Tool Help Needed For Making Sausage

WeberWho

I don't know exactly what I'm doing but I've started purchasing things for making sausage on a budget. I've picked a few things up so far when I've come across them on Marketplace. I picked up a 20lb LEM meat mixer, and a 1.5 HP meat grinder. (More to come on the meat grinder but I'm currently waiting on backordered parts at the moment)

Here's my question, Do I buy a separate meat stuffer for stuffing sausage, jerky, etc, or do I use the meat grinder that I picked up and purchase stuffing tubes for it? My guess would be a separate sausage stuffer for better control but at the same time the meat grinder with a stuffing tubes is maybe adequate enough? Like I mentioned above, I have no idea what I'm doing but I've enjoyed piecing things together so far. I just need some direction from some experienced folks who make sausage. If a separate stuffer is the preferred way to go what size do you recommend? My initial thought was a 15lb stuffer but could be overkill or not enough. It will be for personal use. No catering or anything like that. More or less just something to mess around with during these winter months. Thanks for the help!

lkapigian

Separate Stuffer for sure and based on your other purchases it would be crazy to get anything less that a 20 pound stuffer , welcome to the fray 

Botch

Moving from that &%^$@!! sausage stuffer fitting on my KitchenAid to an inexpensive hand-crank sausage stuffer was a game-changer for me.  I still use the KA for grinding and mixing, however (I'm only making sausage for one).  Enjoy!  

Elijah

A stuffer for sure. Hand crank or motorized depending on the scale. Most I have done at once is 20 lbs. 

caliking

Botch said:

Moving from that &%^$@!! sausage stuffer fitting on my KitchenAid to an inexpensive hand-crank sausage stuffer was a game-changer for me.  I still use the KA for grinding and mixing, however (I'm only making sausage for one).  Enjoy!  

Preach! Stuffing with the KA attachment will make you have murderous thoughts. Its garbage. 

If you have helpers, its nice to have the option of a separate stuffing station. And, may as well go big on the stuffer. 

DoubleEgger

As mentioned, get the larger stuffer. It’s a pain trying to put 10lb of sausage in a 10lb stuffer. The biggest benefit to the stuffer in my opinion is that it discharges right above the countertop level. It is a lot easier than trying to hold everything and control the stuffing with a KA attachment. 

lkapigian

DoubleEgger said:

As mentioned, get the larger stuffer. It’s a pain trying to put 10lb of sausage in a 10lb stuffer. The biggest benefit to the stuffer in my opinion is that it discharges right above the countertop level. It is a lot easier than trying to hold everything and control the stuffing with a KA attachment. 

Glad to see you back @DoubleEgger

Canugghead

@jonessteave bait 

WeberWho

I've never owned a Kitchenaid grinder until this afternoon. A Kitchenaid mixer with a grinder popped up for $20. I've been buying Kitchenaid mixers for the last 8 years and I've never had one come with a meat grinder. What a strange coincidence after Botch's post. 

Botch

WeberWho said:

I've never owned a Kitchenaid grinder until this afternoon. A Kitchenaid mixer with a grinder popped up for $20. I've been buying Kitchenaid mixers for the last 8 years and I've never had one come with a meat grinder. What a strange coincidence after Botch's post. 

I did get a suggestion, from someone here years ago, to buy a second-party set of grinder plates for the KA that worked much better than the OEM plates.  Sadly I don't know where I got them, hopefully that person remembers and can advise the OP.   
Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

caliking

Botch said:

WeberWho said:

I've never owned a Kitchenaid grinder until this afternoon. A Kitchenaid mixer with a grinder popped up for $20. I've been buying Kitchenaid mixers for the last 8 years and I've never had one come with a meat grinder. What a strange coincidence after Botch's post. 

I did get a suggestion, from someone here years ago, to buy a second-party set of grinder plates for the KA that worked much better than the OEM plates.  Sadly I don't know where I got them, hopefully that person remembers and can advise the OP.   
Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

Good chance that @fishlessman is the one you're referring to. 

Score indeeed, @WeberWho. The plasticky KA grinder attachment is meh. At the least, the ones with a metal auger are passable. The full metal ones are better, but don't compare to having a dedicated grinder. 

RRP

Guess I have a combination of all the above and all of the grinder parts came together - no mix and match nor other purchased parts. My KA grinder attachment has the plastic housing but ALL metal guts. It all has worked for me for years, but no, I don’t grind half a cow at a time!

hvhunter

I’m the oddball. I have a 1hp Weston #22 grinder that I also use for stuffing. I actually bought a foot pedal to operate it and will use it the first time next weekend.  

