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.
A method in accordance with claim 1 in which the extruded collagen is coagulated and neutralized in the same bath.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
38 words
A method in accordance with claim 1 in which said coagulation bath is a substantially saturated aqueous solution of ammonium sulfate or sodium sulfate and said strong alkali is sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide or a quaternary ammonium hydroxide.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
37 words
A method in accordance with claim 1 in which the collagen is coagulated in a substantially saturated aqueous solution of ammonium sulfate or sodium sulfate containing 0.1-2.0 percent sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide or a quaternary ammonium hydroxide.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method in accordance with claim 1 in which the extruded collagen is coagulated and neutralized in different baths.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
62 words
A method in accordance with claim 3 in which the collagen is coagulated in a substantially saturated aqueous solution of ammonium sulfate or sodium sulfate and then passed through a neutralization bath comprising a concentrated aqueous salt solution having a salt concentration from about one-fourth saturated to fully saturated and containing 0.1-2.0 percent sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, or a quaternary ammonium hydroxide.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method in accordance with claim 6 in which the neutralization bath contains a small proportion of ammonium sulfate and a large proportion of sodium chloride.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
148 words
A method of producing an untanned reconstituted collagen product of high wet and dry strength which comprises: a. extruding an acid swollen collagen slurry into a concentrated salt coagulation bath, b. treating the coagulated collagen in a concentrated aqueous salt solution having a concentration from about one-fourth saturated to fully saturated of a concentration sufficient to maintain the integrity and prevent disintegration of the coagulated collagen and containing sufficient strong alkali, not less than about 0.1 percent. The neutralization with strong alkali, whether in the coagulation bath or a subsequent bath, must be carried out in a concentrated salt solution, having a salt concentration from about one-fourth saturated to fully saturated, to completely neutralize the acid in the coagulated collagen to produce a reconstituted collagen product having high wet and dry strength without further tanning or hardening treatment, and c. washing, plasticizing, and drying the reconstituted collagen product.