Leftover Casings?

[Cera Nieto]

We bought the casings that came in the salt packs in September for Antelope season, handled with gloves and vacuum sealed the leftovers. How long will these be good? Any chance I can safely use these for another project this month?

[YooperDog]

Cera Nieto have you kept them refrigerated? As long as you have kept them well salted and refrigerated you should be good. If they are bad you will know soon after you open the bag. I found a lost bag in the freezer from two years ago last week. After a good soak they were fine.

[Cera Nieto]

Yes, kept everything cool in the back of the fridge in the original salt packaging. I will try to open and give it a smell test. Thanks!

[YooperDog]

Cera Nieto you will know. It is not the normal casing smells, it will get your attention.

[Tex_77]

You should probably be fine, but def. sniff test. Keeping them salted and kept refrigerated is the key.

[processhead]

I like the idea of vacuum sealing or removing as much air as possible from the casings. I think oxidation from air exposure contributes to the degradation of the casing even when kept cold and salted.
I have seen some tubed casing packed submerged in a saturated brine solution, which seems like a good idea.

Keeping unused casing clean before repacking should help with extending their shelf life.