Edible collagen casing

Abstract

Abstract An edible sausage casing having improved stuffing, linking, and cooking characteristics is prepared from hide collagen. Animal hides, either fresh, frozen or salt-cured, limed or unlimed, are swollen and mechanically un-haired and split to produce a collagen-containing corium layer. The coreium is ground into fine particles, formed into a slurry and swollen with weak acid to produce an extrudable collagen paste or slurry, preferably having a solids content of about 2-6 percent. The slurry is extruded through an annular die into a coagulation bath containing ammonium sulfate or sodium sulfate or equivalent coagulant and a small amount of strong alkali, such as sodium hydroxide, sufficient to neutralize completely the acid present in the slurry. The neutralization of the slurry may be partially in the coagulation bath and completed in a subsequent neutralization bath. The neutralization of the slurry hardens the coagulated collagen and avoids the necessity of tanning the extruded collagen casing. The neutralized casing is washed and finally plasticized using an aqueous solution of glycerin, or equivalent plasticizer, preferably containing a small amount of a fatty monoglyceride or an acetylated fatty monoglyceride. The casing is then dried and reeled and eventually shirred on a commercial shirring machine for delivery to the meat packer in shirred form.

Inventors

• 👤 Mauj A Cohly
• 👤 James W Sanner

Bibliographic Details