How to untangle casings?

[Biscuit]

How do you go about easily untangling fresh casings without soaking the entire thing and having to repackage? I only am making 5# at a time and don’t need all the casings. When I pulled them out they were all tangled. LEM brand casings.

[Austin]

Biscuit The first thing to do would probably be to buy some Walton’s casings instead!
I assume you bought a dry pack of hog casings (packed in salt and no liquid). If that is the case, I honestly don’t know of a good way to untangle them easier than soaking them all. Maybe someone else will have a unique trick to try…?

[YooperDog]

Biscuit been there, done that. I do buy a hank of casings every now and then when we are doing a lot of sausage, 100+ lbs and that is the only way I know of untangling them and then repack what we didn’t use. The best solution for small batches is to get pre-tubed casings.

[Hunter-Steve]

I’ve been using the pre-tubed casings for years now. They save significant time and are much better quality.

[Camardelle]

Austin are yours not just in a “bundle”?

@spbelies where would I get pre-tubed casings?

[cdavis]

Camardelle Walton’s has them

[Austin]

Camardelle
Look for Tubed Casings here: https://www.waltonsinc.com/casings-netting/natural-sausage-casings

The dry pack or home pack is pretty much just in a bundle. A normal “hank” of natural hog casings is quite a bit easier to detangle, but the tubed casings are the holy grail when it comes to ease of use. I would really recommend giving them a try!

[Hunter-Steve]

Here is a picture of how nice the Tubed Casings look when used

[craigrice]

if you have a lazy Susan plate run your stuffed on to it when stuffing it will make your life easier

[Tex_77]

craigrice I’ve told Austin they need to gey stainless ones for sale.

[PapaSop]

After trying to untangle a hank of brat casings this weekend the tubed are sounding better. I don’t use a hundred yards at a time. Can you take off just what you need and package the rest in salt for later use? If so what length will you need for 25#. 32mm casings.

[Chef]

PapaSop Mine come with one end passed through a 1" or so plastic ring, at about the half way point. I can then select one length and pull both sides up. It comes packed in a salt/water mix. I always place it in a larger container of water. At the end, I just drain off the excess water and add more pickling salt.

[PapaSop]

Chef is that the standard natural casings Walton’s sells or the tubed?

[processhead]

WIth bulk casings, for me it is easier to just soak a larger quantity before trying to separate them. When they are wet, they just become easier to handle and separate. When you are done, drain off the water, put them in a bag and salt them down heavily before refrigerating.
Sheep casing can be the most troublesome if they are not tubed. They are small, hard to see, and will sometimes knot up. Maybe not a problem for young guys with laser-sharp vision. lol

[Tex_77]

PapaSop Walton’s pretubed casings come with i believe 4 separate strands in their smallest package. You could probably take what you need off one strand, and repack the remaining in salt.

[PapaSop]

processhead
That’s exactly what I did. For some reason these were badly tangled. Thanks

[PapaSop]

Tex_77
Ok. Thanks.

[processhead]

Sometimes even the sheep casings with knots can be untangled after they are thoroughly soaked in warm water. I find just gentle tugging will get them to slide past a knot.
Other times you literally have to cut your losses at the knots and move on.

[processhead]

On the subject of sheep casings, not sure how many of you live in regions of the country where commercial red hot dogs are fashionable? Here in the mid-west they are a big deal.
As a kid, about 45 years ago I worked summers in the family hot dog business. One of my first jobs was flushing and then dyeing natural sheep casings red prior to stuffing by other skilled sausage makers.
All summer long, hundreds of yards of casings and my hands soaked in red dye #2 all day long. My hands were permanently stained red and I looked like I was wearing red gloves the whole summer. lol. Those were the days.

[Jonathon]

processhead Yeah, funny how we look back at hard things with fondness itsnt it? Tex_77 Yeah I think it is either 4 or 5 runs and whatver you dont use can be saved. If you arent planning on using even a full tube you can just cut the tube, thats what I did this past week for a small batch.