Sausage with skin?

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Jennifer Murphy

Senior Cook
Joined
May 18, 2014
Messages
146
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
I love sausage, but I hate the sausage skin. I think my problem is that I don't cook them on a grill, which probably makes the skin edible. I usually cook them in the microwave (which may get me kicked out of this section) or in the oven. Those skins are inedible. I've tried peeling off the skins, but that's a lot of hassle and generally doesn't work that well. I've tried frying them in a pan on the stove (gas stove), which helps, but I hate the splatter.

Is there any solution or should I just give up and eat something else?

Thanks
 
Depending on what kind of sausage you're cooking, and how authentic you want it to be, you could try making your own by adding seasoning to store-bought ground pork or beef. You can buy pre-mixed sausage seasonings and just mix them into the meat, or mix your own. Or you can do it completely from scratch by grinding pork shoulder or beef chuck and going through the process of making actual sausage.

As an example, here's a recipe for making breakfast sausage starting with a pound of ground pork. Once you've made it, you can form it into patties and pan-fry them, or microwave them if you prefer.

 
Depending on what kind of sausage you're cooking, and how authentic you want it to be, you could try making your own by adding seasoning to store-bought ground pork or beef. You can buy pre-mixed sausage seasonings and just mix them into the meat, or mix your own. Or you can do it completely from scratch by grinding pork shoulder or beef chuck and going through the process of making actual sausage.

As an example, here's a recipe for making breakfast sausage starting with a pound of ground pork. Once you've made it, you can form it into patties and pan-fry them, or microwave them if you prefer.

That's a great suggestion. I'll give it a try. But won't I be violating the rule about never watching how sausages, like laws, are made? ???
 
I have made breakfast sausage and Italian sausage. I find that it tastes better if you let it sit in the fridge overnight. Also, DO NOT USE LEAN GROUND MEAT. The sausages taste okay, but they are dry. It's just much nicer with a good percentage of fat. I won't even try making sausage with ground meat that has has less than 20% fat (usually labelled 80% or 80% lean).

It is really easy, just measure out the seasonings and stir them into the meat really well. I usually pinch off a small amount to fry up right away, to see if I need to adjust the seasoning. Then it goes in the fridge overnight and can be made into patties, little logs, or used in recipes that call for bulk sausage or tell you to remove the casing. If you are doubling a sausage recipe, don't double the salt. I don't understand why, but it has turned out far too salty for my taste. I just use the same amount of salt for a double batch as for a single batch.

The other option is to cook your sausage in the oven. That works well and I find it is less effort than frying them.
 
Sausage making can be a process and requires a bit of work. There are a host of recipes on the internet for making everything from bratwurst, to kielbasa, to hot dogs, to mortadella. Most recipes use sausage casings, but don't really need to. Sausage is often sold in bulk form, without skins. The purpose of the casings is to hold in flavors, and to keep everything juicy.

Whatever kind of sausage you enjoy, look up a few recipes for it, and compare technique, and flavorings. Do everything except stuffing the casings. For a tubular looking sausage, roll the meat in plastic cling wrap, nd place in your fridge overnight. Unroll the next day and oven bake, smoke, or pan fry as required.

Hope that helps.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
When I encounter a sausage with a tough casing, I take a sharp knife (after cooking), cut a slit in the casing, and peel it off. It doesn't work easily 100 percent of the time, but usually does.

Some sausages are meant to be peeled, or otherwise removed from the casing. I love boudin, and the cajun way to eat it is to bite off the end, and squeeze the contents into your mouth. ;)

CD
 
My chorizo I always package in bulk, but sausages that I will be grilling I stuff into casings (though it's been a few years since I did any).

There are some very thin casings out there - some of the collagen types - that you might like better, though the ones I got didn't last as long before stuffing (got dried out, and cracked), and were easily damaged, once stuffed. I've had some hog casings in salt in my fridge for years, however, and they are still good.
 
My chorizo I always package in bulk, but sausages that I will be grilling I stuff into casings (though it's been a few years since I did any).

There are some very thin casings out there - some of the collagen types - that you might like better, though the ones I got didn't last as long before stuffing (got dried out, and cracked), and were easily damaged, once stuffed. I've had some hog casings in salt in my fridge for years, however, and they are still good.

Most of the chorizo I buy is in casings, even though I'm going to take it out to use it. I did finally find some in bulk form just last week. Believe it or not, I have a hard time finding really good chorizo in Dallas. It's Texas, it should be easy.

BTW, I was born 10 miles from Woodbury. We should swap some South Jersey stuff for Texas stuff. I'm craving some Amoroso's hoagie rolls and some Butterscotch Krimpets. :yum:

CD
 
I'm probably the odd one out and think it's more a language thing, but if it is not in a casing, I don't consider it a sausage.
It's just spiced ground meat, meat ball or meat loaf ;)
Just one of my akward issues

Sausage skin need quite high heat to become crispy.
If you don't like the skin, you can try peeling it off, or slice the sausage and then fry. Most skin will come off
Suddenly thinking: I am still used to pig or lamb intestine as skin. Maybe the cellulose skin doesn't fry up as nice?
 
