If you have a vacuum sealer you can vacuum seal a few of them (dont pull a complete vacuum or youll smash them) and then put them in the back of your fridge or somewhere out of the way in your fridge where your wife wont yell at you. They will be fine like that for well over a year. And like jonathan said you can cut open the package and leave it in the fridge overnight to help rehydrate. Even placing a bowl of water next to them in the fridge will help increase humidity a bit. If no vacuum sealer use a ziplock bag just make sure and get a good seal and majority of air out.
Collagen casings
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I have some questions about using fresh collegan casings for fresh bratwurst. After stuffing the casings do I poke holes? After stuffing and twisting the links, do I just cut them into individual sausages? Thank you.
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Tex_77 Team Blue Power User Traeger Primo Grills PK Grills Canning Sous Vide Community Moderator last edited by
No need to poke holes in the casings. After twisting you can cut them. Collagen casings won’t hold a twist. If you want to freeze them twisted and cut later they do hold the twist better, but it won’t be perfect. If you want a twist that will hold you will need to use a natural casing, I would suggest using pretubed natural casings if you want to go that route. If you use the search function there are a couple Meatgistics University videos on different kinds of casings.
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Tex_77 Thank You. After reading and watching videos on collagen casings I cant see why people use them. I cant see why a casing that wont hold a twist works well.
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Tex_77 Team Blue Power User Traeger Primo Grills PK Grills Canning Sous Vide Community Moderator last edited by
Learner collagen are easier to work with versus natural. A collagen casing is going to give you a straight brat, where as a natural casing will give you a brat with a curve. I have used both, they both eat well, natural has more snap, while collagen is a clean bite. You really can’t go wrong with either casing.
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Learner i do poke holes where there is an air pocket for some reason, but i sell my brats so it is merely a visual thing. If you want to link collagen you can use string and tie them to your length liking.
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Thank you. That is part of the fun. Trying to figure all this stuff out.
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For folks just beginning to make sausage, collagen casings are probably a good choice and a little more forgiving to work with while you are learning about the whole sausage making process. After you have a few batches under your belt, you may want to branch out and try new things like natural casings.
Others folks are satisfied with the simplicity of use, and the results they get with collagen casings and just stay with them . There is no right answer, both get the job done.
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Like Will Roger said “I have never met a Sausage I didnt like” or something like that. Thank you.
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