Homemade sausage is a favorite dish in almost every home. This is a great option for breakfast, a hearty main course for lunch, or a delicious snack during a break from work. Homemade chicken and rabbit sausages are suitable for baby food and for those on a diet. Hearty homemade sausage with fat will quickly feed a hungry man, smoked sausages will be a good snack, and raw smoked or golden-brown fried sausages will decorate the holiday table.

When buying ready-made sausages and frankfurters in a store, people usually don’t even realize that they can make them themselves at home, without any special equipment or special skills. The main thing is desire and a little time to study the intricacies of the technical process. You only have to try once to make sausages or sausages in accordance with your tastes, and the desire to “sausage” in the kitchen will arise regularly. After all, what could be tastier than the freshest homemade sausage?

Having mastered the intricacies of the technology and tested your strengths on basic recipes, you will subsequently be able to fantasize about the sausage theme as much as you like. But first you need to master the technology of the process, think through and prepare the necessary equipment, materials, tools and ingredients.

Selection of raw materials, features of the technological process for preparing homemade sausages.

To prepare homemade sausages, only the best and freshest meat and meat products are used. It is especially important to consider this if homemade sausage is intended for long-term storage. In addition to pork, beef and veal, lamb, horse meat, venison, poultry and wild poultry, and others are used. The meat can be either fresh or frozen. However, you should not use frozen meat for long-term storage sausages. Also in this case, it is better to avoid ingredients such as lard, lungs, heart, liver, intestines, pork skin, pork head, cheek, fresh blood.

They take meat only from healthy animals, and not too young ones, since young meat does not have sufficient density and rich taste and the sausages will turn out slightly watery. If only the meat of young animals is available, it must be dried well before use or, in pieces and sprinkled with a third of the total amount of salt, kept in a cold place for 22–26 hours.

Lard for making sausage should be elastic, but not frozen. It is best suited for the neck or back part, which is pre-aged for 2-3 days in a cool room. It is better to take intestines for sausage immediately after slaughter, but you can buy fresh ones at the market or purchase specially processed, calibrated and packaged intestines in a store. If desired, you can purchase collagen casings, as well as twine, nets, ham pots and everything necessary for the production of sausages at specialized outlets or on the Internet.

For housewives who value time and do not want to risk the health of loved ones by purchasing a product on the market, the quality of which is difficult to check, without having the proper experience in this matter, buying a ready-made casing or collagen casing of the required diameter is an excellent way out of the situation. If you plan to buy sausage intestines at the market, then you need to immediately decide what kind of product you will prepare and select the raw materials accordingly.

Beef intestines are used to make almost all types of homemade sausages, but they are especially good for those intended for long-term storage, since they are thicker and stronger than pork intestines. Pork intestines are usually used to make homemade sausages with various fillings. From beef and pork, from pork alone, from chicken, from rabbit, nutria, as well as for sausages with fillers, liver, blood, porridge, etc. Lamb intestines are best suited for making thin sausages or hunting-type sausages. Of course, the intestines must be undamaged, thoroughly washed and cleaned.

Choosing meat for making homemade sausage.

Choosing meat for homemade sausage requires certain knowledge. As already mentioned, young meat is less suitable due to its high liquid content. Older, denser, and even slightly tougher meat will give a richer flavor and lower shrinkage, meaning it won't shrink as much when cooked.

All meat from the back half of a beef carcass, with the exception of the shanks, is the best prime meat for making sausages. The front meat is less valued and is used for lower grade sausages or mixed with other types of meat. Frozen meat, before deboning it, must first be gradually defrosted, but not brought to complete softening.

Pork for sausage is chosen differently. The fillet cut from the back is used for fillet sausage. Meat cut from the neck is also salted in whole pieces and used to make ham sausage. First-class sausage is made from the meat removed from the shoulders, brisket and sides, while the intercostal meat and flanks are used to make lower-grade sausage. If the animal is a meat breed or not fat enough, then all parts of the carcass are used to prepare sausage mince.

