How do I know whether the sausage casing is edible?

Not much beats a good glass of wine, great company and a richly filled charcuterie board. Until someone asks the pressing question: is the sausage casing edible or not?

The answer is simple: it depends on the sausage. But how do you know whether the casing of the sausage in question is edible? I asked sausage maker Samuel Levie of Brandt & Levie.

Natural casing

“Sausages are made using three types of casing. The most traditional method is using a real intestine. This is usually pork, lamb or beef intestine, and they are all edible. You can recognize them because the casing is not perfectly straight,” Samuel explains.

At Brandt & Levie, they use natural casings, but not all manufacturers are fans of them. They can vary considerably in thickness, which is inconvenient if you want to make identical sausages. So a solution was devised: collagen casing.

Collagen casing

Samuel: “These are ‘casings’ made industrially from animal protein, the subcutaneous layer of cattle, for example. You can eat those too.” How can you tell the difference between a natural casing and a collagen casing? Samuel already mentioned it: sausages made with natural casing are not perfectly straight and certainly not identical to one another. And what about smoked sausage? If it is made with natural casing, it has a string with a clip attached to it.

Plastic casing

“Finally, there is plastic casing,” says Samuel, “which is used for liver sausage and cheap junk sausage. You cannot eat it, but you will find that out soon enough if you try.”

White coating

And what about that white coating on dry sausage? What is that all about? It is mold. At least, usually. Large commercial producers simply roll the sausages through some flour to make them look authentic and traditionally crafted. Whether it is mold or flour, it is edible in both cases. In the case of mold, the sausage develops a somewhat stronger flavor, so do you prefer something more subtle? Then remove the casing.

Flavor

Does the casing make a difference in the flavor of other sausages? According to Samuel, no. “The casing does not necessarily have a pleasant flavor, so it is not really a recommendation. But it is convenient.”