I have a 5lb hand crank stuffer. I haven’t used it since I bought the Weston. I much prefer the ease of the grinder/stuffer and it’s one less thing to clean up afterwards.  

Botch

hvhunter said:
I have a 5lb hand crank stuffer. I haven’t used it since I bought the Weston. I much prefer the ease of the grinder/stuffer and it’s one less thing to clean up afterwards.  

Do you have an estimation of the "feed rate" between your Weston and the crank stuffer?  From what I've read the auger styles heat up the meat too much, resulting in fat "smearing" and affecting the final sausage texture.  
I know my KA could take nearly a minute to fill just one link, while my cranky moves much, much faster.  

hvhunter

I don’t know the feed rate. I primarily make venison summer sausage or similar.  I’ve never noticed what you described.  

My first batch will be this coming Friday and I’ll let you know what that rate is.  

WeberWho

Botch said:

hvhunter said:
I have a 5lb hand crank stuffer. I haven’t used it since I bought the Weston. I much prefer the ease of the grinder/stuffer and it’s one less thing to clean up afterwards.  

Do you have an estimation of the "feed rate" between your Weston and the crank stuffer?  From what I've read the auger styles heat up the meat too much, resulting in fat "smearing" and affecting the final sausage texture.  
I know my KA could take nearly a minute to fill just one link, while my cranky moves much, much faster.  

My buddy mentioned that he throws his meat grinder attachments in the freezer before using it to grind.

lkapigian

Canugghead said:

@jonessteave bait 

LoL

WeberWho

Botch said:

Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

I was able to snag it a couple minutes after it was posted. It needs some TLC. I had to rebend both lever arms in the vise to straighten them out. That's the first time I've seen that happen. Which is strange as the mixer itself is in excellent condition. So it wasn't dropped as it would have had to been dropped on both sides and would show some type of wear. I popped it open yesterday and she's looking nasty. It's going to get a new lease on life after I get done cleaning and re-greasing it. I'm hoping it sees a new owner this afternoon. Lots of people baking Christmas cookies. Hopefully it moves quick. 

RLS

Weberwho 

I have a 5lbs. Lem hand crank stuffer and a #8 Lem dual grinder typically I do about 15lbs. at a time. It works good for my use, although having a larger stuffer would be nice, not required but nice.

Yes you do want to keep the grinder head in the freezer until time to grind, if it starts to get warm put it back in the freezer. It may take longer to complete the entire batch but you will be pleased with the outcome. 

Also checkout Two Guys and a cooler YouTube channel, he has many videos on sausage making. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im_tHDpmgtw

Rick

lkapigian

Fresh Protein trumps Floppy Commodity Protein any day …. If you have to source the floppy stuff, salt cure for a day to firm it up, freezing grinder parts is not necessary 

caliking

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

...

This is the stuff of nightmares. I've been meaning to take a peek in my KA, and clean it up, but maybe I'll put it off a little longer

RRP

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

I was able to snag it a couple minutes after it was posted. It needs some TLC. I had to rebend both lever arms in the vise to straighten them out. That's the first time I've seen that happen. Which is strange as the mixer itself is in excellent condition. So it wasn't dropped as it would have had to been dropped on both sides and would show some type of wear. I popped it open yesterday and she's looking nasty. It's going to get a new lease on life after I get done cleaning and re-greasing it. I'm hoping it sees a new owner this afternoon. Lots of people baking Christmas cookies. Hopefully it moves quick. 

Just curious...how does one go about cleaning off the old grease? OR do you just remove most of the globs and re-grease it?

caliking

hvhunter said:

I don’t know the feed rate. I primarily make venison summer sausage or similar.  I’ve never noticed what you described.  

My first batch will be this coming Friday and I’ll let you know what that rate is.  

Nice meat missiles! Looks delicious.

hvhunter

X3 on keeping the parts in the freezer before use and when you have a break.  Same thing for cleaning the grinding plate. Once frozen it's easy to pop out the fat/meat from all the holes. 

hvhunter

The past years I've been cutting the casings to 12". This way once complete, when I cut the stick in half it will fit into the smaller food saver bags for sealing. Plus the bottoms don't get browned in my smoker. 