When the meat for sausage is divided into pieces, it is advisable to separate it by grade and trim it. Using a sharp knife, remove veins, tendons, membranes, large vessels, as well as those parts that reduce the quality of the sausage and, when cooked, form jelly or glue). The more thoroughly the meat is cleaned of these parts, the more tender, tastier and more nutritious the homemade sausage made from it will be.

When cutting very fatty carcasses, it is advisable to separate the meat as thoroughly as possible from the fat that has grown into the muscles, but - please note - this remark does not apply to pork. When processing it, only fat and rough tendons are removed. Fatty lard removed from a pig carcass is also classified according to quality. Back fat is considered the best, and fat removed from the chest, belly and sides is inferior in quality.

Homemade hot smoked sausage, several simple recipes.

Recipe for making homemade semi-smoked sausage.

3 kg beef, 4 kg lean pork, 3 kg fatty pork belly, 300 g salt, 10 g ascorbic acid, 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp. ground allspice, 1 tsp. sugar, 1-2 cloves of garlic, starch. Cut the meat into pieces, place in a container, sprinkle with a mixture of salt and ascorbic acid, and let stand for 3 days. Grind the salted meat. Pass the beef through a meat grinder once. Bold pork can either be passed through a large meat grinder or cut into small pieces (1–1.5 cm). Cut the brisket into pieces twice as large. After this, mix the chopped beef thoroughly, adding ground pepper, sugar and chopped garlic.

Add chopped pork to the prepared mass and mix the minced meat again until a homogeneous viscous mass is obtained. Add the chopped brisket and mix the minced meat thoroughly again. At the very end, add starch - 180 g per 10 kg of meat. Stuff the prepared minced meat into the intestines and tie them with twine. Hang the tied rings or sausage loaves in a cool place for 4–5 hours.

Smoke the dried sausage at a temperature of 60–90 degrees for 40 minutes. Then immerse it in boiling water, reduce the water temperature to 70–80 degrees and cook the sausage for about 1 hour. Hang it again in a cool place to cool for 3-4 hours. Smoke the cooled sausage at a temperature of 35–45 degrees for 12–24 hours. After smoking is completed, the finished homemade sausage is dried for 2–4 days.

Recipe for making smoked boiled spicy homemade sausage.

2 kg of beef, 500 g of lean pork ham, 1 kg of pork fat, 150 ml of vodka, 2 g of chopped cloves, salt, ground red pepper, 1 tbsp. l. lemon zest. Finely chop the beef and lean pork ham. Chop the pork fat. Mix everything, add chopped cloves, ground red pepper, grated lemon zest and vodka. Stuff the intestinal membranes with the mixture and tie with twine or thread. Place the sausage in cold water, bring to a boil and cook for 50 minutes. Then remove and wipe well. Prepared homemade sausage 24 hours.

Recipe for making boiled-smoked homemade sausage.

7 kg of fatty pork, 800-1000 g of lean pork, 1.5 kg of beef, 1 liter of water, 80 g of salt, 4 g of saltpeter, 1 tsp. sugar, ground black pepper, garlic to taste. Cut the pork into strips 4–5 cm long and pour in brine made from water, salt, saltpeter and sugar. Soak the meat in brine for a day. Separate the beef from fat and tendons and pass through a fine-grind meat grinder twice. Pass the pork through a meat grinder with a larger grill and combine with the beef.

The mass should be soft and elastic. Add enough water to the resulting minced meat to form a viscous mass, mix thoroughly, add spices. Stuff the shells, tie with twine and smoke for 1.5–2 hours at a temperature of 100–120 degrees. After this, homemade sausage is boiled in water over medium heat for an hour.

Recipe for making homemade pork sausages.

1.5 kg lean pork, 400 g fatty pork belly, 200–300 g lean beef, 20 g curing mixture, 2 tbsp. l. pink pepper, 1 tsp. ground nutmeg, 1 tsp. ground ginger, 1–2 tsp. marjoram. Pass the meat through a meat grinder, add salt, spices and mix thoroughly until the mass becomes homogeneous and moderately viscous. Fill the prepared pork casing with minced meat. During the filling process, twist the intestine in several places, dividing it into individual sausages 25–30 cm long. Smoke with smoke heated to 80–90 degrees for 1 hour, then cook the homemade sausage for 30 minutes at a temperature of 65–70 degrees.

