meat mixers

[YooperSmoker]

would coating the tub with leaf lard help out with the sticking of the grind

Mike

 

[cal1956]

i make smoked sausage, polish sausage , Italian sausage and breakfast sausage , never needed to add water , i like the idea of wearing the two pair of gloves , i think i will try that !!

 

[indaswamp]

I'm curious to know why you have an aversion to adding water when making sausages-especially smoke sausages where the smoking process will cause the links to lose 10% or more water from evaporative cooling off the surface of the links. Smoked sausages will be more juicy when additional water is added. With the additonal water, the water that is left after the smoking process is roughly equal to what was contained in the raw meat at the start of smoking. The bind will also be much better.

 

[cal1956]

i like the texture better without the water and as far as shrinkage goes there is almost no shrinkage when i smoke them
i use a heavy cold smoke for 1 1/2 hours , when i take them off the smoker the sausage is nowhere near being cooked

another thing is spice delution , think of it this way : have you ever made a pot of chili and had it seasoned " just right " then added a cup of water to it ? it flattens the chili right ? same thing with the sausage , adding water delutes the spices

 

[indaswamp]

Curious as to why you prefer to cold smoke smoked sausages rather than hot smoke them?

 

[cal1956]

about all i can tell you is ,thats the way i learned how , it works so i see no reason to change the way i do them

 

[indaswamp]

about all i can tell you is ,thats the way i learned how , it works so i see no reason to change the way i do them

When you say 'cold smoke'. what temperature are you smoking at?

 

[cal1956]

100-110

 

[indaswamp]

100-110

Ok, actually, I would refer to that as warm smoking. Cold smoke usually is defined as max. heat of about 86*F, but only in a few eastern European countries. 71*F being a more accepted high temperature for cold smoke.

 

[cal1956]

i guess it just depends on what someone's own definition of " cold smoking" is
its hard to stay at anything lower with my smoker

 

[indaswamp]

i guess it just depends on what someone's own definition of " cold smoking" is
its hard to stay at anything lower with my smoker

People in the US typically define cold smoke in the range you use...thus the confusion...and why I asked. They have been preserving, dry curing, and cold smoking meats in Europe long before the U.S. became a country so I use that definition of cold smoking. I learned a whole lot about the process when I became educated on making salumi and salami. It's drying, but in the presence of smoke. Optimal drying is done below 71*F for a host of reasons I won't get into here. But if you are interested in dry curing meats, it's worth learning about.

 

[sawhorseray]

I love my mixer! Loads of arthritis in my hands and shoulders, I like drilling a beer while the meat is mixing. I do batches of 25-30 pounds, forward and reverse in my 1hp mixer does a great job. Cleanup is tough but that's just a part of sausage making, I'm retired and not in a rush. I like that it tilts, makes the entire process a lot easier. RAY

 

[slapaho_injun]

are they worth it ? for years i have thought about buying one of them but always wondered if they mixed the seasoning into the meat as well as i can do by hand , as i get older mixing that cold meat is getting more and more painful in my hands

Wife and I make 100# batches - 25# each of Italian, breakfast, brat & summer. Just the two of us and we debone our pork butts, course grind it all, add seasoning and mix by hand. 25# fits perfect in the tubs and I can get 4 tubs in my beer fridge at once, with taking the shelves out and using some would shelving between the tubs. I’ve used the hand crank mixers and the electric ones. Not worth the money if it’s my money. I think we get better distribution mixing by hand & leaving in the fridge for 2-3 days. Mix 2x the first day & 1x each extra day it’s in the fridge. I just keep parchment paper over the meat and tuck it in. Get better gloves. The grinder, stuffer & smoker is where my money’s at.

 

[cal1956]

yea i have always been tempted to buy a hand cranked meat mixer but after reading what the fellas that have them have posted , i have decided against it , but i have gained some good advise from this thread and do think i will be buying some gloves to keep my hands warm while mixing

 

[indaswamp]

The little cheap polypropylene liner gloves will do the trick to keep your hands warm with a nitrile glove on top. you can get a pack of 3 for like $2 bucks at wally world. When the meat sucks the nitrile glove off you hand-it's done!! LOL!!

 

[cal1956]

to reference another thread i started today since you and i were talking about "cold smoking " i am giving some real thought to skip the smoking altogether and maybe just using "powdered smoke " i haven't decided yet if i really want to do it or not,
but it would be a time saver not to mention not having to babysit the smoker

 

[tallbm]

I'm also in the boat that the meat mixers are not worth it.

Additionally like @indaswamp, I use a good drill and a sheetrock mud mixer to mix meat in a rectantular cooler or a modified buck I rigged up.

To me a 12A corded drill (cant be a weak drill) and mixing 10-15 pounds in a cooler is the way to go. Its fast, easy, and clean up is literally hosing out and then soaping and rinsing a cooler. If you are lazy u can go to a manual car wash and just wash coolers out with the spray guns. I do this after processing 3 coolers worth of game animals.

Now if there is concerns about the meat being too thick, simply mix up the batches in 10 pound increments. This is easy. You just mix up your seasoning and cure with some water to measure for 10 pounds of sausage then toss the meat and mix in the cooler and in less than 3 min or so everything is heavily mixed. You scoop it all out and thrown in the next 10 pounds and mix. Super simple.

If you switch sausage types a simple wipedown with wet paper towels or a hose rinse out in the yard/driveway gets it more than good enough to throw in a different type of sausage and mix.

Using this approach I can mix 100 pounds of sausage 3x faster than what it takes to clean one of those hand crank mixers which cant even hold 20lbs if it claims 20lb capacity.

Anyhow, I hope this info helps :)

 

[YooperSmoker]

there was a brief mention about a kitchen aide with a dough hook
can any one give more info if this works?

Mike

the reason I am digging hard on the mixer is Wife said the herd has to be down sized before winter....we are talking 20 pigs... that is a lot of hand mixing

 

[indaswamp]

dough hook will work, but paddle is better....

 

[Dabutcher]

I have to agree . I have a 20 pound mixer and although it saves on the hands it is kind of pain to clean . I think ill try my wifes kitchen aid mixer , a little easier to fit in the sink