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All,

I've recently started making sausages, and thoroughly enjoy it, but I'm having a little bit of difficulty with tying off the end links. I'm OK with the initial tie at the beginning of the casing, making the links in the middle - by twisting - and also the end of the casing when I've reached the end but I'm not sure about if I want to reduce the amount of links in each piece. When doing the start/end ties I'm needing to leave about 3-4 inches of casing so that I can tie properly but if I were to do that in the middle then I'd be leaving 6-8 inches of casing between the sections, and so losing what would be a sausage....bit wasteful as I'd run out of casing before running out of feedmeat.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to reduce the amount of casing I'd need to do the tie off so then I can stuff about 5 links and tie off then another 5 etc?

Any help/tips/advice/videos gratefully received.

Thanks

For fresh sausage, I don't tie either end.

I stuff the whole length of casing and link afterwards.

For hot dogs, I tie them with butchers' twine.

What type of sausage are you trying to make?

Phil

Hi Phil,

Recently I've been making rabbit and pork sausages, as well as some Italian Fennel and Whisky. I've just been given some venison to make sausages from. It's also for future and to enable me to make better sausages.

Thanks

Ken

Like Phil, I stuff and then link the whole casing. after an overnight rest in the frig they'll be firmed up enough to cut and hold there shape.
Not sure if this answers your question or not

Thank you Dan and Phil,

I see where I've been going wrong now. I've been doing the stuffing and linking but not giving them a night in the fridge to firm up, instead putting them straight into the freezer or wanting to separate out into the portions. I'll put the next batch in the fridge overnight before separating into portions.

My last batch were the Italian Fennel and Whisky sausages that someone put the recipe on here for.

I'd missed that one! For others, it's here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2532

What's it like?

I've never seen this one either, but it was before my time.....

Tie the initial link. Measure, twist and repeat. Then, once you get to the end, squeeze out the last bit. Tie the last link just like the first. Once you have stuffed out the hopper, put all the remnants back in and repeat. Leaving your sausage overnight to bloom and purge is a very good idea. The twists will also dry a bit, and you will have less squishing out the ends once you snip them.

A link if you forgive the punt .
You tube the Scott Rae project he's the man a full video on linking sausage.

Curious as to what kind of casings are being discussed here. I stopped trying to link collagen casings (tying or not) and simply cut to length as I stuff the sausage. I have had no problems with the casings splitting when cooking.