Recipe for making homemade pork sausage with tongue.

500 g lean pork, 500 g pork belly with layers of fat, 500 g veal, 500 g boiled bacon, boiled pork tongue (about 500 g), 25 g salt, 20 g curing mixture, 1/2 tsp. ground white pepper, 1 tsp. ground nutmeg, 1 tsp. cardamom, 1 tsp. coriander, allspice to taste. Pass pork, pork belly and veal through a meat grinder with a fine grid.

Cut the pre-cleaned tongue and boiled bacon into cubes with sides of 1 cm, combine with the prepared minced meat. Stir the filling so that the lard and tongue are distributed evenly. Add salt and spices, mix thoroughly again. Fill the pork casing with minced meat and tie tightly. Form small loaves. First, boil the sausage for 1 hour in water at a temperature of 70 degrees, and then smoke the homemade sausage at 80–90 degrees for 60–70 minutes.

Recipe for making homemade brain sausage.

1.3 kg pork belly with layers of fat, 300–400 g lean pork, 400–500 g pork brains, 50 g curing mixture, 100–120 g onions, 1 tbsp. l. ground white pepper, 2 tsp. ground allspice, 1 tsp. ground nutmeg. Pass all types of meat and cleaned brains through a meat grinder with a fine grid. Add salt, finely chopped onion, spices and mix thoroughly until the mixture is homogeneous. Fill the prepared casing with minced meat and, twisting it in several places, divide it into sausages 15–20 cm long. First, smoke them with warm smoke (smoke temperature about 70 degrees) for at least 1 hour. Then homemade sausage is boiled in water at a temperature of 80–85 degrees for 30–40 minutes.

Recipe for making homemade horse sausage.

10 kg of fatty horse meat, 160 g of starch, 2 tsp. granulated sugar, 1 tsp. ground black or red pepper, 1 tsp. ground allspice or 1 tsp. ground coriander, 3-4 cloves of garlic. Cut the fattiest parts of the meat into small cubes. Pass the rest of the meat through a meat grinder. Mix the minced meat, chopped meat and spices, add salt, knead everything until the mass is homogeneous. Fill the shells with the prepared minced meat, form into small loaves, and hang to dry for 3–4 hours. Then smoke the sausages at a temperature of 70–85 degrees, let cool for 2 hours. Boil the smoked sausage at a temperature of 70–80 degrees until cooked.

Recipe for making tender homemade sausages with spices.

1.5 kg lean beef or veal, 500 g lean pork belly, 2 tbsp. l. salt, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1 tsp. paprika, 1 tsp. coriander, 1 tsp. marjoram. Pass all the meat through a meat grinder with a large grid, mix thoroughly so that the fat is distributed evenly. If the minced meat turns out thick and crumbly, you can add a little cool boiled water.

Add salt, pressed garlic, spices and mix thoroughly. Fill the shell with minced meat, tie the edges with twine, form a loaf or a ring if the diameter of the shell is small. Boil the sausage for 1 hour at 80 degrees, then dry in a cool room for about 3 hours. After this, smoke the products for 1 hour at a temperature of 70–80 degrees.

Based on materials from the book “We Prepare Poultry, Meat, Fish. Smoking, canning, drying, making sausages.”
Kobets A.V.

If you have the courage to cook a meat delicacy, then you definitely need to arm yourself with the necessary tools and ingredients. The natural casing for homemade sausage is an important element in this case; yes, you can also take an artificial one, but this way the naturalness of the product is lost. However, when handling such an “intestinal sheath”, it is worth having not a superficial, but the most complete understanding of how to do it correctly.

In general, in retail sales you can easily purchase synthetic casings for making sausages. They mainly come in two types: polyethylene and gelatin, and even if the latter can be eaten along with meat, the film is quite easily removed from the heat-treated product. Be that as it may, none of these options can compete with animal products.

Types and characteristics of natural casings

Natural sausage “skins” are nothing more than the intestines of cows, pigs or lambs, processed in a special way.

