How to Stuff Sausage: Stuffers, Tubes, Air Pockets and Blowouts

Short answer:

Stuffing is where a good batch turns into a mess for a lot of first-timers. Casings split, air bubbles show up everywhere, and you end up wearing half the meat. Almost all of that comes down to a few things: the right tool, the right tube, cold meat, and how full you pack the casing. Here's how I do it.

Vertical stuffer or grinder attachment: which is better?

A vertical stuffer, if you make sausage every season. Most grinders come with stuffing tubes, and they work, but they push the already ground meat back through the auger. That warms it up, smears the fat, and whips air into it. It's also slow, and you're feeding meat with one hand while managing the casing with the other.

A vertical stuffer is a cylinder with a piston and a hand crank (or a motor). You load the mixed meat, crank, and the piston pushes it straight out the tube. No second trip through the auger, no smearing, and steady pressure you control. Most have two gear speeds: fast for filling and backing off, slow for actually stuffing.

	Grinder attachment	Vertical stuffer
Fat smear and heat	More (meat goes through the auger twice)	Very little
Air in the sausage	More	Less, if you pack it right
Control	Hard to keep pressure steady	Steady, with a slow gear
Snack sticks	Frustrating	Works well
Cost	Usually included	An extra purchase

Size it to how much you make. A 5 lb stuffer means reloading constantly on a 20 lb batch. Most deer hunters are happiest with something in the 11 to 15 lb range. If you grind with the grinder you already own, see grinding venison for sausage for plate sizes and keeping things cold.

Which stuffing tube do I use for which casing?

Use the biggest tube that the casing slides onto easily. Too small and the meat smears and stuffing takes forever. Too big and you can't get the casing on, or it tears. These are the casing sizes the DeepWoodz recipes call for, with the tube that usually fits:

What you're making	Casing	Usual tube
Snack sticks	19-21 mm sheep or collagen	About 3/8 to 1/2 inch
Hot dogs	24-26 mm sheep	About 1/2 inch
Brats, kielbasa, Polish	32-35 mm hog	About 5/8 to 3/4 inch
Ring bologna	38-42 mm beef rounds or fibrous	About 3/4 inch
Summer sausage	2.5 to 3 inch fibrous	About 1 inch
Bologna	4.5 inch fibrous	Largest tube you have

Not sure how much casing to buy? The casing calculator tells you how many feet your batch needs. For what each casing type is and how to prep it, see sausage casing types.

How do I get the casings ready?

• Natural hog and sheep casings: rinse off the salt, soak them in warm water for at least 30 minutes, then run water through each one to flush the inside and find any holes.
• Fibrous casings: soak in warm water for about 30 minutes before stuffing so they're soft and stretch a little.
• Collagen casings: follow the package. Most small collagen casings for snack sticks go on dry, and water makes them gummy.

Wet the tube before you slide a natural casing on. It goes on easier and doesn't snag.

How do I keep the meat cold and safe while stuffing?

Keep it at 40°F or colder the whole time. That's the guidance from university extension programs like Mississippi State and Minnesota for grinding and mixing, and it holds for stuffing too. Above 40°F you're in the range where bacteria grow fast, and warm fat smears instead of staying in clean bits. Mississippi State Extension recommends chilling to around 32°F to keep fat from smearing.

In practice: mix, then put the meat back in the fridge while you set up. Stuff in batches and keep the rest cold. If you're stuffing a big batch in a warm garage, work fast and don't leave a tub of meat sitting out.

How do you avoid air pockets?

Air gets in when you load the stuffer, not when you crank. So fix it there:

1. Pack the cylinder hard. Roll the meat into fist-sized balls and throw them in, then press each layer down with your fist. Loose meat means trapped air.
2. Run meat to the tip first. Crank until meat just shows at the end of the tube, then slide the casing on. Otherwise the first foot of casing is full of air.
3. Leave the tail untied until meat reaches the end, then tie it. Air pushes out the open end instead of getting trapped.
4. Keep light pressure on the casing as it comes off the tube so it fills evenly behind the meat.
5. Use the air release. Most vertical stuffers have a valve in the piston. Make sure it isn't clogged.
6. Don't run it empty. When the cylinder gets low, stop, tie off, reload and start a new rope.

A mix that's too stiff also traps air. If the recipe calls for ice water, put it all in. It makes the meat flow through the tube.

