Hey Bill,
Good to hear from you! Thanks for checking in, and for the compliment. I'll take a picture of the bratwurst cross-section when I cook some links. The texture is actually pretty good, and I've seen other bratwurst recipes that aren't emulsified either. I'd like to try some weisswurt or frankfurters soon to play around with an actual emulsified sausage.
The LEM #5 grinder works just fine for my small (5 lb) sausage batches. Takes much longer to chop the meat/fat small enough to feed down the chute than the actual grinding takes. You have to chop meat/fat to around 1 to 1-1/2 inch pieces, but the grinder then makes quick work of them. I can grind 5 lbs in around 5 minutes by myself, and don't have any problem with smear as long the meat/fat is semi-frozen. In fact, I've never even used my coarse plate....I just run everything through my fine plate a couple of times and it works great. Unlike your KA grinder attachment, you'll need to handwash the
LEM grinder. But it cleans up nicely if you run a couple of slices of bread though the grinder at the end to absorb the fat smears. If you are planning bigger batches of sausage, you might look at the #8 or #12 grinders to see if they have a bigger diameter feed chute as compared to the #5.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your week, and stay dry! I guess a big storm is supposed to be blowing in tonight or tomorrow.
