Hog Rings.....

[Mr Walleye]

I'm just curious....

I've been gettin' ready to make sausage (if my new grinder and stuffer ever arive) and I've been checking out various suppliers. The one thing I've noticed is any of the sites that descibe what the hog rings are made of usually say "Galvanized". I would have thought stainless with all the issues with galvanized material giving "off flavors".

Here is an example.... http://www.sausagemaker.com/browseproducts/-29150--nbsp-3-4--Hog-Rings.HTML

Whats everybody's thoughts about using any type of galvanized material in a smoker much less in direct contact with the product you are smoking?

Mike

[sherlock]

I never noticed that. However, when I use them they do not come in contact with the product. They clamp outside the casing which in my case are inedible anyway.

Maybe somebody who is more knowledgible about the technical end  may know the pro's and con's of them.

Nathan

[MoSmoke]

Mike
I've used the rings from the "Butcher Packer" site:  http://www.butcher-packer.com/pages-main/category-26_106/sausage-making-supplies-hog-ring-pliers.html.
They may be galvanized but they look like the ones you see on the 1 pound packs of pork sausage. I had never had any trouble wih them. I make a lot of dry cured hard salami, cold smoke it and age it in a small refrigerator for a month or so. For casings I cut muslin cloth to make 2 1/2 inch tubes and use the rings to close the tubes.
If I'm making link type "Italian" sausage I just use butcher twine to tie it off in 6 inch links. I also store home made sausage in the plastic bags like pork sausage comes in using the hog rings. I've never noticed any off taste, discoloration or anything.

John

[Mr Walleye]

Thanks guys.

Years ago I built a dryer for making beef jerky. I built it out of galvanized material. I ended up scraping it because of the gross taste the jerky had. I was just supprised they use galvanized material.

What I was looking for was some stainless "S" hooks for hanging sausage with. I wonder if I could just us regular "S" hooks?

Mike

[Tiny Tim]

Don't know why they wouldn't work, Walleye....just for safety sake, you could run another seasoning cycle in your smoker (or even in the oven) on the "s" hooks, in case they had oils from manufacture on them like the smoker initially did.

[MoSmoke]

Mike
I picked up stainless "S" hooks at a Lowes Hardware store in Delaware. I would imagine most major hardware stores would have them.
If not check out marine hardware. I use 1/2 inch hooks( probably an inch and a half long) to hang the sausages I smoke ( like I mentioned above ) in the muslin cloth tubes. I hang them from 1/2 inch oak dowels that are inserted into 2 pieces of oak flooring that sit on the top rail in the smoker.
This puts the dowels about an inch from the top of the smoker and allows for longer sausages.
West Marine has them but they are pricey.
http://www.doityourself.com/icat/shooksstainlesssteel ........ just a site I googled.

Good luck

John

[Mr Walleye]

Thanks Again guys.

MoSmoke
Do you think there would be any issue in using regular steel "S" hooks that you wouls see on the end of a rubber bungee cord? I can pick those up reasonably but the stainless ones are about $5 - $6 a piece here in Canada.

Mike

PS
My 1 HP Cabelas grinder just showed up at my office! Woohoo!  ;D
Now just my stuffer is back ordered.  ::)

[MoSmoke]

Mike,
I don't see any issue with regular steel hooks. If you could find some stainless wire you could also bend your own. In either case the hooks aren't really touching the sausage just the the casing. You could also tie a piece of heavy butchers twine to the end of each sausage or where you hang it and place the loop on the hook. I use to make jerky by hanging the jerky on sharpened stainless steel welding rods. I would impale them on the rod and space them so they were just not touching each other. You can get a lot more jerky in the box that way.

Good luck Mike
If I can be of more help PM me.

John

[Mr Walleye]

Thanks John, I'll probably give the regular steel "S" hooks a shot and see what happens. Your method using the 1/2 inch oak dowls going into side rails is exactly the way I had it planned.

Mike