ottawa foodies

Hello:

I recently acquired a grinder / sausage stuffer over the holidays. I hope to delve into sausage making this weekend and make full use of one of my favourite cookbooks - Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie.

Anyone know where I can get natural or collagen casings around town? I see from a quick search that Nicastro's have them, any other ideas? Thanks in advance...

I would head on over to the Piggy Market and ask them where they get their casings. I am certain that Dave would be able to provide some direction on that.

On Ron Eade's blog today with his weekly supermarket specials he mentions that Loblaw / Superstore are selling really cheap cuts of pork for 89c/lb and that they are also selling sausage casings to turn it into sausage

any butcher should be able to sell you natural casings. my butcher (Brian's) will sell small quantities. when you said Nicastro's have them, do they have collagen casings too? i need some to make "slim jim" type meat sticks.

what kind of stuffer do you have? i've been looking into getting an LEM brand.

It depends how many you need Tracinho. It's hard to find just several casings. From experience, most of the time, they come in packages that would make about 60 kg of sausages. Not sure if you're going to do that much! I would talk to butchers that make their own sausage. You may be able to snag enough for your purposes that way. Sausage kitchen, Nicastro's (I know for sure the one on Preston, obviously), Luciano's, Piggy Market, etc.

Thanks guys, that is pretty serendipitous that Loblaws is having a fire sale on the same weekend I plan to get into this. The pork is probably mediocre but for a first attempt at fresh sausages it will fit the bill nicely.

Monty: I have an old fashioned-style cast iron hand crank grinder/stuffer. No idea how well it will work, but at least I will be able to keep the meat/fat very cold during the entire process.

SL: I think I am gonna keep it a bit under 60kg for my first attempt! Although apparently casings keep for a long time when drypacked in salt and refrigerated.

I'll let you know how it goes...

I bought natural casings at Lavergne's Meat in Navan.Nice small container and it's packed in salt so lasts for a while.. I made about 20 kg of brats.Bought the pork shoulder there as well.
Have fun.

I too can speak to the quality of both casings and meat from Lavergne. If you order from there, I would get about a 2-1, 3-1 ratio of shoulder to leg.

you might want to procure the help of a friend when it comes time to stuffing! it's tricky to do by yourself with one of those hand cranked jobbies.

also, it's time to get a smoker if you don't have one already ;)

Haha I currently half a** smoke-roast on my Weber Kettle...although the previous occupant of my new place left an old propane BBQ rusting out back, perhaps a springtime mod project is in order...

I left an old propane bbq in my backyard when I moved out :) I wonder if you moved into my old place!

any updates for us?

for anyone out there looking to get into this - i'd highly recommend the book "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas. it's an excellent reference and starter guide for sausage making. it's quite thorough and comprehensive with very detailed explanations on curing/smoking. there is a myriad of technique and technical knowledge in addition to recipes. originally published in the 70's, the book is regarded as "the bible of sausage making".

Charcuterie by Ruhlman is next on my list...

Hi Monty, unfortunately I was distracted by a serious and single-minded attempt at making the ultimate lasagna and some pate over the weekend (the lasagnas fell just short of the goal, pate was great), so sausage making was postponed. I did find natural hog casings at Luciano's on Preston for $29.99/lb packed in salt.

One thing I did learn when making the lasagnas: trimming sinew off of your meat is extremely important when grinding your own. I was a bit cavalier at first, the sinew wrapped around the blade and die and the grinder really wasn't extruding properly. After a quick clean and some additional trimming, everything progressed rather smoothly.

Not to fear, sausage making is still on the horizon. I agree that the Kutas book is effectively a bible for sausage makers, if I remember correctly it is scaled for deli-sized production, but nonetheless a great resource for anyone interested in the craft.

the newer editions include scaled down recipes. i think the OG pressing had recipes for 25-50lbs of meat at minimum haha. the technical write ups are great reference material though, that's really what i bought it for.

any luck on finding collagen casings?

in the early stages here but sausage making is on my "foodie resolutions" list. just doing my research/reading for now but i'm hoping to pickup a stuffer sometime soon.

good luck with your project and be sure to keep us updated!

PS - www.bradleysmoker.com/

I’ll have to check out Luciano’s. Do sell curing salts?

I bought some natural casings from Nicastro about a month ago. I used it to make some Chinese sausage (lap cheong).

The small bag of casings weighed 275g and cost $5.50. It’s probably enough to make 3-4 butts or about 30-40 lbs of sausage. The casings are shorts (a few meters long each), so you cannot make one giant link of sausages.