Casing separation

[jeffchris83]

Hey guys and gals,
I have always had a problem with casing separation when making summer sausage. It seems to be because of temperature probe penetration. My only reason for thinking that is that I typically use 2x12 casings and they end up wrinkly, but no big deal. I just figured I was doing some part of the process wrong, meat still delicious.
The other day I had only 2x24 casings and they were beautiful and tight like usual through the cook. Then toward the end of my cook I probed for temp like I always do, everything still looked fine.
When the cook was over, I threw them in an ice bath and immediately the probed end of every sausage separated and wrinkled. But… the other end was still perfect. Is it the tiniest hole in the casing that is sabotaging the sausages??

[mikemikemike]

I always have casing separation. Its most likely becuase i like a drier end product. Gives it a “meatier” texture. So my sticks always wrinkle, and i am ok with that.

[jeffchris83]

mikemikemike I am also cool with the wrinkly dry product, but is your meat separated from the casing? or is it still tight to the meat… just wrinkly?

[Healthy Glutton]

Wrinkly sausage maybe a result either loose stuffing method or high moisture emulsion or fat rendering during the cooking process (prolonged smoking or steaming / boiling after smoking). Since there is less mass, the casing tends to wrinkle at certain areas. Casing separation is when the cooked sausage separates from the casing. This seldom happens in natural casing and collagen casings unless the fat ratio is high.

[Jonathon]

Healthy Glutton Yup, it can also be from not properly cooling the sausage after the cooking schedule depending on the type of sausage it is. However, the loose stuffing and fat out are the two most common issues. Nice answer.