The usual suspect in have the casing not shrink with the sausage is that you need to make sure to soak THE INSIDE of the casing in warm water.

Many people just put the casings in a bucket of warm water and let them soak like that for 30 minutes.

You need to make sure and OPEN each casing and let the warm water thoroughly soak INSIDE each of the casings for at least 30 minutes - no longer than 8 hours. It is somewhat time consuming, but this way the interior of the casing is moistened and usually the meat will stick along with the casing while it shrinks.

Also, make sure you stuff the sausage casing as tightly as possible.

My smoked sausage ends up "wrinkled".

Make sure that you stuff the casing as tightly as possible.  Also, after you turn the smokehouse off and remove the sausage, let it set at room temperature for at least one hour before placing the sausage in your cooler or refrigerator.

Last Updated - Saturday, October 04, 2008 12:43 PM