LEM Products Sheep Casings

My goal was to make a South African air dried sausage called Droe Wors (dried sausage), and a sausage for the BBQ called Boerewors (farmer's sausage). The spices, imported from Cape Town, are available on Amazon. First of all, I learned the hard way that a 19-22mm casing will NOT fit on a 26mm tube,You can get it on..with great difficulty but it doesn't come off all that easily and will blow sausage meat all over the kitchen. I purchased a 12mm tube for my Hakka 3L vertical and it worked like a champ ONCE I realized that the openings to the casings were significantly larger than it appeared. I spent hours trying to get the end open, then I saw a you tube video where the chef held the end of the casing under a stream of running water. It eventually found the opening, the casing filled with water and the rest was easy. The other thing I discovered is if you get a knot in a wet strand or a bunch of wet strands, you are not going to get it out. What I did was separate each individual strand into a small plastic envelope, including salt and then keep each strand separate when rinsing and running water through them. All in all I wasted half the strands but that's the price of admission to the world of sausage making. My Droe Wors is now in my outdoor dryer (108F and <5% humidity) and so far the latest batch appears to be as good as one might find in South Africa. Of course, there's no kudu, springbok or ostrich at my local supermarket, but beef is a good substitute. The LEM casings appear to be both good quality and cost effective.

Unlike others this is a product of the USA as the package I received declares although I was expecting them to be from New Zealand as that wouldn't be a problem for me and that's what it shows in the picture on the description. who knows what you'll be getting from China. As most others I've seen out there are from or do not list. I stuffed a little over 14 pounds of brisket and had about 10 casings left or so. So I feel the rating on the package of 15 pounds is more than accurate. Haven't stuffed in about 20 years. A few casings had holes in them however I think that's to be expected nothing that I would call excessive and I didn't find it to be a problem. I'm certainly no expert I have may be only stuffed 50 pounds in my lifetime and I'm in my forties that being said. I had really no issues with these casings at all just let them soak really well and you should be fine. I choose to use cold water instead of warm as the package had called for and had let them soak about an hour after a thorough rinsing and slightly warm water from my reverse osmosis that I warmed up in the microwave. The ones I received have no odor if you get some that do as a few others have complained about I would suggest returning them. These are basically breakfast link and snack sticks size and perfect for homemade hot dogs. As they have and excellent snap. I will be purchasing some more once hunting season has passed and the price drops a bit.

These casings worked great for breakfast sausage. It was my first time using sheep casings so there was a learning curve. You cannot stuff these as tightly as a hog casing or they will break as the sheep casings are thinner (which I appreciated in the end because they are easy to chew). I had some breakage until I stopped stuffing so tightly and they worked great after that. I did what some people mentioned in the reviews and put them in a bowl of warm water for a couple hours before I tried to untangle and rinse. They did stink in the warm water, but once I rinsed them inside and out the odor went away. I then left them in a bowl of clean salt water until I used them (another hour). It is hard to open the ends, but I guess that is to be expected with a casing this small. The sausage came out great and the casings are very tender. I would definitely use them again.

Being the small size they are more difficult to get started and to make end knots. I didn't finish the package and resealed with salt water to store. They seemed more fragile the second time I used them, possibly my salt solution was too strong and weakened the membrane. Something to keep in mind if storing a partial package.

I've been making sausage for a few years and all my equipment is LEM. I bought these sheep casings to make breakfast sausages. When I opened the package, I was knocked back on my heels with a rotten smell that would not go away. After rinsing inside and out and soaking over night in the refrigerator, the smell was still so pronounced that I couldn't risk using these. The unopened package had been kept refrigerated as the instructions say. The instructions also note there may be a smell but should go away with refrigeration. Nope, not the case, these are useless. For comparison, I use another brand of sheep casings and they do not smell anywhere as bad as these did. Maybe I got a bad batch, but wont buy these again.