Homemade Sausage Making

I plan on doing a culatello in the next few months. I have some of the dried pasted hog sheets, but I have access to fresh hog bladders. I would like to try using the bladders but I cant find any info on how to prepare them. Does anyone have any experience in this?

Cheers
Toby

Toby-
Not much to it. Just rinse them out well. May want to do that with a hose as it can be strong odor.
If they left much of a neck you can blow up and air dry or salt for later use.

There is a bit of work involved in stretching out the bladder. Stefan is the expert on that, so hopefully he will post the instructions. Did you get the bladders from Stuffer's? I bought several earlier this year and they were a bit too small for my cullateli, so I had to stitch 2 bladders together.

Chris - I think you and Stephan had dried bladders? Toby has fresh ones. The fresh ones are like filling a balloon with a hose...lots of stretch.

Yes they will be still warm when I get them.......mmmm. Thanks for the info Bob. I was thinking there would be more steps to remove the urine smell.

Numerous times, I've read about odors in organ bladders, casings, etc. Instead of water, I soak them in vinegar. Change it every maybe 6 hrs. and re soak. Rinse well in water than use. Have not run into any offensive odors afterwards. I'm no pro, so if anyone sees a problem with this, please let me know. Thanks. Also, have not got any leftover vinegar taste in the final product.

Actually i'm using these - https://www.butcherspantry.com/natural- ... -culatello . They are salted fresh. Stretching them -

Bob K wrote:The fresh ones are like filling a balloon with a hose...lots of stretch.

or I'm using a air compressor then water to rinse inside.
Urine smell will disappears in 2-3 days, but rinse in vinegar solution will help. Here picture of 6 Kg (12 Lb) culatellos in these bladders.

Those look great. I really like the looks of the stuff they carry at butchers pantry......but unfortunately they dont ship to canada. Butcher and packer do tho so I was thinking of trying the bladders they carry.... http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php ... cts_id=970 . Once my fresh supply has been exhausted.

Toby-
Stefan had trouble with those rehydrating-no stretch. You can read about it here: http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=8205

If you can get more fresh ones you can salt them for future use...do not freeze