Should you prick sausage?

Prick air pockets, not the whole sausage. Use a clean pin or a sausage pricker and poke just the bubbles you can see, then press the air out. Air pockets turn grey, collect grease and give you a sausage with holes in the slice. Summer sausage and bologna in fibrous casings get pricked wherever you see air, which is what the DeepWoodz recipes tell you to do.

What you don't want is to poke fresh brats all over before grilling. Every hole is a place for the juice to run out.

How tight should you stuff sausage?

• Summer sausage, bologna, salami (fibrous casings): firm and tight. Fibrous casings are made to be stuffed full, and a loose chub wrinkles and has air gaps.
• Snack sticks: firm and full, no air. They're usually left in long ropes and cut after smoking, so you aren't twisting them.
• Brats, kielbasa, hot dogs you'll link: firm but with a little give. Press it with a finger and it should leave a slight dent. You need slack in the casing to twist links, and an overstuffed link splits when you twist it or when it hits the heat.

If you're not sure, go a touch looser on links. You can push meat along a loose casing. You can't fix a split one.

How do you link and twist sausage?

1. Stuff the whole rope first. Don't try to link while you stuff unless you have a helper.
2. Tie off one end. Measure your first link (the brat recipes in the app use 6 inch links), pinch the casing to make a gap, and twist the link a few turns.
3. Move down one link length, pinch, and twist the opposite direction. Alternating directions keeps the links from unwinding.
4. Another way that works well: pinch every link, then spin every other link. Same result, less fumbling.
5. Tie off the far end. Cut links apart after they've rested in the fridge or after cooking, not right away.

Ring bologna doesn't get linked. Stuff about a pound into each piece of casing and tie the two ends together into a ring.

How do you stuff snack sticks?

Snack sticks are the hardest thing to stuff because the casing is so narrow. A few things make it easier:

• Use the slow gear and the smallest tube. Go slow and steady.
• Add the full amount of ice water. The DeepWoodz snack stick recipes use 6% of the meat weight. Without it, the mix is too stiff to push through a small tube.
• Mix until sticky, then stuff right away while it's cold.
• Stuff long ropes and lay them on a wet tray or hang them. Cut to length after smoking.
• Adding cheese? Use high-temp cheese in small pieces so it doesn't jam the tube. See how much high-temp cheese per pound.

Then follow the snack stick smoke schedule so all that work doesn't fat out in the smoker.

Why do sausage casings burst, and how do you fix it?

Cause	Fix
Overstuffed	Stuff links with a little give. Tie off, cut and restart past the split.
Casings dry, not soaked, or old	Rinse and soak natural casings, flush them, and toss any that smell off or tear easily.
Rough edge on the tube	Feel the tip for burrs. Wet the tube so the casing slides.
Mix too stiff	Add all the ice water in the recipe and mix it in well.
Twisting the same way every time	Alternate twist directions, or pinch and spin every other link.
Cooking too hot	Poach gently instead of boiling, and step the smoker up slowly.

A blowout mid-rope isn't the end of the world. Stop cranking, back the piston off a little to release pressure, pull the split section off, tie a knot and keep going. The meat that came out goes back in the cylinder.

How do you stuff sausage by yourself?

I do it alone most of the time. This is what works:

• Clamp the stuffer to the table edge so it doesn't walk on you.
• Use the slow gear so you aren't racing the crank.
• Set a wet tray or sheet pan right under the tube and let the sausage coil onto it. The wet surface lets it slide instead of dragging.
• One hand cranks, the other holds the casing on the tube with light pressure.
• Don't link while you stuff. Stuff every rope first, then link or cut at the table.
• Have everything ready first: casings soaked, string cut, pricker handy, meat cold in the fridge until you need it.

Every recipe in the DeepWoodz app lists the casing size and type to use and scales every ingredient, including the ice water and the cure, to the exact weight of meat you have. The recipes are free. The Pro stuffing yield calculator works out how many feet of casing your batch will fill.

Bottom line

Use a vertical stuffer, the right tube, and cold meat. Pack the cylinder tight, run meat to the tip before the casing goes on, stuff chubs and sticks tight and links with a little give, prick the bubbles, and alternate your twists. Most problems trace back to air, overstuffing, or a mix that's too stiff. If your stuffed sausage still comes out dry or crumbly, see why venison sausage is dry and why sausage fats out.

Common questions