Making 180lbs of Bratwurst

[kenstarr]

People have asked so here it is, pictures of how I make large quantities of sausage at work. Hopefully I can get all the pictures on this post and in order.
Here are my steps.
1. mix up seasoning and mix with water to form a soupy mixture
2. grind pork through the 3/8" plate
3. return pork to grinder and add seasoning "soup"
4. turn the grinder on mix and attach the stuffing horn (3/8" plate is still used)
5. get casings in a bath of lukewarm water and rinse
6. grind about 5lbs of sausage through the horn to make sure there are no "dead spots" that don't have season
7. pull on a piece of casing
8. put the pedal down and regulate flow by how tightly I hold the casing on the horn
I do batches in multiples of 60lbs because that's what size case the boneless shoulder meat comes in and that's about how much I can fit in one of the gray meat lugs.

 

[pineywoods]

Thats cool what is the machine the links are passing thru and what exactly does it do?

 

[fire it up]

I sure hope you get to sample some of that occasionally.
Thanks for posting, love seeing things that we would normally never get a look at.

 

[beer-b-q]

Looks ling this linking machine from Koch Equipment here in Kansas City,

http://www.kochequipment.com/site/eq...d_category=181

http://www.kochequipment.com/common/...Linker_600.jpg

 

[pops6927]

Didn't have a linker, but remember all the rest all too well!

 

[kenstarr]

Instead of twisting and cutting links, this handy $2800 piece of work does the links for you. It works by squeezing and then cutting the links as you turn the handle. A couple of cams make the pieces engage. Imagine two V's open towards each other. As you turn, they close and in the bottom of each are blades. I have some video of it in action but you can't post that here. I'll have to set up my own website... Youtube? Maybe there is some video there. OK, I just posted the rough video there. Type in Z-linker and it should come up. May take a day or so to be available.

 

[smokeamotive]

Now if it would just twist the links and not cut them, I could use one of them. but it's hard to hang em up to smoke when there already cut.

 

[bb53chevpro]

Cool, Looks like you have some big equipment for making sausage.