LEM Big Bite #12 Meat Grinder Arrived

[cliff43j]

I did my first batch of ground pork shoulder using my wife's KitchenAid Pro counter top mixer with its meat grinding accessory and sausage stuffing accessory.  I bought the pork shoulder from Sam's.  They had bone-in only.  If I had known that the pork shoulder preparation for grinding and then the grinding itself would be so difficult for this old man (73) I never would have started to make sausages in the first place.  It was a marathon project of nightmarish proportions.  The next day I could barely move.

Fortunately the sausage was so delicious that I decided to give sausage making one more try - this time with better equipment, and as luck would have it, better meat.

I bought a stainless steel, 7 liter, vertical, sausage stuffer. Next I bought an LEM, Big Bite, #12 meat grinder and on a whim a Costco membership.  The Costco card turned out to be the first of 3 blessings as they had BONELESS pork shoulder which was a snap to cut into 2" strips, and it was less expensive at $1.99/lb. vs. $2.38/lb. too!  I bought 2 packages for a total weight of 34 lbs - no waste also.

The LEM #12 Big Bite meat grinder was simply AMAZING!  I could not feed it fast enough to keep up with it, and I was feeding it strips of pork that were 2"x2"x various lengths.  Color me happy.  I was finished in less than 15 minutes compared to the almost an hour with the KitchenAid.  Putting through the first-ground-batch of pork was a breeze too!  I DO LIKE THIS NEAT GRINDER VERY MUCH!!!

The sausage stuffer works well with the Syracuse casings that I now have.  My first batch of casings was bought online on eBay and was a disaster - very frustrating to use basically "culls".

I've taken some photos of the grinding process and will take more while stuffing later today.  This has turned a sausage-making nightmare into "tasty fun".

Cliff.

 

[montanabbq]

Cliff,

Sounds like the fiasco I had when I first started out. I too started with a Kitchenaide grinder. I found if I froze the meat and fed it very slow it work. I eventually bought a Cabela's 1 hp #22  grinder that made things a whole lot better. Last year I bought a vertical stuffer that does 20LB per load. My only suggestion would be to get a motor attachment for your stuffer so you don't need to supply the horse power when stuffing and a foot power feed so you can keep your fingers safe.

Since that time I have stuffed over 1000LBS of sausage and have even created my own blends.

Chris

 

[ab canuck]

Cliff, I feel for you, That is how we started as well, Poor kitchenaide....  We ended up going to an LEM #22 1 hp. Wow is all we had to say. I doubt you ever be disappointed with grinder let alone the gear you have. Sausage making is a whole lot of enjoyment IMO. Way to go and keep it up. Looking forward to the pics...