There are quite a lot of varieties of such natural “capsules”, and in the meat processing industry, curds, passages, esophaguses, bladders are used for these purposes, but for home production it is still customary to take casings and blues. The words are quite tricky, and many do not even understand what they are talking about, and in general what the difference is between these two “things”.

The small intestines are called casings, the diameter of which varies from 2.5 cm to 5 cm. This casing can rightfully be considered universal, it is most popular, unlike its “colleagues”, and is suitable for almost any type of sausage, sausage, kupat, sausages, bacon and small sausages.

In such a peel you can smoke, fry, steam, boil and dry your products; it can withstand any heat, the main thing is to follow the rules of preparation, stuffing the intestines, as well as the temperature regime during processing.

Despite the fact that pork tripe is more often used, the most profitable is still the beef product, it is much stronger, its diametric dimensions (43-47 mm) are ideal for homemade sausages, and the length of the bundle (15 m) is just enough for manufacturing the optimal number of products.

Sinyugi are the dead-end end of the cecum; they are often used for boiled and ham products. In home cooking, it is best to use lamb casing, since its parameters are the most favorable: caliber - 40-75 mm, length 30-70 cm, minced meat capacity - 1 - 1.7 kg. Cow sausages are too voluminous and wide, so you can’t even dream of neat, beautiful sausages

Today, casings are not such a scarce commodity; they are sold at the market, in butcher shops, and even in supermarkets in dry or canned, salted form. In addition, today the Internet has become a truly large-scale trading web, and in online shops you can buy any product, including casings.

Pork intestines have a structural feature such as 3 layers, and when cleaning them, the upper and inner layers are removed, leaving only one - the submucosal layer. During the dressing process, beef offal loses only the mucous layer, which is why this casing occupies a leading position in the strength of sausage skin.

We, as a rule, when purchasing, purchase an already prepared product, so we should know what kind of finishing execution these “tubes” require immediately before stuffing.

Chereva in brine

Shake off the salt, rinse, and soak in water at room temperature until they become sufficiently elastic; If you decide to use salted intestines, then the scheme for working with them will be as follows:

1. After removal from the liquid, the intestines should be washed again. Their color should be light pink with a meaty smell.
2. Now we can measure out several pieces of the required length (1-1.2 m), pass a stream of water through them in order to monitor the presence of holes and the strength of the shell. If there is damage, then it makes sense to trim the intestine in this area;
3. And now we've reached the final stage of preparation, soaking in brine for an hour, after which we can start filling them.

If, after finishing cooking the sausages, you still have a decent amount of soaked intestines left, then you need to pass them through tightly clenched fingers to remove excess moisture, mix with salt and put them in the refrigerator.

Dry wombs

Dry offal can now be bought in almost every store. And they, it should be noted, greatly facilitated the sausage work of housewives. But how to work with them?

1. Prepare pieces of the required length and soak them for about half an hour in cool water;
2. After this, they should be washed and checked for any tears; if there is damage, you just need to cut the intestine in this place;
3. Now, to achieve elasticity, we need to briefly soak the “tubes” in a solution of water with 1 tbsp. alcohol vinegar, then rinse thoroughly and begin filling.

Frozen wombs

In the case of frozen tripe, everything is generally easy; we just need to defrost them carefully, using a gentle method, that is, leave them in the refrigerator overnight. Then soak in salt water for 2-3 hours.

Today, perhaps, every home has a meat grinder, so filling the casings with chopped meat is not difficult. By attaching a special tubular nozzle to it instead of a grate (it often comes with the machine) and removing the knife, we can easily fill our sausages.

Tie one end of the casing tightly with twine or strong thread, and pull the casing itself on the other open side like an accordion onto the pipe until it stops. Now twisting the minced meat, it will enter the “capsule”, gradually filling it.

1. If your meat grinder does not have the necessary attachment, then you can use the neck of a plastic bottle, cutting it to the diameter of the machine grate.
2. You can also use a special culinary syringe to stuff the intestines.
3. For those who do not have a meat grinder or a syringe, the only alternative method is to use a funnel with a wide pipe. Pushing the minced meat with your finger, fill the casings.

