Another Rookie Question on Smoked Sausage

[MT Elk Hunter]

mikesr Natural casings have a better snap when bitten.

[Jonathon]

MT Elk Hunter So I agree but I have documentation from Devro that says otherwise, which is a great example of how anyone can make any study say anything they want! Im guessing humidity is your major issue, usually, when I have a tougher casing something went wrong with humidity in the smoker. If you haven’t already check out this post https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing

Recently I have found that using a shammy type material works even better, it takes up a little more space but it was able to completely empty an oversized water bowl in the PK in just a few hours.

[mikesr]

Jonathon - Thank you for that info. I do use a water pan, but at the prolonged cook times below 150, I don’t know that it gives off that much moisture. I’ll check it out.

[Parksider]

I never thermal process sticks while smoking them. I smoke below 150F until they have the color I like-nice deep cherry color using the smoked collagen 19mm casings.
Then into water bath to cook to 155F then shower with cold water. I don’t get dry sticks, I don’t get dry chewy skins. Been doing it tho way for decades.

[mikesr]

Thanks Parksider. I’ll give it a try. I’m about to place an order with Walton’s. I’ll give the collagen casings and process a try.