Hog Home Pack Sausage Casings 32mm (8oz.)

Update: These have been kept in a small jar, salted, in the back of the fridge, for 4 years. I'm making sausage, which I do once in a while. There's just one string left so I'm reordering. They seem as fresh as the day they went in there....Hand-cranked 2 pound sausage maker. Never had one break or split. Price is within a couple bucks of what I paid. I just hope the quality has been maintained. July 2023 End update.This is my first time using natural casing. I was anticipating difficulties but there were none.Open the package and drop them into a bowl of warm water. The mass of perhaps 20 strings quickly softens. Gently pull one length out of the bundle. Then another. They are slippery and if you're careful they slide over each other, and won't get knotted up..These are very clean. No odor and no residue to wash off. Just packing salt. No holes or tears. No splits while stuffing.. I didn't realize how strong the natural material actually is.Made a small, 2 1/2 pound batch of Italian sausage, and no problems.

It is a bit tricky to use for the first time, but once you get the hang of it then it really is a good value for what you get. My package arrived fresh. We followed the instructions on the back, which honestly could offer more to help beginners just starting out making sausage. The first step to using this would be to find the "opening", or the end part. While keeping your casings in the bowl of water, run a light stream from your kitchen faucet into the casing like you're filling up a water balloon. You'll notice the whole line of casings will become expanded with water. Make sure you untangle and separate everything as it fills. Do not remove it from water until you are ready to use it! After we filled the entire casing with water and had it all straightened out, we slipped it all on over our kitchenaid attachment while it was still in the water. There were a lot of big water pockets on it but it sorts itself out. It is tricky to use at first but you do get the hang of it after a while. And yes it does smell a little bit bad.

Excellent casings. They don't smell at all even after soaking and I didn't have any ruptured during the stuffing process despite my novice-ness. I learned the hard way that one string of intestine is enough to case about 3lbs of sausage and ended up having to throw away the second one that I had already soaked, so I hope this tip saves you from doing the same.

The company that shipped me these is out of Florida and I live in California. The first time I ordered them it took 4 days (not bad for USPS), the second time 3 days (great). I have used apx 1/2 the product for my first ever sausage making experience. You must soak & rinse prior to use (does not take long, do while prepping other stuff). They are not the easiest to get on the stuffing tube (but I assume that is typical for any casing). I and a friend spent about 4 hours making 3 types of sausage, this product worked well. The only drawback is that if you overstuff & try to twist the sausage rope into links it may burst (this is no fault of the product though). When cooking, this product holds up well & is nice visually (unless you burn them, again no fault of the product). The most important however is that when you bite into the cooked product there is the anticipated snap when you bit through the casing, the casing is not tough and the flavor was only of the sausage stuffed inside.All in all a great product that I will continue to use. I am also trying the sheep casings they sell.

Packages were sealed and casings were packed HEAVILY in salt and there were no foul odors. Please realize you are NOT buying a whole hank, the product will be several shorter lengths of casing. This is actually a benefit in my opinion, I was easily able to sort 8 or 9 lengths of casing rather than getting frustrated trying to untangle one 75 foot long piece of casing. I had no issues getting the casing to fit and slide onto the standard 32-35MM stuffing tube and the only issue I had was one length of casing tore in several places as I was twisting links but I believe I may have overfilled the casings. I made roughly 17 pounds of sausage, three different types and had no issues whatsoever with this product.

I was at the store where I have purchased the casings for several years and they did not have any on display. When I spoke to the manager to see if they had any that were not on display , I was told that Amazon purchased all of their inventory and I should buy from them. While in the store I used the Amazon Ap and bought the casings for less than they would have cost me at the store. While saving money is almost always a concern, I was disappointed that I could not support my local grocery store. The product worked well and i was able to make traditional Polish Kielbasa for my Christmas morning breakfast.