Homemade Sausage Making

Hey all - I need to order more artificial casings. Can someone tell me the difference between fibrous and inedible collagen? I am looking for these qualities:

- Strength for heavier sausages such as lunch meats
- Permeability, for smoking
- Waterproof, because I poach fully cooked types

Thanks!

Jeff

Jeff, fibrous casings have a high meat cling. This allows the casing to adhere to the meat if there is some shrinkage of the sausage. There are so many specialty collagen casings out there so you need a different casing for different products. For example the moisture proof ones can not be smoked. I get mine from Stuffers and this is their product line:
http://www.stuffers.com/Casings-s/1817.htm

Thanks Chris - I didn't know that about moisture-proof collagen casings not being able to take smoke. I like that site you sent me, but I sure wish it was cheaper to ship from Canada to the US. It's got a great sale on 55mm x 28cm fibrous casings, but $4 worth would cost me $30 shipping!

Cheers,
Jeff