but the mucosa must be scraped away to provide a thoroughly clean casing material. Not for the timid!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon