Can you eat summer sausage casing?

Can you eat summer sausage casing?

Sausages are a staple food that brings many appearances and tastes in someone’s life in respect of healthy life and food. There are a variety of sausages available for different occasions, locations, or groups/races of people all around the world. The main types of sausages include Breakfast sausage, summer sausage, Italian sausage, polish sausage, and so on. One question that might come up in everyone’s mind while eating sausage is can you eat summer sausage casing? Will it be harmful to health or it is of no harm?

Well, to overcome your curiosity and encounter your questions we are here with this article. Read the complete article and I hope it will satisfy your needs.

Can you eat summer sausage casing? Well, the only sausage casings which are not eaten are like collagen casings, cellulose, and plastic casings which could be fatal to your health.

The thick collagen casing is usually used for summer sausage or salami that is basically inedible. Cellulose casings are taken off before packaging of sausages and these are used for skinless sausages.

There are mainly two types of sausage casing used in making different kinds of sausages.

Each type is very unique in the process of production or in the context of source derivation.

The world of sausages is too far which includes the variety of casings used for the making of summer sausage skin sausages and a lot more.

Table of Contents

Types of Sausage Casings

The outer layer of skin which holds the meat in a certain shape is known as sausage casings. The casings are prepared from the meat. The reason for making casings is to make the cooking process smoother and eating the sausage meat easier. Casings are used for particular types of meats.

Each edible casing will have a different taste which will feel while biting and chewing a sausage so differently. Here I will dig deep into details about five types of sausage casings let’s have a look.

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5 Types of casings:

The two main types of casings are natural and artificial.

Natural casings
Artificial casings (Cellulose)
Artificial casing (Collagen)
Plastic casings
Vegetarian casings

Natural:

It is edible
It is derived from the layer of the small intestine of farm animals like Pigs, cows, sheep, lamb, goats and horses.
It make food dishes like Bratwurst, Italian sausage, breakfast sausage, pepperoni, meat sticks, wieners and frankfurters.
It appears like natural casings when it is used it gives the sausage, a curve.

Artificial (cellulose):

Artificial casing is not edible
It is derived from plant fibers like cotton and wood pulp. The process includes turning wood into plastic. It is an artificial casing.
It is used to make skinless sausage, hot dogs, frankfurters and wieners.
It appears like: Casing is usually clear, but they can be pre-smoked. This casing is removed after cooking. The casing will be removed before selling to grocery stores. Sausage will be uniform in shape.

Artificial (Collagen):

It is safe to eat but it is not recommended usually because of collagen.
It is derived from processed animal collagen, from skin hide, bones and tendons. It is extracted even from fish or poultry.
It is used in the production of breakfast sausage, snack sticks, dry sausages, smoked sausage and bratwurst. Summer sausages.
It is usually available/appeared in variety of sizes and shapes. It can be prepared from thicker fibrous casing which is not edible.

Plastic casing:

It is inedible
It is derived from polyamide whose most common used is nylon polymer.
It is used to make cooked sausages.
It is mostly appeared/looked in Curved, round or straight shape.

Vegetarian:

It is edible
It is derived from plant based Vegetable Glycerine, Sugars and Carbohydrates.
It is used to make fresh sausages and vegetarian sausages.
It texture is very similar to meat sausages like link or hot dog style. They may appear rougher on the outside and kind of clumpy.

Natural casings are actually the most expensive sausages casings because they required an extensive process of production. Natural casing size is determined by the animal intestine, which is used like lamb being the smallest then sheep, hog and beef and a lot more.

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How to know if sausage casing is Edible?

Can you eat summer sausage casing? This is the question on which we always get confused, let’s find out.

If you want to find out that the sausage which you have bought contains edible casing in it or not.

Well, the first quick gesture is, the thicker the casing the less edible it is which means that the less thick casing will be edible.

You can cut the sausage into slices before eating because eating the whole casing could be difficult.

Usually, most bought sausages have edible casings in them already.

Inedible casing obviously would be so tough to chew.

The fibrous casing present on summer sausages is like paper which is normally inedible.

You can see the ingredients mentioned over the label to check which kind of casing is used in the process of production.

If there isn’t any casing ingredient listed on the label then it means, they might have used cellulose casing in sausage.

Cellulose casing was removed from the label after the cooking process and before the sausage goes to retail/local markets/stores.

Plastic casings are not usually mentioned on ingredients lists above the label. They are used during the cooking time but they will not be listed in the ingredients on the packaged box.

After removing the casings from summer sausage, you can throw the label.

Are you supposed to remove sausage casing?

Can you eat summer sausage casing? This curiosity is discussed over here taking into consideration some precautionary measures. Only remove those sausage fibrous casings which you will see most on the upper layer of summer sausages.

Those casings are the strongest casings because they are made up of inedible cellulose and plant materials, these are necessary to take off. Instead, these casings are directed to be peeled back when you cut the sausage into slices.

The thickness of the sausage helps to determine either the sausage casings are edible or not.

Common sausage casings are clear enough that, you can easily observe the bits of fat and spices which are present inside the sausage.

Thick casings normally are in solid colors and they are inedible.

How to Cook Sausage without Casing?

can you eat summer sausage casing — without casing

It is very easy to cook sausage without casing just by following easy steps.

Take the open sausage in the pan and remove the meat from the sausage to cook separately sausage and casings.

The only benefit of casings is to make the cooking process easier and soothing.

Remove the meat before cooking the sausage. Completely make the slices of sausage. Make a deep cut in sausage and then the meat would be able to push outside.

You should be done this process when the sausage is fully frozen or thawed out. Frozen sausage will not crumble and break into smaller pieces rather, it will work best.

You can transform a completely thawed sausage into whatever shape you like most like, a patty.

Tools to Use in cooking sausage without casing:

There are two tools that you can use in cooking sausage without casing if they work best:

Pairing Knife or regular knife
Kitchen scissors

Instructions:

If you have frozen the sausage then brings it under the warm water.
After being getting normal, simply place sausage on the cutting board.
Make the slices of the sausage from one end to the other end.
Peel off the sausage upon the slit/cutting board.
Push the meat towards outside and pull the off casing sheet in one piece.

This is quite possible that you might have to make multiple cuts. You can peel sausage like a banana if that process works best.

The best method to cook the sausage is, cook the sausage in a pan.

If the desired meat is thawed out then you can use a potato masher while cooking the sausage. A wooden spatula works best in breaking the sausage when the meat is in a pan and it is hot.

A question always circulates in mind that: Can you eat summer sausage casing? The summer sausage skin or casing is actually inedible.

The casing is basically designed and prepared for making the cooking process smooth and storing the sausage so effectively. Sausage casing has not any significant flavor and it would be very hard to chew.

These casings should be peeled off when you cut the sausage into slices. You can also cut each slice first and then peel off the casing layer from the sausage.

This part is basically made up of fibrous cellulose casing. Eating summer sausage skin would be like, try to eat a waxy piece of paper that is so fibrous.

There are edible sausage casings available in the market which are mentioned above in the article. The natural casing is perfectly safe to eat as compared to artificial casings but nothing is as safe as the inner meat is.

Try to eat a natural healthy diet to stay fit and active.

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