Fresh skins or dry collagen skins

Hi Bob,

I use Dry Beef collagen skins and find them brilliant, I am overseas so its less hassel with the customs man also!! never find them like the things we use to eat, I will never buy sausage again, it will all be hand made, you know what is in the mix and they taste so good. I should add I have been working overseas for about 15 years and have missed out on lots of things, but with the help of the lassies here I'm now making and selling over 60lbs of sausage a week curing my own bacon and very soon to be making Black Pudding, the guy's have never had it so good!! so my next trick will be Lorne sausage with Black pudding in the middle!! Like we get in Scotland.....only better.

Hope that helps you a little,

John

interesting post, will think about it

There is a lot talk about which skins to go for. The Dry Beef collagen skins are so easy to use - just cut off as much as you want and they are ready to fill and very tender. They have a two year shelf life see link below:-
http://www.designasausage.com/pages/prods.asp?catid=11&subcatid=3
The natural intensitine Hog or sheep,however, are salted and need to be soaked for about 2 hours and then rinsed through the tap - they have about a four month shelf life when kept salted. The Hog are the strongest and the Sheep are quite delicate. See link below: http://www.designasausage.com/pages/prods.asp?catid=11&subcatid=5

It is really a matter of personal taste and there is quite a division in opinions - for myself I prefer the Dry Beef Collagen for ease of use and tenderness and the Hog casings for BBQ sausages because they are stronger.
Let us know how you get on.

Hi
As I am new to this sausage making lark, can someone explain the REAL difference between collagen skins and fresh skins?
I don't want to make sausages that are like the horrible German ones with plastic skins
Please help and advise the best skins to go for

Many thanks

Bob