Turkey Sausage

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deejaydebi

Legendary Pitmaster
Original poster
Nov 18, 2006
7,996
25
Connecticut
I'm thinking of substituting turkey burger for some of my beef and or pork i my sausages. I have two turkeys in the freezer so ....

When you grind the turkey meat how fine a blade would you use? It's kind of soft so I am guessing a course grind to keep it from turning to mush? I've never used ground turkey before where does the fat come from or do I just add more beef or pork fat to compensate?

Debi
 
Grind while the turkey is partially frozen so it wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t mush, especially if you are going to grind twice. Lots of times, when your butcher is grinding deer meat, he will add beef or pork fat (customers choice) to keep from being too lean, try some pork butt, but then you are defeating the purpose, unless you are making (lite) sausage
wink.gif
 
Thanks UIS.

I was told Turkey burger was better than beef and gave sausage a better texture. I can't imagine that but the texture thing could work I guess. I was also told it makes a better binder.

I usally put my meat in the freezer for a few hours to get "stiff" before I grind it. I have one of those old bolt to the table crank grinders. It clogs prety easy and mushes up if it's not fairly stiff.

Needless to say I don't make a whole lot at a time. Been thinking of getting one of those attachments for my Kitchen aid mixer that grinds meat but It may be cheaper to get a stand alone grinder.
 
yo d j deb
yesterday i made 2 lbs of my turkey chorizo.... its good..
i use it as breakfast sausage in patties...
but i cheated a little--
i used store bought ground turkey...

i m o -- i would do a small batch useing the thighs only..
the fat is in skin--cut up and grind it.
the 1/4 inch plate would be my choice for grind...

i would use a binder with turkey---its very lean...i do with lean meats
i do not add extra fatback or such.......
binder at 3 percent weight of bird---
the binder will help retain moisture in sausage...

i like smoked turkey legs too much to grind them.....
my honey likes smoked breasts..
 
Debi- a trick we used when whe had the meatcutting business was to keep the grinder head in the walk-in box to keep it cold. We would re-attach it to the main body when we had stuff to grind. You could refridgerate the ginder worm, plate and blade before using to help keep the meat cold.

Beef I'll grind twice-pork and turkey I'll coarse grind once-add my spices and then mix by hand.
 
hellohello,
when using my- clamp on -manual grinder---

grinding 1/4 inch [on one grind]is very difficult..

i wash ,rinse and put whole grinder in refridge 1 day before grinding..

on brats and italian and polish --i m o -- 3/16" is whats needed.
 
Shelly, Most meat departments double grind all their burger and sausage products for a finer texture. We would do the first grind with a 3/8th inch plate and the do a second grind through a 1/4 inch plate. This eliminates chunks of unground meat. 3/8th & 1/4 inch are the size of the holes in the grinder plate.

When I make chili, I like to grind bottom round once through the 3/8 inch plate. This makes for a nice chunky chili.

Debi, I use the grinder attachments and stuffing horns on my KitchenAid. It works really well as long as you keep your batches around 5 pounds or so.
 
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