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So, I have no photo of this sausage, but to give you a picture: dry-cured chorizo, casing is easy to remove on thin slices, but on larger pieces the casing breaks sort of like paper – the edges becomes white (otherwise being transparent) and fibrous. I find it a bit chewy and like to take it off.

What type of casing is this?

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They choose edible casings, either way, you're better off taking the casing off.

It sounds like it's a cellulose synthetic casing. It's possible to be natural casing, but papery fibrous leads me to think cellulose.

I've included some pictures to aid you along so you can guess for yourself. Often it's easier to tell by the extra casing at the ends since natural and synthetic bunch up differently.

Here's a picture of synthetic casing from this morning's session (it's a sopressata):

Sythetic casing fresh

This is what it looks like cured and partially peeled:

cured syntheic

And this is what natural casing looks like fresh:

Natural Casing

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  • Any reason to remove natural casings? I really like the pleasant texture that they provide.
    – Matthew
    Mar 11, 2013 at 13:41
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    Well they are intestines and you-know-what goes through them. If you trust the source for cleaning the intestines properly before stuffing, then why not. The makers aren't necessarily expecting you to remove them if that's what you're asking.
    – MandoMando
    Mar 11, 2013 at 13:58
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    Ah, I knew that part already - I don't mind eating offal, so to each his own :)
    – Matthew
    Mar 11, 2013 at 13:58

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