My first sausage

[nepas]

I am still learning how to make good sausage, and so far, have done pretty good.  I recently saw a video on a sausage maker's site; they sell all the things needed to make sausages.  The video showed the basic methods and recipes to make sausage, and they showed pricking the sausages with a small needle device in the natural casings all over, and said that this was an important part of the process.  What do the more experienced sausage makers have to say about this?

Poking the casings removes air pockets from between the casing and meat. For a dry cure sausage it can help with drying. To reduce the air pockets keep the stuffing process close to the end of the tube, dont pull the casing forward then back to the front of the tube, There is where you will get some air. Also pack the stuffer tight to eliminate any air pockets in the stuffer canister.

[cookiecdcmk]

Thanks Nepas.  I did know about the air pockets, but this guy seemed to be doing it all over the link and no bubbles were evident.  It just said it made a better sausage, and I wondered about that.