Homemade Sausage Making

In the past when I've made ring bologna, I've also used the hog rings in combination with twine in order to get them to hang over my smoking stick in the smoker. Invariably I've had the string or ring give way and found my chub or ring on the bottom floor of the smoker. I know there is a special butchers knot one can learn to tie which I've never learned to master. So I was wondering if anyone has ever thought of using a small plastic zip tie in combination with the twine? I have some small ones that I use to tie up my blackberry canes to the trellis wires which can be cinched down to a very small diameter. So I was thinking these would fit the bill nicely. Your thoughts please?

Rick, not too long ago, one of our members did just that (used small plastic zip ties) and posted photos. He said they really worked well for him. They are back in the Sausage Photos forum (sticky) in "Sausages". I'll see if I can find them.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

I think that may have been the constrictor knot.http://www.animatedknots.com/constricto ... dknots.com

I've used zip ties, and they worked if my knots worked. Otherwise, they hold but the sausage drops.

There is also the bubble knot. See slide 16 if this address works for you:

http://www.delmarlearning.com/companion ... %20PPT.ppt

Thanks guys, I'll be sure to give the zip ties a try. I was able to see the bubble knot slide and that looks interesting also.

The bubble knot is the traditional knot to hang meats for curing and should be able to hold a good deal of weight (easily up to 3 lbs).

I just looked at the link Carbonaia posted and that's a little different from my recolection of a bubble knot. That said just because it's different doesn't mean it's any less effective, just different. Here's a link to the one that I'm more familiar with:

Ruhlman/Polcyn Salumi

Cabonaia wrote:I've used zip ties, and they worked if my knots worked. Otherwise, they hold but the sausage drops.

There is also the bubble knot. See slide 16 if this address works for you:

http://www.delmarlearning.com/companion ... %20PPT.ppt

This knot has a good lead and the casing should fail before the knot fails. It is quite similar to a sailors sheetbend which is used when a failure would be very inconvenient.