Natural casings for ring bologna?

[Blackriver]

I was wondering if anyone has ever used larger diameter hog casings for ring bologna? The last time I made ring bologna I used beef rounds which didn't seem any stronger than hog casings. I think they were poor quality though they had a lot if weak spots in them and I found no advantage to using them. If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it.

[Cabonaia]

Hi Blackriver - I've made ring bologna only once, and I used synthetic casings that were made for that purpose. They were easy to work with, took smoke well, were uniform, and I was happy with the results. I see no problem with using large diameter hog casings. You should go for it. One advantage is that they are edible. Though beef middles are technically edible, they really are not.

I have used beef middles a good deal for salami. I like them because they are much stronger than hog casings and you can stuff them tight - sounds like you really did have poor quality ones if you were getting blowouts. They also shrink well as sausage dries, but that's of no concern with ring bologna. Of course with synthetic casings you can stuff very tight.

I'd like to try bologna in beef middles. Did they peel well?



Cheers,
Jeff

[Blackriver]

The beef rounds peeled ok, not great. I wonder if there is a difference in flavor and smoke penetration in beef rounds vs collagen?

[Cabonaia]

That I don't know. The ones I used seemed to catch the smoke pretty well, but I have not basis for comparison. I used the non-edible type. I got them from Butcher Packer:

http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php ... cts_id=265

[Piker]

I made my first ring bologna the other day and I used beef rounds they worked really well except after smoking I cooled them too quick making the casings very hard to get off and the outer 1/16 of the bologna tough. After smoking I threw them in a snow bank in the back yard and they kinda shrunk. Will know better next time. Piker