Choosing the Right Casing Size: How to Avoid Overlap, Waste, and Breakage

Natural casings are incredibly versatile, but that versatility can also create confusion, especially when it comes to choosing the right size for the job. Pick a casing that’s too small, and you’ll fight constant blowouts. Go too large, and you’ll end up with oversized sausages that don’t cook evenly, don’t fit buns or packaging, and waste valuable casing footage.

The right casing size is one of the most important decisions you make before a single pound of sausage is mixed. It affects yield, consistency, appearance, cooking performance, and how efficiently you use every hank.

In this guide, we’ll break down how to choose the best natural casing size for your product style, equipment, and process so you can avoid overlap, waste, and breakage and get more out of every strand.

Understanding Natural Hog Casing Sizes (and What Those Numbers Actually Mean)

Nominal Diameter vs. Stuffed Diameter

When it comes to choosing the right hog casing size, the process can feel confusing—especially because casing sizing isn’t regulated across the industry. This means a 30/32 mm hog casing from one supplier may look identical to what another supplier labels as 28/30 mm. To help you pick the right size for your product—whether you’re making brats, Italian sausage, hot dogs, rope sausage, snack sticks, or breakfast links—we recommend using our sizing guide. Start by identifying the length of each link in inches and how many links you typically make per pound. With those simple details, you can calculate the ideal casing diameter for your application, ensuring consistent, high-quality results every time.

The band (e.g., 35/38 instead of a single number) reflects the natural variability of animal intestines. Good suppliers calibrate and sort casings by size, but there will always be a natural range.

Why Size Matters So Much

Choosing the correct casing size affects:

  • Cooking time and evenness
  • Texture and bite (snap vs. chew)
  • Appearance and portion size
  • How many links you get per hank
  • How well sausages fit in bun, tray, or vacuum pouch
  • How much casing you waste at the end of each strand

When casing size is dialed in, your sausages look uniform, cook evenly, and you use your material as efficiently as possible.

Match Casing Size to Product Style and Application

1. Fresh Bratwurst and Grill Sausage

For classic brat-style sausages, you want something that:

  • Cooks through without drying out
  • Has a satisfying bite
  • Fits standard buns or rolls

Most common sizes:

Going too large (like 40/42) for a standard brat can lead to:

  • Longer cook times
  • Over-browning before the center is finished
  • Awkward bun fit

2. Smoked Sausage, Kielbasa, and Ring Sausage

Smoked and rope-style sausages often benefit from a larger diameter, especially when sold as “family-size” or “slicing” sausage.

Typical sizes:

Too small a casing here can cause:

  • Overstuffing (to hit a target weight), increasing breakage
  • Uneven smoke penetration
  • Product that doesn’t match customer expectations visually

3. Breakfast Links and Snack-Size Sausage

Smaller sausages require sheep casings or smaller hog calibers.

  • Sheep casings (e.g., 20/22, 22/24 mm) – Used for breakfast links, snack sticks, and hot dogs.
  • Smaller diameter = faster cook time

Using a hog casing for something intended as a breakfast link often creates:

  • Oversized portions
  • Poor plate appearance
  • “Too much casing” feeling for the customer
  • Tough bite

4. Specialty and Regional Styles

Certain products have “traditional” sizes:

  • Chorizo – Often 38/40 or 40/42 mm
  • Italian sausage – Typically 30/32 or 32/35 mm for retail links

Choosing the right casing means respecting regional expectations and your process constraints.

How Casing Size Affects Waste and Overlap

When Casing is Too Small

Using a casing that’s too tight for your grind and recipe leads to:

  • Frequent blowouts
  • More trimming from torn sections
  • Shortened usable lengths when you have to cut out damaged areas
  • Overly dense sausages that cook unevenly

You’ll waste footage every time the casing fails mid-strand.

When Casing is Too Large

A casing that’s too big might not tear as often, but it creates hidden waste:

  • You use more casing per pound of meat
  • Overly large links may require trimming to fit packaging or trays
  • You might need to under-stuff to hit target weights, wasting diameter capacity
  • Tough bite

If you’re constantly trimming ends to make links “look right,” that’s casing you’re not getting paid for.

Overlap and Crowding During Cooking/Packaging

Casing size also affects how sausages behave in:

  • Smokehouses
  • Ovens
  • Vacuum packing or MAP trays
  • Retail displays

Too large, and coils overlap, causing:

  • Pale spots from blocked smoke circulation
  • Uneven browning
  • Links pressing into each other and deforming

The result: more sorting, more rework, and sometimes discarded product that doesn’t meet quality standards.

