Awesome sausage this weekend

sounds like you emulsified that meat down to hot dog consistency. You really don't have to double grind unless you want to especially as it was already ground in the first place making that a triple grind. I don't like to make my sausage into mystery meat myself.

Ya, Next time try to grind the meat once with a medium plate, mix in your spices and water and then you can stuff right away if your making fresh sausage.  If using cure, then you should leave the mixed batch overnight in the fridge before stuffing.  The ground beef you buy in the stores is usually ground twice.  If using pork butt and some ground beef, just blend it in with the pork while making the first grind.  It is harder to grind twice for sure, especially with most household grinders.  You have to stop to clean the plate and knife more often as well, as there will be build up the second time around [more of it].  Try this next time around and you will have a quicker and more enjoyable time on that grinder.  Reinhard

mummel said:

 
Oh and by the way, I am really glad I got a stuffer with metal gears.  I underestimated the pressure required to crank the plunger.  Im not sure how long plastic gears will last. 

Also, the air valve.  After I did my first 5lbs, when the plunger reached the bottom, the valve filled with mince (oozing out).  When I did my next 5lbs, it was blocked and didnt work right.  Without removing it and cleaning it, any tips on how to deal with this? 

Oh an note to self, next time use the C clamps.  What was I thinking hahaha!

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Meat should not be coming out the air valve.  As the plunger hits the top of the meat in the cylinder, it should push the air valve plate closed against the plunger bottom.  It should stay that way through out the stuffing even when the plunger is bottomed out.

As to the nylon gears, I have the Kitchener with nylon gears and regularly stuff snack sticks using a 3/8" stainless LEM tube.  That requires the most pressure of any of the sausage making I've done and I do not think I've ever come close to breaking or stripping a gear.  I think most people have problems when the plunger bottoms out and they try to keep cranking. I mark the threads on my stuffer with a sharpie pen to indicate "bottom" so I have a visual indicator when I am getting close and can pay attention to the pressure I put on the crank.  Yeah, I know you have steel gears, but marking the threaded rod might still be a good idea to give you some idea of where you are in the process.

If you were having trouble cranking to stuff sausage in that size casing, you meat was too dry.  I would add some water, beer, or whatever liquid you prefer to loosen it up some. Stuffing that size casing should be a breeze (unless you are using a 3/8" tube which would be way undersized). I pretty much always add liquid to my spices to make a slurry, which also helps distribute it when mixing in.

I think you might have overground the meat using pre-ground like that, but as long as it tasted good, who cares!  If all you were doing was mixing, you could have used the same size grinding plate or even a larger one to keep from making an over emulsified grind.  From what you said in your post, I would have mixed it by hand or in my 20lb sausage mixer depending on the batch size.

One tip for meat you grind a second time.  I form the first grind into roughly shaped long cylinders and put them on a cookie sheet.  I then stick them into the freezer until they are just about frozen.  Not frozen solid, but enough to hold it together if I pick up the meat cylinder.  If you make the cylinders just a tad smaller in diameter than your neck of the grinder, they should fall into the grinding screw without requiring stomping.  It adds a few minutes to the process and might be difficult with a large volume of meat, but I run 5 pound batches and it works fine for that.

boy did we learn this the hard way ....lol

if your going to be making more than 4-5 lbs of sausage don't hesitate BUY a good stuffer !!!!!

mummel said:

As for the valve, why did the meat come out of it?  Is it not working properly?  What can I do to prevent meat from oozing out again?

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The most likely scenario is that your over emulsified meat mixture is the issue.

i would completely agree !!!!

after doing it the way he described the 1st time,  we learned that grinding the meat once  with the med. plate gave us a fine enough grind to just season and stuff with a sausage stuffer

 anyone that stuffs sausage just once using a meat grinders attachment will learn to appreciate the value of a dedicated sausage stuffer real fast ...lol  

M, As the guys said one grind will do ya and mix the spices in by hand in a 5 gallon food grade bucket.

then why on earth would you want to send it thru the grinder the 2nd time ?

M, the guy is not a pro !

mummel said:

 
It turned out great!!!  I made some South African boerewors (Farmer's Sausage).  Consist of pork & beef with a variety of spices (mostly coriander).  I love this stuff!

I must say, making 10lbs took fricken forever this weekend.  There is a steep learning curve.  But by the 4th roll I was a pro loading the casings (they are actually pretty hardly, I thought they were fragile in the beginning).

The biggest gripe I had was sending the ground meat through the grinder a second time.  I used pork butt, ground once using the course blade on my LEM #8, and used already ground Costco 80/20 beef ($3.50 / lbs, good deal).  Mixed in my spices, then sent it through the grinder a second time (to mix the spice).  For this, I used the fine blade on 5lbs and the coarse blade again on the other 5lbs. 

This was tedious.  It felt like mush.  There was a huge vacuum where it was very difficult for me to pull out the stomper (I had to turn off the machine a couple of times).  It took forever to do. 

Any tips for this part?  Do you think using the already ground Costco beef was a bad idea (had they already ground it twice perhaps?).  Or is this just how it is?

TY guys!  Great weekend.

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• mummel
• Jul 20, 2015

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• mummel
• Jul 20, 2015

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What no pics of the stuffing ?

bet you a buck he never makes more than 5 lbs of sausage at a time !!!!

cal1956 said:

then why on earth would you want to send it thru the grinder the 2nd time ?

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There are some sausages where you want an emulsified meat product, such as hot dogs, Bologna, etc. The cheaper grinders don't do well with the fine grind.

For the most part I only use the course grind, and hand chop some too.

well we never considered "hot dogs or bologna " sausage  ...but if that's what folks want to call it,  I guess there is nothing wrong with calling it that ,but when I read the word " sausage I think  "smoked sausage "

all I'm saying is that without one of these
don't even try to make these at least not in any large quantity  !!!!!