Originally Posted by
ChrisL
Oh, gosh. Natural casing is the ONLY way to go for a wiener. Who can resist or deny the pure pleasure of the *pop!* you experience biting through the casing and the flood of juicy goodness from a great natural casing dog.
I don't know if we're unique in Minnesota, but we have quite a few smaller meat lockers that make their own sausages, hot dogs, weiners, etc. Some have won national awards and are awesome. The most flavorful dogs/wieners I've had. Actually, Greg's Meats less than five miles north of Mike Blue's place on Highway 52 in Cannon Falls, MN has outstanding natural casing wieners.
Quick story: I bought about 7 pounds of natural casing beauties from Greg's Meats last year. I ended up eating them all myself for every meal of the day over a period of less than a week. I ate them traditionally in a bun, chopped and fried with eggs and with sauerkraut slow cooked. At the age of 39, I got gout. It was almost worth it. Now I have to keep cured meats on the "once in awhile" list.
Chris L