The Sausage Thread

[fraser_john]

I have been having trouble stuffing my sausages stright of the mincer...

TB,

you just cannot do it this way, would be nice to save time, but it ruins the meat! Grind, season, mix and then stuff! Of course, it depends on what kind of sausage you are making, if you want a chunky sausage, then no way can you do this. If you want a smooth sausage, grind course first, then season, the grind with a smaller plate and stuff at the same time. But it always ends up being hard work as the blades bind on the fatty bits as it tries to force it down the stuffing funnel!

John

 

[Mercs Own]

Dont have this problem with the sunbeam What are you using?

 

[fraser_john]

Kitchen Aid

 

[Thirsty Boy]

A maxim - it is a cheap bit of rubish, but it grinds the meat perfectly well, just doesn't like the stuffing part.

I will do the very course grind followed by a medium/fine grind directly into teh skins and see how it goes.. but I'm still going to try to build a stuffer no matter what!!

Thanks for the tips

TB

 

[Mantis]

A maxim - it is a cheap bit of rubish, but it grinds the meat perfectly well, just doesn't like the stuffing part.

I will do the very course grind followed by a medium/fine grind directly into teh skins and see how it goes.. but I'm still going to try to build a stuffer no matter what!!

Thanks for the tips

TB

I have just bought a Kitchen Craft al cheapo mincer that comes with a sausage attachment. Will give some a go tommorow using the Boereworst recipe on the first page of this thread.
TB, if you get a stuffer working post pics eh

 

[Mantis]

Well, that was a failure. Managed to get a few but couldnt get the idea right with the stuffing.
Going to use the rest of the mix in sausage rolls.

:angry:

 

[Mercs Own]

When I first started making and stuffing my own sausages I used a hand grinder to grind the meat and then I got a kitchen funnel threaded my sausage skin onto that and hand stuffed my sausage casing by packing the meat into the funnel and forcing it down the tube with my fingers so as to fill the casing. It was a hassle and difficult as I would often push too much meat into the casing so it would split or the because the funnel surface was not wet enough it would tear the casing etc etc etc The Sunbeam is so much easier and as it cost me (well actually nothing as I was given it to use in a tv commercial) but if I had of paid the $179 four years ago It would now average out $44.75 a year - a damn good investment and it is still going strong.

Mantis dont give up!

 

[Henno]

I love my Kenwood mincer. I paid about 140 for it though as it was on special at hardly normal when my mate Budwiser bought his so I asked the lady he usually deals with if she could match that price after the special was finished and she did! Sweet.

As for your 'mushiness' Thirsty Boy even though I mince first then add spice then stuff I wonder how cold your meat is going into the mincer/stuffer. I get mine cold as my hands can take to avoid the mush syndrome.

I just looked at the instructions for your Sunbeam, Paul and it looks really similar to my kenwood. I haven't worked out how to mince and stuff yet with mine. How do you do that with yours. I have to put a little white plastic base plate between the orgar and the stuffing tube instead of the cutting blade and the mince plate when I am stuffing. Can you squeeze in the cutting blade, mince plate and the stuffing tube before putting the big screw over the lot?

The sunbeam is still a fantastic unit as is my Panasonic square boxy style juicer. Would never buy a different brand as it is having it's 15th anniversary soon and looks like it is new. You can still by that same model juicer so that says it all.

I have the same mentality buying fishing tackle. You won't find me buying reels in Kmart, maybe the well known plastic lures when they are on spesh though.

Good food and good beer, who'd be bloody dead?

 

[ibast]

Final got around to making some sausages yesterday. I used a kit that had a "cure" in it. Only I forgot to put the "cure" in. What is the Cure and will it make much difference?

 

[fraser_john]

Curing salts are usually only used for dried style sausages that are not cooked, such as salami, pepperoni, etc. If you make this style of sausage without the curing salts, you are pretty much toasted! If you are just making fresh sausage, either cook them up or freeze em.

 

[Mantis]

Well we lashed out and bought a Kitchenaid mixer with meat grinder sausage stuffer attatchments.
This worked so much better than the hand mincer. Pumped out a kilo of snags in no time

 

[Tony M]

If you want a smooth sausage, grind course first, then season, the grind with a smaller plate and stuff at the same time. But it always ends up being hard work as the blades bind on the fatty bits as it tries to force it down the stuffing funnel!
John

I was having this trouble trying to stuff on the second grind so I gave it a sharpen by lapping both the cutter and the plate with a sheet of 280grit wet & dry laid on a sheet of glass to ensure everything stayed flat. I also screwed up the retaining ring tighter than I had been. As a result I got a very good grind with no build up of silver skin or other crap on the cutter.
Incidently, I hand crank a #10 Spong.

 

[johnno]

Aldi have this one coming up next Thursday if anyone is interested.
700W of power seems pretty good.

http://www.aldi.com.au/au/html/offers/2827_7309.htm

johnno

 

[fraser_john]

Aldi have this one coming up next Thursday if anyone is interested.
700W of power seems pretty good.

http://www.aldi.com.au/au/html/offers/2827_7309.htm

johnno

Looks good in the advertisement! And the price is good. $99

 

[ibast]

My sausages always end up dry. Is it just lack of fat? or is it too much/little iced water? maybe I'm not working cold enough?

Last batch were 2/3 pork neck, 1/3 gravy beef.

 

[kirem]

3 days of pig fest. mainly sausage making, plenty of good food and beverage.

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[kirem]

I was lucky enough to be invited along to an Italian pig killing weekend. What a weekend.

Food, drink and sausage making.

It is very traditional and I learnt a lot over the weekend. Of course we ate all day, each day.

The pigs were killed on Thursday, hung and chilled over night, Friday night we de-boned them and took a few choice cuts out for use later on. Taking the Capicola was an almost religious experience.

Saturday we minced both pigs - 110kg of meat, fixed the meat and ate more food.

We had a big dinner on Saturday night.

Yesterday we filled the sausages, we had a high tech filler that was ditched after about 5kg and we went back to the original hand cranked filler.

Once it was all done and cleaned up, guess what.........? We ate again


Other than the butchering and sausage making experience I took a few other things away from the weekend.

A lot of the 'extended' family already know and trust me, but I now realise that the network of friends and families is enormous.

A lot of questions where asked of my heritage. I need to make an effort to learn more about my heritage - Scottish.

They learnt that I make cheese and stout and that impressed them. Samples to be provided of course.

 

[theMISSIONARY]

Get him he's a Campbell hahahaha.......any pictures of the Sausage

 

[kirem]

Get him he's a Campbell hahahaha.......any pictures of the Sausage

Quite the opposite.

You can't see the pictures of the sausages?

 

[AndrewQLD]

Quite the opposite.

You can't see the pictures of the sausages?

Awesome stuff Kirem, any recipes you can pass on?
That looks awesome.

Andrew