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Sausage Skins (or casings if you prefer)


Quillan
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I would like to have a go at making my own sausages. We have a Kenwood Chef and I have just bought a mincer attachment which can also be used for making sausages but I have a couple of questions.

Firstly what is the skin or casing called in France and where can you buy them (in France)?

Anyone got any really good recipes that they have tried which use easy to obtain ingredients here in France?

If anyone has the mincer/sausage making attachment for a Kenwood can they tell me what size skins/casings they use? I have seen on UK websites loads of different sizes. Sadly although the instructions that come with the attachment are very good about cleaning etc there is no information other than you use pigs intestine for the big nozzle and sheep's for the small one.

Ah yes one final question, what are the best (French) and easiest cuts of meats to use for sausage making?

Thanks in advance.

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Hi Quillan,

Ask for boyaux de mouton or boyaux de porc, you can sometimes find them in the supermarket, if not, your local butcher will let you have some. Be warned, you may end up with 30m of them! [:D] 

I've made them & used boyaux de porc. This is the recipe I sort of worked to, give or take a bit more of the odd ingredient. [;-)]

800g pork shoulder, with at least 200g of that fat.

80g of homemade breadcrumbs

120ml cold water. (I soaked the crumbs in the water & then added them.)

20g of seasoning mix, made as follows....

Salt 60g

White pepper 6g

Ground black pepper 6g

Nutmeg, ground ginger, powdered mace & mixed herbs 2g of each.

 

You can play around with the spices, depending on what you fancy. I also added some smoked bacon with the second batch I made, but you need to make a different batch of seasoning & drop the salt content.

Good luck & have fun & believe me, you will have fun!! [:D]

Edit: I forgot to say, leave them in the fridge overnight, to er 'bloom' before you do anything with them. Also, here's a link so you can read up & maybe find other recipes you fancy. http://forum.sausagemaking.org/index.php 


 
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Q we have made them and I got the casings from my local butcher in France. At least 20% fat in them and mace, must have mace, love mace. I use home made bread crumbs too and I like a little thyme in ours.

We had a hand held sausage stuffer, but truth is that we were laughing that much it was very hard to get on with the job in hand. That was always me and a female friend.

 

My husband uses an attachment that is on his Kenwood mincer and I don't know what he uses as he has his own kitchen and just gets on with it, without giggling.......... perhaps. I stay out of the way.

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JayJay, what about sizes i.e. diameter? Does it matter if they are 25mm 28mm or whatever or is it only artificial ones that have sizes where as natural ones are a 'one size fits all' type thing? This is all very new to me so I have to start off with the very basics. All I have read so far is that it's pig ones for the normal size and lamb/sheep for chipolata's.
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TBH, I just got the cases I could & went with them. As they're natural casings, I presume it will go by the animal. The pork casings did give the bigger size sausage, which was fine. So yes, if you want chipolata size or to make merguez, then definitely get the mutton cases.

 

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Thank you for all your helpful replies.

I bought some casings from my local Carrefour although I don't know if they are the right ones, I paid 8 Euros for them. If they don't work the I will try my local LeClerc.

I rather thought my attachment might arrive today so I have been quite excited but unfortunately it didn't. Still perhaps it will arrive tomorrow.

I have another couple of questions re the skins/casings.

How long do you soak them for before use?

Do you soak them in normal tap (cold) water and do you add anything like salt?

Can you freeze them?

Does 8 Euros seem about right for 2 x 1.2M of pork casings?

I take it that the length is unstretched so how long would my sausage be when it's made using one length?

Sorry for so many questions but I am very new to all this.

By the way has anyone made 'dried' sausage?

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Shame the other attachment didn't arrive, but pleased you managed to track down some casings, but they were a tad expensive if you only have a 2 metres odd. I paid less for 25-30m!

I rinsed them through thoroughly when I got them home & then stored them in a large jar of brine in the fridge, (as they do not freeze) they will keep for a few weeks like that, but check them. When I wanted to use some, I cut a decent few metre length off, gave them a good rinse inside & out, then left them in fresh water whilst I got the other stuff sorted & ready.

I've only made fresh pork bangers, but I was & still am planning on trying to smoke some & also make some merguez.

Sorry, I can't help you with how long your sausage will be. [blink]

And on that note.......

[;-)]

 

 

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Smokers I know a little about. Mrs 'Q' bought me one the Christmas before last. I have smoke fish etc and duck (for a salad starter). Sausages are pretty good as well but then I only used made in the shop supermarket Toulousian sausage.

The one I have is very highly recommended. OK it's a bit on the expensive side but with a 4.5 out of 5 star review from 122 people I think it proves the point. Works on your hob or on your BBQ. The hob is better because you can adjust the temperature better. Comes with a DVD on how to use it plus a book. Easy to clean, I put mine in the dishwasher.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en-GB&rlz=1T4GGLL_en-GBFR382FR382&q=hob+top+smoker&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=4380463155385341128&sa=X&ei=o8gMT6_DJ5CQ8gPXncnnBQ&ved=0CGYQ8wIwAw#

 

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I seem to remember when we killed a pig there were two sizes of intestine. The small intestine for chipolata type sausages and the large intestine for the usual sausage size. If you had spent any time cleaning them by hand you would appreciate their price. I assume it is normally done by machine.

The most interesting part is finding the right flavouring. Experiment with pepper, sage and mace and then use your imagination.

Regarding smokers, I use our normal barbeque which has a lid. Simply put a metal tin of wood shavings over the heat beside the food. It smokes a whole chicken perfectly.

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Completely off topic.

You wouldn't know Quillan but inside the back cover of the Sunday Times "Style" magazine is a spoof column by Mrs Mill, a sort of upmarket agony aunt.

As an example one of the letters she dealt with last year was from a lady who said that her husband played with his hose a lot in the garden. "Is this normal?" she asked.

The following question from one of your earlier posts nearly made me fall off my seat laughing.  [:D]  [:D]  [:D]  [:D]

[quote user="Quillan"]

I take it that the length is unstretched so how long would my sausage be when it's made using one length?

[/quote]

I'll get my coat now.

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