Around here you can buy breakfast sausages as patties. I assumed that was quite common even for the States. :innocent:

You could also try starting them in water, not too deep and long enough to be pretty much done. When the water is gone, enough oil/fat is left in the pan good enough to crisp up the skin. Instead of a lid, you could try one of those splatter type lids. Screens to let air and steam out but catch the fat globules. Try to get one to fit your pan.
 
If I just say sausage or Italian sausage, I probably mean with the casing or something already cooked into a meal. Otherwise I usually call it "bulk sausage" or Italian (or whatever) sausage meat. Not only do I see breakfast sausage patties sold, I remember buying breakfast sausages that were shaped into little logs, but there was no casing. They were frozen and meant to be cooked from frozen. I seem to remember it was a US brand. It was a long time ago. I haven't seen them since Steinbergs (Canadian grocery store chain) went out of business.
 
Jimmy Dean Heat & Serve breakfast links are shaped like sausage links, sans casings. They are pretty good. I do prefer a natural casing as it makes for juicier sausage, Imho. It's also very easy to find 1 lb. tubes of bulk Italian, and breakfast sausage at most U.S. grocers. Simply ask a worker in he meat dept. where you can find bulk sausage,

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Most of the chorizo I buy is in casings, even though I'm going to take it out to use it. I did finally find some in bulk form just last week. Believe it or not, I have a hard time finding really good chorizo in Dallas. It's Texas, it should be easy.

BTW, I was born 10 miles from Woodbury. We should swap some South Jersey stuff for Texas stuff. I'm craving some Amoroso's hoagie rolls and some Butterscotch Krimpets. :yum:

CD
It's a small world, isn't it!

I have bought Mexican chorizo occasionally, and it's always in skins, but I don't know why, because it is always removed from the skin, and cooked loose. And I don't know when you moved from here, but many years ago Mexican ingredients (and many other ethnic foods) simply were not available in this area! I made trips to NYC to stock up (that was before even phone ordering was common, with many, and NY had neighborhoods for anything, including sausage ingredients!), back in the 80s (Italian foods were available in Philly, but even Chinatown was small then), but late in the 80s and early 90s things started changing, and supermarkets got larger. Kennett Square became the mushroom capitol, and the workers were almost entirely Mexican! So there was a Mexican grocery over south of there, in Avondale, plus a tortilla factory! Slowly, in this area, Mexican grocery stores started showing up here in my area, and eventually, the one opened here in Woodbury, on Broad St! Also an authentic restaurant it the back. That's the place I take my excess epazote and chiles to, and the owner gives me deals on some of the things I buy. That's the place I tried a couple of the chorizo from, and one tasted almost identical to the recipe I make, with just enough, but not too much vinegar.

Another type I usually remove from the casings is the fresh Italian sausage, since it is usually cooked loose, in recipes I use it in. There are a couple of companies that sell some loose, and some in casings, but most in casings.

Speaking of Amoroso rolls, when I used to work in the Bellmawr industrial park, they opened another factory there in a huge building where a place closed down, and I used to smell it every morning driving past it! They had about a dozen delivery trucks running out of there.
 
The higher quality of sausage usually means having to chew through tougher casings.

Natural casings are tougher than artificial ones in most cases...some like beef casings are completely inedible...but used for salami and other dry ages sausages.

There does exist a line of more tender casings like the commercial high productionplaces use...but unless you are ready to purchase it by the 50# case....I don't recommend using them.

Skinless breakfast links are just spit out of a sausage stuffer w/o casings after the meat has been tightly bound up from mixing. Others could work for you in this fashion...but maybe not either.

I love good scratch sausage...something of a lost art these days. Getting your hands on the pork fat is usually the biggest issue especially with the processing plants being backed up with little labor to get those pieces processed.
 
As previously said, it depends on the sausage. You didn't specify the type. True Polish sausage, for example, needs to be boiled before frying, baking or grilling.

I have never seen a breakfast sausage with a tough skin. The skinless breakfast sausages are from Farmer John's, born and bred in California.
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Italian sausage can be purchased in bulk sans skin, in links, or in a rope in meat markets and delis, and if they are fried, baked or grilled properly, there shouldn't be a problem with the skin, but you caN ensure that by letting it simmer in your tomato sauce for an hour or more. Then you can cut it with a fork.

I make my own chorizo. I have my own recipe, but Bobby Flay and Rick Bayless have pretty good recipes online. Now I am talking about Mexican chorizo, which is a fresh sausage, usually sold loose, while Spanish chorizo is a cured, or hard, sausage, stuffed into a pig's intestines.

If you don't want the skin, cut the skin open and remove the meat BEFORE cooking.
 
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i made lots of sausage when i was a butcher apprentice 50 yrs ago, we used sheep intestine, experimenting on my own i find hog casing to be very tough eating.
hog skins are easier to fill but the penalty is the thickness.
 
thanks for "bumping" up this thread, gerard!

Never having stuffed sausages before had to look up different and popular types of casings. Found this on google...

Sausage Casings 101 ... just made a quick browse and haven't read all but what I did has been interesting so far!
 

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