However, it is worth remembering that the intestine is far from steel, so you should follow some rules for stuffing so that it simply does not tear:

• Don’t stuff it too tightly, but also try to avoid any empty spaces. Tight packing is only permissible for subsequent smoking.
• Before heat treatment, pierce the skin several times with a thin needle.
• For 1 kg of minced meat, as a rule, there is 1 m of giblets.
• After filling and binding, hang the sausages in a cool place for a day for final ripening, shrinkage of the meat and strengthening of the skin.

Armed with these tips, you can easily prepare the most delicious meat delicacies at home, for which you will use not synthetic meat, but a natural casing for homemade sausage.

Sausage casing: preparation, use, storage.
Homemade sausages / Sausage casing: preparation, use, storage.
Just as a theater begins with a hanger, so a sausage begins with a casing.

You can make sausage without twine, without a smokehouse, without a special device for stuffing sausages... Some manufacturers manage to make sausage even without meat.

But you can’t make sausage without a casing. Sausage casings can be natural or artificial.

Natural casings for sausages.

Natural or, as they are also called, natural casings are specially processed intestines: beef, lamb, pork.

To extend shelf life, natural shells are salted. This method of preservation allows you to store intestinal membranes for 1-2 years at a temperature of 0...+5 degrees Celsius.

Sausage casings vary in diameter (by caliber) and quality (by grade). There is also the concept of minced meat capacity (capacity) of a sausage casing.

In sausage shops, the type of sausage casing used is clearly regulated by regulatory and technical documentation.

When we make sausage at home for our own consumption, we are more free to choose the casing for the sausages. True, this choice is often dictated by the inability to buy one or another shell.

But homemade sausage will not be worse if instead of a casing with a diameter of 50 mm. When making, for example, Doctor's boiled sausage, we use a casing with a diameter of 32 mm.

There are a lot of types of natural casings for sausages: casings, esophaguses, passages, sinyugi, circles, bubbles, curls...

At home, casings and blues are mainly used.

Chereva are small intestines with a diameter of 25 to 50 mm. This casing is suitable for the production of almost any type of sausage: wieners, frankfurters, sausages (smoked, raw smoked, half-smoked, boiled), sausages for frying (kupat, shpikachek, Bavarian sausages).

Beef casings with a diameter of 45-48 mm are, in my opinion, the best option for making sausages at home.

Firstly, there are 15 meters of casing in one bundle. This is enough, that is, not too much and not too little.

Secondly, beef casings are stronger than pork casings, which is very important when the sausage is made not by a sausage production technologist, but by a home cook who, perhaps for the first time in his life, decided to make homemade sausage.

Lamb blues.

Lamb blues are caecums with a diameter of 40 to 80 mm.

Sinyugi are suitable for preparing boiled sausages and ham.

Minced meat capacity of one lamb bluegill with a diameter of 60-70 mm. approximately 1.5-1.7 kg. At home, it is convenient to form two sausage loaves 15-20 cm long from one blueberry.

Artificial casings for sausages.

There are many artificial casings: cellulose, protein, polyamide...

For homemade sausages, it is advisable to use a collagen casing.

The collagen (protein) shell is produced from natural raw materials - collagen, which is obtained from split cattle hides. Therefore, such a shell is edible.

The collagen casing is easy to store. Shelf life is two years at a temperature of +15... +25 degrees Celsius.

Collagen shell with a diameter of 24 mm. used for preparing various sausages, for example, Okhotnichy, as well as small sausages.

Collagen shell with a diameter of 32 mm. Suitable for almost all types of sausages: boiled, smoked, semi-smoked, raw smoked and dry-cured.

Preparation of natural sausage casings:

Cut off the required amount of sausage casing
Rinse in cold running water for 10 minutes
Soak in warm water (30-35 degrees) for 1-2 hours
Rinse under running water
Preparation of collagen casing for sausages:

Soak in water with the addition of 1 tablespoon of table salt per 1 liter of water
Water temperature 35-40 degrees Celsius
Time 2-3 minutes
Rinse under running water.
Fill the prepared sausage casings with minced meat, tie with cotton twine and cook according to the recipe.

