Method of making skinless sausage using reusable porous polytetrafluoroethylene casing

Claim 1

A process for the production of caseless sausages, the process comprising the steps of inserting pliable, reusable porous casings into casing support structures, the pliable casings conforming to the internal cross-sectional shape of the support structures, the reusable tubular casings being formed of a vapor-permeable highly porous polytetrafluoroethylene membrane having a microstructure of nodes interconnected by fibrils, said membrane being heat stable, and non-adherent to bulk sausage; filling the reusable casings with unprocessed sausage material; reddening the sausage material to a desired degree of redness by heating the filled casings; coagulating the bulk sausage material by continued heating of the sausage material, said reddening and coagulating steps including the concurrent steps of venting radially through the porous casing excess steam, water vapor, and other gaseous constituents released by the sausage material during said reddening and coagulating steps; ejecting the coagulated sausage material from the porous casings, the integrity of the membrane being maintained during said ejection step, and the external surface of the ejected sausage being smooth and its integrity being maintained during the ejection step; cleaning said reusable casings for subsequent refill with unprocessed sausage material; and refilling the reusable casings.