Meat Grinder Question

Retired RailRoader

I have the Kitchen-Aid Grinder / stuffer attachment that I have too admit I have not used yet. I have read that this is a decent starter way to get introduced to sausage making. I was just about to place an order on the High Mountain web site when I saw this combo special

[url] http://shop.himtnjerky.com/online/home.php [/url]

Has anyone had any experience with the 600 Watt Electric Meat Grinder by Weston that is being offered by High Mountain. I figure $95.92 (this includes shipping) does not seem like a bad price for the summer sausage kit plus grinder. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
John

Grandpas Grub

John,

You need to ping AZRP and I think thirdeye also does a lot of home made sausage. I believe AZRP is at the fest so Tuesday or so would be a good time to repost your questions.

Sorry, no experience with grinding my own sausage or burger as of yet.

GG

AZRP

Why wait for Tuesday, I don't abandon the forum just because I'm at a fest. I don't have any experience with the grinder but the people at Hi Mountain are first class, I would call them and ask how it compares to the KA and if it a big enough step up to be worth buying. I have the Cabelas 1/2 hp and really like it, but it is a lot more money and meant for doing fairly large batches. -RP

Grandpas Grub

LOL...

Hope you folks are having a good time. Just startin to snow again, dang it - gettin tired of all this global warming out here.

I saw Retired RailRoader's post and got to found the brand and went to google. The price Hi Mountain is a pretty good price for this unit. I know nothing about grinders and got to wonderin. I was thinking they were in the $300 - $400 range.

It would be nice to hear from someone who has used one of these.

After seeing your sausage makin posts I have been wanting to give it a try.

Have a great fest and safe travel back home.

Kent

Angie2B

I've made decent sausage with my KA attachment, only thing I would suggest is to use a chilled bowl or the ice bowl attachment, I don't know what it's called. It attaches to the KA and you can sit the mixing bowl in ice. Anyway, when you grind the sausage, the grinder picks up some heat and tends to warm up the sausage, so chill down your bowl, if you can. I don't know about the other sausage grinder. If I was you, I would try the KA first, it does a pretty good job.

AZRP

If you want to give it a try, you can always buy some ground pork and there are plenty of recipes on the net. You don't have to stuff it into casings, just make patties and fry them. If you like it enough to pursue it, then start looking at equipment. I like a grinder to be just that and use a stuffer to do the stuffing. -RP

AZRP

Eggsactly, the KA is what I used for several years before going for bigger equipment. It does a fine job of grinding and a poor job of stuffing. Like any grinder, the best results are if the meat is almost frozen. -RP

Grandpas Grub

I handn't thougt of that. Good idea.

I need to do some recipe searching. Have you tried the Hi Mountain mixes?

Kent

AZRP

I use their mixes for all my sausage now. I used to try so many different recipes, but their Italian and Bratwurst are better than anything I've tried before. Thirdeye pointed me in their direction and he is my meat mentor. One thing to be careful about is they include a curing agent in the kit, you only use it if you are going to make smoked sausage. For fresh sausage, leave it out. -RP

Grandpas Grub

If it is good enough for you guys, no use in trying to swim upstream. Sounds like a good place to begin. Italian & Bratwurst sounds just fine to me. After that, maybe their sample pack.

Smoked sausage sounds pretty darn good too.

Thanks for the guidence. Kent

AZRP

Retired RailRoader

I just would like to thank all of you for the good info. I will stick with the Kitchen aid for now and if I really get into it I will travel down AZRP's road.

Rollocks

I use the KA to grind but I have abandoned the the KA stuffer for one by LEM. The KA stuffer is a complete waste.