Just as a theater begins with a hanger, so a sausage begins with a casing.

You can make sausage without twine, without a smokehouse, without a special device for stuffing sausages... Some manufacturers manage to make sausage even without meat.

But you can’t make sausage without a casing. Sausage casings can be natural or artificial.

Natural casings for sausages.

Natural or, as they are also called, natural casings are specially processed intestines: beef, lamb, pork.

To extend shelf life, natural shells are salted. This method of preservation allows you to store intestinal membranes for 1-2 years at a temperature of 0...+5 degrees Celsius.

Sausage casings vary in diameter (by caliber) and quality (by grade). There is also the concept of minced meat capacity (capacity) of a sausage casing.

In sausage shops, the type of sausage casing used is clearly regulated by regulatory and technical documentation.

When we make sausage at home for our own consumption, we are more free to choose the casing for the sausages. True, this choice is often dictated by the inability to buy one or another shell.

But homemade sausage will not be worse if instead of a casing with a diameter of 50 mm. When making, for example, Doctor's boiled sausage, we use a casing with a diameter of 32 mm.

There are a lot of types of natural casings for sausages: casings, esophaguses, passages, sinyugi, circles, bubbles, curls...

At home, casings and blues are mainly used.

Chereva.

Chereva are small intestines with a diameter of 25 to 50 mm. This casing is suitable for the production of almost any type of sausage: wieners, frankfurters, sausages (smoked, raw smoked, half-smoked, boiled), sausages for frying (kupat, shpikachek, Bavarian sausages).

P.S. This is a reprint of my article that I wrote for the site:

Casings are necessary for the production of sausages; they allow the product to be shaped and protect it from environmental influences.

Sausage casings must be strong, dense, elastic, non-hygroscopic and resistant to microorganisms; they must withstand the pressure of minced meat and the effects of temperatures during heat treatment of sausages.

Technologies for the production of sausage and sausage casings do not stand still. However, sausage packaging remains the most conservative and retains many of the traditional methods that remain in demand among consumers.

Each type of packaging has its undoubted advantages, and each has its adherents.

What are sausage casings made from?

The most common types of sausage casings are natural (from the organs of domestic animals), artificial (using natural materials - collagen, cellulose, fibrous) and synthetic (from polyamide, polypropylene, EVOH, etc.).

Initially, when making sausage, only natural casings were used to fill it with minced meat.

With the increase in demand for sausages, the production of artificial casings began to actively develop.

Classification of sausage casings and requirements for them

Sausage casings can be classified according to a number of technical and consumer properties.

The most common classification is based on two parameters: the material from which the sausage casing is made, and the level of gas and vapor permeability (see diagram). These factors are interrelated.

Natural shells and artificial ones, made from natural materials, are characterized by a high level of permeability to water vapor and gases. Artificial shells can be permeable or impermeable.

By creating an artificial shell, the developers sought to preserve all the best properties of the natural one, but at the same time eliminate its shortcomings.

In this regard, requirements for shells were formulated. They must have:

• uniformity of caliber (same diameter)
• resistance to microorganisms
• meet increased hygiene standards
• high mechanical strength, elasticity
• the ability to prepare for use without much labor
• a certain level of vapor and gas tightness
• heat resistance and moisture resistance
• the ability to automate the process of filling and forming sausage loaves
• Possibility of marking

In general, artificial casing meets higher requirements than natural casings.

Natural casings for sausages

Intestinal membranes have good moisture and smoke permeability, they are elastic, and retain their properties when wet.

Considering that natural casings have a protein composition close to the composition of meat, they can withstand all the changes that minced meat undergoes during technological processing.

Under the influence of smoke and hot air, natural casings acquire strength and resistance to microorganisms.

The shelf life of meat products in natural casings is up to 5 days if the temperature is maintained.

Artificial shells

Manufactured from high-grade raw materials obtained from the middle layer of cattle hides. Such shells can be edible or inedible.