WeberWho

RRP said:

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

I was able to snag it a couple minutes after it was posted. It needs some TLC. I had to rebend both lever arms in the vise to straighten them out. That's the first time I've seen that happen. Which is strange as the mixer itself is in excellent condition. So it wasn't dropped as it would have had to been dropped on both sides and would show some type of wear. I popped it open yesterday and she's looking nasty. It's going to get a new lease on life after I get done cleaning and re-greasing it. I'm hoping it sees a new owner this afternoon. Lots of people baking Christmas cookies. Hopefully it moves quick. 

Just curious...how does one go about cleaning off the old grease? OR do you just remove most of the globs and re-grease it?

@RRP I switch any mixer I work on over to synthetic grease. So I painstakingly remove all the grease that I can possibly remove. Lots of paper towels, picks, toothpicks, swabs, and degreaser. Hours of brainless little detail cleaning. I always throw on a podcast so it's not so bad. 

If you were to use basic food safe grease you probably don't need to be all that detailed with re-greasing. With synthetic grease there's a good chance you won't ever have to re-grease your mixer. Synthetic grease won't break down like traditional grease or harden. So i find the extra time it takes cleaning the old grease out worth the effort since I'm using new synthetic grease.

lkapigian

Another awesome project @WeberWho. !!

JohnInCarolina

WeberWho said:

RRP said:

WeberWho said:

Botch said:

Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

I was able to snag it a couple minutes after it was posted. It needs some TLC. I had to rebend both lever arms in the vise to straighten them out. That's the first time I've seen that happen. Which is strange as the mixer itself is in excellent condition. So it wasn't dropped as it would have had to been dropped on both sides and would show some type of wear. I popped it open yesterday and she's looking nasty. It's going to get a new lease on life after I get done cleaning and re-greasing it. I'm hoping it sees a new owner this afternoon. Lots of people baking Christmas cookies. Hopefully it moves quick. 

Just curious...how does one go about cleaning off the old grease? OR do you just remove most of the globs and re-grease it?

@RRP I switch any mixer I work on over to synthetic grease. So I painstakingly remove all the grease that I can possibly remove. Lots of paper towels, picks, toothpicks, swabs, and degreaser. Hours of brainless little detail cleaning. I always throw on a podcast so it's not so bad. 

If you were to use basic food safe grease you probably don't need to be all that detailed with re-greasing. With synthetic grease there's a good chance you won't ever have to re-grease your mixer. Synthetic grease won't break down like traditional grease or harden. So i find the extra time it takes cleaning the old grease out worth the effort since I'm using new synthetic grease.

Wow.  Amazing job.  

fishlessman

Botch said:

WeberWho said:

I've never owned a Kitchenaid grinder until this afternoon. A Kitchenaid mixer with a grinder popped up for $20. I've been buying Kitchenaid mixers for the last 8 years and I've never had one come with a meat grinder. What a strange coincidence after Botch's post. 

I did get a suggestion, from someone here years ago, to buy a second-party set of grinder plates for the KA that worked much better than the OEM plates.  Sadly I don't know where I got them, hopefully that person remembers and can advise the OP.   
Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

they come up on ebay with the plates with the bigger holes. its a must for most sausage grinds and especially for a chili grind.  what ever model ka you have its important to match the plate notch setup with the new plates, ka changed the plate design over the years.  the stock plates are pretty much useless unless you are making a hot dog slurry, i cant see a use for their smaller plates.

hvhunter

fishlessman said:

Botch said:

WeberWho said:

I've never owned a Kitchenaid grinder until this afternoon. A Kitchenaid mixer with a grinder popped up for $20. I've been buying Kitchenaid mixers for the last 8 years and I've never had one come with a meat grinder. What a strange coincidence after Botch's post. 

I did get a suggestion, from someone here years ago, to buy a second-party set of grinder plates for the KA that worked much better than the OEM plates.  Sadly I don't know where I got them, hopefully that person remembers and can advise the OP.   
Helluva deal you got there, @WeberWho!  

they come up on ebay with the plates with the bigger holes. its a must for most sausage grinds and especially for a chili grind.  what ever model ka you have its important to match the plate notch setup with the new plates, ka changed the plate design over the years.  the stock plates are pretty much useless unless you are making a hot dog slurry, i cant see a use for their smaller plates.

Good point on the plate with bigger holes. My Weston came with two plates, 4.5 and 7mm. I bought a 10mm for it, and do the first grind with the larger plate. Game changer. 

WeberWho

Another question here, are the plates universal? My grinder requires #22 plates. Will any #22 plate work or are they designed for particular models. I've seen #22 plates for around $10-$15/each. The model I have wants $60/each. The $10-15 ones look the same as the $60 ones.