Sheep and Hog Casings are the two main types of edible natural casings used for sausage making, the main difference between the two being their size (width). The width of your sausage is dictated by the width of the casing that you use. Sheep casings are not as wide as hog casings so a sausage made with a sheep casing will be slim and tender, e.g. a breakfast sausage or hot dog. A sausage made with a hog casing will be a fat and chunky, e.g. an Italian Sausage.

History and tradition usually guides which sausage casings are used for each type of sausage, and therefore the size of the sausage. However, there really is no technical reason that sausages have to be certain sizes, and therefore use certain casings, and your sausage will taste the same regardless of whether you use a sheep or hog sausage. So don’t get too caught up on the size of your sausage.