The shelf life of finished products in a protein shell, subject to temperature conditions, is from 3 to 5 days.

The main advantages of protein shells:

• natural appearance
• good taste of the product due to the permeability of the shell
• consistency of sausage loaf caliber

Cellulose casing (“cellophane”) has high permeability. Manufactured from natural cellulose material.

The shelf life of finished products, subject to temperature conditions, is from 2 to 3 days.

These casings are cheaper than protein and natural casings, which makes it possible to reduce the cost of products while maintaining the required quality, because The cellulose casing is highly permeable.

This makes it possible to pack in such a casing not only boiled sausages and frankfurters, but also boiled-smoked and semi-smoked sausages, sausages, and bacon.

Fibrous casings - permeable membranes that allow air, smoke and moisture to pass through well.

They can be compared to “tea bags”, but of a more complex design. The fibrous casing is characterized by the fact that the viscose fibers in it are reinforced with cotton-based paper. Has average permeability properties.

The product in such casings can be smoked; they are suitable for almost any type of sausage.

To give fibrous casings barrier properties, a polymer coating is applied to them (on the inside or outside), which increases shelf life (used especially for boiled sausages).

The shelf life, subject to temperature conditions, is from 15 to 120 days.

- shells of the 21st century. Polyamide heat-shrinkable casings belong to a wide class of barrier casings.

The material for their manufacture (polymer film) has high mechanical strength, puncture resistance, heat shrinkability, low oxygen and moisture permeability, bacterial purity, etc.

Polyamide, used as a raw material for the manufacture of barrier shells, is a hygienically clean material. And the shells themselves are safe for contact with the product.

Given their impermeability properties, polyamide casings protect meat products from oxidation and microbial spoilage.

Undoubtedly, it is polyamide shells that open up the widest possibilities in terms of implementing the flight of design ideas when applying markings.

The shelf life, subject to temperature conditions, is from 15 to 60 days.

The Russian sausage casing market is characterized by the high importance of polymer materials, the share of which in the packaging of cooked sausages and frankfurters reaches almost 80%.

Protein and natural casings are approximately equally important in the production of smoked sausages. The scope of application of cellulose and viscose-reinforced casings is much narrower. We are talking mainly about the production of boiled-smoked and semi-smoked sausages.

Which casings are suitable for which types of sausages?

1. According to the method of heat treatment.

All sausage casings can withstand heating up to 75-80C. But for higher temperatures - for example, when grilling or baking in the oven, natural casings (guts) are more suitable.

Here are the heat treatment methods and suitable shells for them:

• frying, baking sausages (in a frying pan, grill) - pork intestines, beef casings, lamb casings
• cooking sausages - polyamide casing, collagen casing, cellulose casing, natural casing
• hot and cold smoking of sausages - natural casing, collagen casing, cellulose casing
• drying and curing sausages - natural casing, collagen casing, fibrous casing

2. By type of sausage:

• boiled sausages - natural (blue, krug, bubble), artificial (collagen, polyamide, fibrous, cellulose). Distinctive features - the caliber of these sausages is usually more than 40 mm
• sausages - lamb casings, sausage collagen casing (straight and ring), cellulose casing, polyamide casing. Distinctive features - the diameter of the sausages is from 16 to 28 mm
• sausages - narrow pork casing, beef casing, collagen casing, polyamide casing, cellulose casing. Distinctive features - the diameter of the sausages is from 28 to 45 mm
• semi-smoked and boiled-smoked sausages, cervelat sausages, salami - usually a collagen casing, from natural ones - beef round, lamb blue (for Okhotnichye sausages - lamb and collagen sausage casing), fibrous casings, recently new types have appeared - polyamide permeable shells that become permeable for smoking only when heated to 45-500C. Distinctive features - the diameter of the shells is usually from 40 to 80 mm
• dry-cured and raw smoked sausages and sausages - natural, collagen, fibrous sausage casings. Diameter from 14 to 100 mm
• liver sausages, pates, brawns and saltisons - natural (beef and lamb blues, pork bladders, beef circles), artificial (polyamide, cellulose casings). Diameter - from 40 to 140 mm.