Avoiding Breakage: How Size, Fill, and Grind Work Together

Choosing the right casing size is also about matching it to your grind and emulsion.

Coarse vs. Fine Grind

  • Coarse-grind sausage (e.g., bratwurst) packs more air pockets and irregular edges.
    • Needs a casing with enough diameter and strength to accommodate that texture.
    • Often works best in 32/35 or 35/38 mm hog casings
  • Fine emulsions (e.g., hot dogs, frankfurters, bologna-style)
    • Usually go into smaller, more uniform casings (sheep or collagen).
    • Too large a casing can cause the emulsion to “spread out,” resulting in a loose texture.

Stuffing Pressure and Casing Diameter

Smaller casings + high stuffing pressure = more blowouts. Larger casings let you run slightly higher pressure, but if you rely on “bigger casing” to compensate for rough handling, you’re still losing yield.

Choosing a casing that fits the product, then adjusting:

  • Stuffing speed
  • Pressure
  • Horn size

…is key to reducing breakage.

How to Choose Size Based on Equipment and Process

1. Look at Your Stuffing Horns

Your available horn sizes can help determine realistic casing choices:

  • If your largest horn is small, very large casings may overstretch going on.
  • If your smallest horn is big, tiny casings (like small sheep sizes) may be impractical.

Ideally, each casing size you use has a matching horn size that lets the casing slide on easily without over-stretching.

2. Consider Smoker, Rack, or Grill Capacity

Ask:

  • How many links or coils do you need per rack or stick?
  • Do larger sausages overlap or touch excessively?
  • Are you seeing pale or undercooked contact spots?

If yes, you may want to drop one size down (e.g., from 42/45 to 40/42) to reduce overlap and improve airflow.

3. Think About Packaging and Retail Presentation

Your casing size should match:

  • Tray size (e.g., 4 brats in a standard foam or MAP tray)
  • Vacuum pouch dimensions
  • Label claims (e.g., “X links per pound”)

If you often have to:

  • Trim ends to make links fit
  • Rearrange or jam links into trays
  • Adjust weights mid-run

…then your casing size and link length are not aligned with your packaging.

Reducing Waste When Switching Sizes or Products

Many processors use multiple recipes (kielbasa, Italian, brat, etc.) and want to simplify casing inventory.

Strategy 1: Standardize on One “Core” Hog Size

For example:

  • Use 35/38 mm for all fresh and some smoked sausage
  • Reserve 40/42 mm only for specialty coils or rings

This reduces:

  • Leftover partial hanks
  • Risk of grabbing the wrong size mid-production
  • Complexity in training and SOPs

Strategy 2: Match Recipe Families to Sizes

Group products into “families”:

  • Family A: Fresh & bun-length sausages → 32/35 mm
  • Family B: Smoked & hearty sausages → 35/38 mm
  • Family C: Coils, rings, and specialty → 38/40 mm

This helps you:

  • Predict casing usage per batch
  • Plan hanks and inventory levels
  • Minimize odd leftover lengths

Strategy 3: Track Yield and Breakage by Casing Size

If you’re not sure which size is best:

  1. Run small batches in different casing sizes.
  2. Track:
    • Feet per batch
    • Links per batch
    • Breakage / waste
    • Cook and appearance results
  3. Choose the casing that balances:
    • Minimal waste
    • Best appearance
    • Correct portion size

Signs You Might Be Using the Wrong Casing Size

You may need to reconsider your casing selection if you notice:

  • Frequent blowouts even with proper soaking and technique
  • Links that look oversized on buns or in trays
  • Inconsistent link weights from batch to batch
  • More trimming than usual at link ends
  • Overlapping coils in smoker or oven racks
  • Customer feedback that sausages are “too big” or “too small”

Sometimes the fix isn’t more skill, it’s simply choosing the casing that better fits your product and process.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right casing size isn’t just about tradition or appearance, it’s a key lever for controlling waste, overlap, and breakage. When your product style, grind, stuffing equipment, and packaging are all aligned with the right casing diameter, everything runs smoother:

  • Fewer blowouts
  • Less trimming
  • Better yield per hank
  • Consistent, professional-looking sausages

Whether you’re producing classic brats, smoked rings, or specialty coils, taking the time to dial in your casing size will pay off in both product quality and efficiency.

If you’re ever torn between sizes; say deciding between 38/40 vs. 40/42 mm, it can be worth running a test batch of each, tracking waste and yield, and letting the numbers (and the finished product) decide.