Twisting dogs and sausage

[minichef]

My first attempt at hot dogs a few months ago was a little interesting. The dogs turned out great but how do you keep them twisted? I ended up with a void instead of a twist.

Any help would be great.

Later,

 

[goat]

Twist one link one way a couple of rounds and then twist the next link the opposite direction a couple of rounds. Repeat

 

[minichef]

Thanks goat,

I made the mistake of twisting the same direction on some apparently!!!

 

[travcoman45]

It's like marching, left, right, left right! Grandpa used to twist all his right and then tie with butchers string. Never asked why, it worked and looked like they did in the old days (Geez, guess that was the old days!). Haven't done any yet, but going to have to give them a try when the new smoker is done!

 

[jimr]

The first time we made weiners we had the same problem. A friend of mine works at a meat shop and showed me how they do it with natural casings. He told me the guy stuffing should fill the casing the proper length for the weiner then pinch it off and start the next one. Keep doing this process until you have the entire casing stuffed. Once you are done with that you grip what will be the first weiner in your left hand and the third one in your right hand and flip/twist the center one three to four times. You then grab the weiner that was in your right hand with your left hand and with your right hand skip one and hold the next and do the flip/twist in the same direction as the first. You continue doing this for the entire length of casing. When you hang them you can only hang two weiner in lenght or they will unwind. In other words from the top of the stick there will be two down and two up on the same side of the stick, then cross over and again, two down and two up.

I hope I explained this clearly enough. If anyone has any questions, I will be glad to try and answer them.

 

[white cloud]

I think I get it, the first two down is with the twisted end down and the next two up, is the twisted end up. Thanks for the info, and it sounds like a real good way of twisten em. Maybe I should try that method with some of my bigger sausages,but probably will bust em open.

 

[kookie]

Interesting tips.......Should help alot of us out.......Thanks guys.......

 

[minichef]

I'll let you know how it works, I will be making polish snausage this weekend. Haven't decided whether to stuff with jalapenos and cheese or just the standard meat mixture yet.

 

[bombo80]

jimr hit that one right on the head. That was a great description of how to link sausages, not just wieners, but polish, brats, etc.. That is exactly the way I did it, when I was making sausage professionally. The only difference I can see, is after stuffing many thousands of pounds of wieners, brats, polish, etc., you get a feel for how much meat needs to be in the casing. That way you don't have to stuff it a link at a time. In business, time is money. the faster you can get it stuffed, twisted and on the smoke rack, the better. I also hung them with one (actually two) links on one side, then two (actually four) links on the opposite side of the smoke stick.

I think this picture will show what we are talking about.

 

[jimr]

Bombo80, the picture you posted is what I meant. The entire process is hard to explain without hands-on or a good picture to help out. Thanks

 

[walking dude]

nice pic bombo........got any of the finished product?

i take it these are natural casings?

 

[mulepackin]

Thanks for the description JimR and the photos Bombo. This is how I always try to do it, but as long as I've been doing it I seem to have troubles, especially at the ends of my rods. Bombo, do you find the metal, angle type rods to work any better than dowels? Do you guys tie gut lengths of sausage together to get an even number of links (divisible by four?)

 

[bombo80]

I've always used the metal, triangular smoke sticks. Ever since my professional days. I have never tried dowels. I like the triangular one, as the links stay put. But now that I think of it, we used round SS sticks, back in the shop. The only difference was the ends were flattened, and welded shut. That way the stick wouldn't roll.

I tie the first end shut, then stuff the casing full, to the end, and tie that end shut too. As I link the casing (hog casings in the pic), when I get to the end and I have an extra link, I will just flip that one through one of the double links, or around and through one of the four link sets. I hope that made sense.

The only thing you want to be careful with, is when you are placing them on the sticks, that they don't touch each other. If I have too many links for the smoke stick, I just cut them apart so I have only a single link hanging.