A Costco customer in Missouri recently had quite the surprise when she cooked some sausages. It was so disconcerting, in fact, that she threw the rest of the sausages away and turned to the internet for help.
Anna (@inspiredbyyoujewelry) says she purchased Aidells all-natural chicken and apple smoked sausages at Costco. In a TikTok, she films some of the Aidells sausages cooking in liquid inside what looks to be a ceramic-coated cast iron skillet.
“What is coming out of it? Those little spots there and there,” she says, pointing.
Translucent tendrils extend a fraction of an inch or so from one of the sausages in multiple places.
“It keeps getting longer and longer and wiggling as it comes out,” Anna continues.
She shows that several are under the skin of another of the Aidells sausages. She also cut open a third to see if any of the mysterious tendrils were inside. They weren’t.
Anna was concerned and a little bit freaked out. “What is that? Please, somebody tell me what that is coming out,” she says. She adds that they’ve recently eaten a lot of those Aidells chicken sausages.
Anna captions her post, “What in the world is this?! Please relieve my mind!!”
Based on the response, it appears to have struck a chord with her audience. As of this writing, her TikTok has been viewed more than 254,000 times.
What Is It?
Many minds went straight to one disgusting place: parasites.
“I’m sorry, but those are straight up parasites,” wrote one.
The stringlike items do admittedly resemble parasites. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Aidells sausages are teeming with the tiny organisms that can cause gastrointestinal distress and other unpleasant health conditions.
Aidells Sausage didn’t respond to BroBible’s inquiry sent via the contact form on its website.
Many of the over 2,500 who commented on Anna’s post were taken aback. “My donuts would never betray me like that,” one person quipped. A few self-identified vegetarians and vegans thanked their non-meat eating ways that they are arguably less likely to encounter strange creatures in their dinner.
As more than one person pointed out, there’s another, perfectly logical explanation that doesn’t involve organisms colonizing your digestive tract.
“I worked in a butcher shop,” one commented, “They’re using sheep intestine as their casing. They’re called casing whiskers, completely normal. Cut the sausage open and if you see that on the inside of the actual meat product then you worry.”
As Quality Casing explains, “‘Whiskers’ are the capillaries that hold the intestine in the fat and provide a flow of blood to the intestine.” These capillaries aren’t entirely removed during processing, so they can create what’s described as a “hair-like appearance” on the casing’s surface. It says these typically disappear after cooking.
Let’s Try That Again
In a follow-up, Anna cooks a second package of Aidells sausages. Again the little tendrils appear on the outside.
More people weighed in to express their opinion that she’s just looking at the casing whiskers, which are nothing to worry about.
“I’m from the south where we eat boudin a lot and this happens if you boil it,” said one. “It’s the casing 100%. I have made homemade sausage and this happens as well.”
Another said that the whiskers appeared to be moving because they’d stretched out and were simply recoiling. “Casings are stretchy. This is completely normal,” they said.
Whisker or not, Anna’s pretty much off Aidells chicken and apple sausage for the time being.
“I won’t be eating these any time soon,” Anna says.
She didn’t respond to BroBible’s text messages seeking comment.
@inspiredbyyoujewelry What in the world is this?! Please relieve my mind!! 🤢 #aidellssausage #costco #chickenandapplesausage #tiffanyplate #gross