One knot does almost all of it. Learn the butcher's knot — the slip loop that pulls tight and stays where you put it — and you can tie a rolled pork loin on Sunday, truss a chicken for the rotisserie, and close a salami that has to hang in a cellar for eight weeks. It is the same loop every time. The string is plain cotton: butcher's twine, undyed, unwaxed, strong enough to bite into fat without cutting through it.
Most people meet it for a roast and never use it again. That is a waste of a skill, because the moment you start curing and drying meat at home, string stops being a kitchen convenience and becomes the thing holding your work in the air.
What butcher's twine actually is
Plain cotton, spun into a few plies, with nothing on it. No wax, no dye, no plastic core. That matters for two reasons: cotton takes heat without melting, and it dries out rather than trapping moisture against the meat when a piece hangs for weeks.
The names are a mess and they all mean the same spool: butcher's twine, butcher's string, kitchen twine, cooking twine, kitchen string. What matters is what's on the label. If it doesn't say cotton, put it back — garden twine is usually jute and often treated, and craft twine is frequently waxed. Neither belongs on food.
How to tie a roast
The first loop and the ones after it are not the same knot, and that is the part most instructions skip.
The first loop is the butcher's knot. Pass the twine under the roast and bring both ends up. Wrap the short end twice around the long end, then pass it back through the turn you just made. Now pull the long end: the wrap jams against itself and the loop slides shut without slipping back while you let go. That self-jamming is the entire point of the knot — you need one hand free to hold the meat in shape.
The loops after it are half hitches. Run the long end down the roast, throw a loop around it and pull it snug against the last one, and repeat. No knot tied at each station, just a hitch that holds because the next one holds it. At the far end, take the string under the roast, back up to the start and tie the two ends together.
If that sounds fiddly the first time, use separate lengths instead: one loop at each station, each tied with a plain double knot. It is what most home cooks do, it uses more string, and the result on the plate is the same.
Then the spacing. A loop every three to four centimetres along the roast, each one tight enough to shape the meat but not so tight that it bulges between the loops like a string of sausages. If it bulges, you are strangling it, and the outside will cook before the middle does. A rolled loin wants the loops perpendicular to the roll so the seam can't open.
The reason to bother: an evenly tied roast is an evenly cooked roast. A loose one falls open, browns unevenly, and carves into ragged slices.
How to truss a chicken
Trussing is not about looks. A bird with its legs splayed dries out at the breast before the thighs are done, because the thin part sits exposed to the heat. Pull the legs in and you shrink the surface that is cooking fastest.
The quick version that works for a roast or a rotisserie: cut a length of twine about three times the bird's length, slide it under the tail, cross it over the ends of the drumsticks and pull them together, then run each end along the sides of the bird, over the wing joints, and tie it off behind the neck. Wings against the body, legs crossed and tight. You are done in twenty seconds once you have done it twice.
Tying charcuterie so it hangs
This is where twine stops being a cooking aid. A piece of meat that hangs for weeks is held by string alone, in a room where the airflow matters — so the tie has to grip a muscle that will lose a third of its weight and shrink away from every loop you made. Tie a hanging piece the way you'd tie a roast and you'll come back to a slack net and a piece resting against the wall.
Salami and dry sausage
Two jobs: close the casing and give it something to hang by. Tie off the end of the casing tight, leaving a loop long enough to slip over a hook. Then run a series of half hitches down the length — a loop thrown around the sausage every few centimetres, each one pulled snug against the last. They hold the shape while the sausage firms up, and because each hitch is independent, the whole thing tightens rather than slackens as the meat shrinks. Sausage twine is the same cotton as the spool you tie a roast with, only thinner.
Chorizo in a sarta
The Spanish answer to the same problem. A long rope of chorizo is tied at intervals into links, then the two ends are brought together and tied into a horseshoe — the sarta — which hangs from a single hook without anything sliding. It is a shape that exists because a cellar beam has limited space, and it is still the way you'll see chorizo hanging in a market in León.
Coppa, and the big spiced rolls
A coppa is a whole pork neck, rubbed with pepper and whatever else the maker swears by, packed into a casing and then tied — properly tied, tighter than anything else here. The casing is pulled hard around the muscle and held with a spiral of hitches from one end to the other, squeezing out the air pockets that would otherwise host mould on the inside where you can't see it. Done well it comes out as a firm cylinder that slices clean. Done loosely it dries into a lumpy thing with hollows.
The northern cousins are tied the same way. German Rollschinken and Lachsschinken are cured, rolled and bound before they hang. The extreme version is culatello, which is netted rather than looped: the string crosses itself into a lattice over the whole surface so the pressure is even everywhere, which is why a good one looks like it was wrapped in a net bag by someone with a lot of patience.
If you would rather not learn the lattice, our protective net holds the shape of a whole muscle and keeps the flies off it, though it won't give you the even pressure a proper lattice does.
Biltong, and things that hang by a slit
Biltong needs one knot and no more: a short piece of string through a slit cut in the end of the strip, tied into a loop to hang it, or no string at all if you hang the strips straight on hooks. Nothing is bound along its length, because biltong dries fast and has no shape to hold — there is nothing to compress. If you want the method, we wrote up making biltong at home with Danish butcher Mikkel Borre.
Whole muscles: prosciutto, lonzino, bresaola
A ham hangs by the hock, so the tie is a loop around the bone and nothing else. A lonzino or a bresaola goes into a casing and gets the coppa treatment: a spiral of hitches, pulled firm. The rule for all of them is the same — the string carries the whole weight for months, so use new twine, tie it tighter than feels necessary, and check the loops after the first two weeks when the piece has lost its first water.
Hanging it, and knowing when to stop
Once it is tied, the string's job is done and the room's begins. Weight is the measurement that tells you what is happening inside: a piece is ready when it has lost the share of its starting weight the recipe asks for, and a scale that you have to take the meat down to use will get used twice and then forgotten. That is the whole argument for the Meatdryer hook — it hangs the piece, weighs it where it hangs, watches the temperature and humidity around it, and tells you in the app when the recipe's target is reached.
One caution worth taking seriously: use new twine for anything that will hang, and never re-use string from a previous piece. Cure times, salt and temperature come from the recipe you are following in the app, not from the knot — a well-tied piece hung in the wrong conditions is still a failed piece.
Questions we get
Can I put it in the oven? Plain cotton twine is what it is for. Waxed, dyed or synthetic twine doesn't belong in an oven.
Can I re-use it? For tying a roast you are about to cook, if it is clean. For anything that hangs, no.
Twine or an elastic net? A net is faster and gives even pressure over a whole muscle, which is why commercial producers reach for it on coppa. Twine gives you control over where the pressure sits, and it is the only option for closing a casing or making a hanging loop. Most people who cure at home end up with both.
Shop the essentials
Everything you need to tie a piece and hang it properly:
- Meatdryer Hook – Uses recipes, temperature, humidity and weight to tell you exactly when your meat is ready.
- Butcher's Twine – Food-safe cotton string that grips a wet muscle and holds it for months.
- Protective Net – Keeps flies off and holds the shape of a whole muscle while it dries.
- Accessory Hook – Hangs a second piece from the same spot.
