Homemade Sausage Making

Hit the wall fellas, Making pepper snacks and using a #10 hand grinder for stuffing. Made hundreds of lbs of polish in 32-38 mm casings with no problems. Having a lot of problems right now with this project. Did it once before and had no problems stuffing the calogen casings. TODAY it is a problem. Seem like there is a lot of "back pressure" and the mix will not flow through tube. Question is With a #10 grinder and reducing down to a small opening will this be continuous problem with this type of set up?

In my experience, the mix needs to be ground fine, a little watery, and very, very cold or it will be mushed up against the stuffing tube and turned into a paste...

I find this to be way too fussy, and generally won't even attempt it. A piston stuffer makes this a near trivial exercise.

Somewhere around here we have the Russ-Ross small sausage stuffin system I'll see if I can find it.

The unit you posted seems more of a grinder, and does not have the pressure to fill the sticks that small. I make my sticks with a 5 lb. Sausagemaker stuffer, which has pressure behind it to force the meat into the casings. Just my 2 cents.

here is the page: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... c&start=15

Oh Yeah, We WILL be doing this differently next time guys. Hell got up at 6;30 and finally got sausage in smoker at 12 noon. Wife not happy, had kitchen for 5 hours. Packed 25 lbs and it will take 2 batches in smoker. Made it to take up back to Buffalo with me. My 3 sons love this stuff, the hotter the better. Looks like I got a date at Loews up north el Ducko . Thank Guys, Much Appreciated, Fred

Hi Fred,

Be careful not to add too much water to your sausage trying to get it to become thinner for easy stuffing. It will make a mess out of the collagen and will cause the sausage to shrink when all that moisture evaporates. There is a better solution believe me.

People have written in about this problem numerous times before. The old timers are smiling because they`ve all been through the same problem and remember how difficult it was to stuff sausage using a grinder. The fact remains... a grinder was designed to be used for grinding - a stuffer was designed to be used for stuffing. It is my opinion (and a host of others), that a person will never be satisfied until he has procured a simple vertical, 10 pound, stainless steel, hand crank grinder. They are available from suppliers for a little over a hundred bucks. Are they worth the money for something you only use once in a while as a home hobbyist? Yes, absolutely. When you make sausage, you certainly don`t want to be bothered with difficult stuffing, breaking casings, constant reloading, etc. etc. ! Shuck pal, take the plunge and fork over the hundred. It will cause less cursing and throwing of kitchen tools. It can even produce a happier marriage because it is so fast and easy to clean up, it`s no bother at all. Here is a link to a model I`ve had for decades: http://www.sausagemaker.com/sausagestuffers.aspx

I`ve used this model since I bought it from ol` Rytek Kutas himself. Many people will tell you that "plastic" gears are not the way to go. The truth is, the gears are made of a nylon called Lubricomp. It`s tough as nails and if you simply stop turning the handle when the piston reaches the bottom of the cylinder, it will last forever. My original model is still in perfect condition. I`ve bought others over the years to "move up the ladder". I still come back to the old ten pounder for small batches, and I`m perfectly happy with it.

There are other ten-pound models available from other companies for less money, but many are made of cheaper materials and are flimsy. Look for a 10-pound, vertical, hand-cranked, stainless steel, stuffer from a reputable dealer and you`ll be satisfied.

There has been much written about these machines on our forum. Why not look back through some of the posts in the hardware forum? It will be worth your time.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

The first 500kg of American Breakfast sausage we sold were stuffed into sheep casings with a grinder. I was not really happy with the resulting product, but we were still trying to decide if this was going to be just a hobby, or a business, and the coffee shop that wanted this product was selling them like crazy.

Fine grind and wet mix that was very cold but not frozen allowed us to at least make the sausage.

Fortunately the customer - mostly the one coffee shop - was still pleased with them, even though there was considerable shrinkage. We linked at 4 1/2 inches and the cooked product was misshapen where the moisture evacuated the casing during cooking.

When we changed from stuffing with a grinder to stuffing with piston stuffers, I was able to go to a coarser grind - preferred in my area - and a stiffer mixture. The finished product is linked at 4 inches, cooks with very predictable shrinkage and looks much more appetizing after it's cooked.

This stiffer mix also lets me vacuum pack within minutes of stuffing rather than after freezing, so I can ship same day as stuffing rather than 24 hours later which was what we did at the beginning. The vacuum packaging is this customer's preferred packaging. He orders now once a week for the week, with his orders still increasing every week. We have added both commercial and retail customers for this as well as our other sausages, but to me it's still about the passion for making a quality product that people enjoy eating.

In my home kitchen where I do all my recipe development, I have a 3L hand cranked horizontal piston stuffer that's easy for one person to operate, runs perfect size sample batches for recipe testing, and is a dream to use and clean.

I've probably put 250 batches through this stuffer so far - as it sometimes also doubles as a production unit.

I've not been doing this very long, but do know you should follow the advice of guys like CW on this forum. It's been a lifesaver for me.

-t

Tim Hewitt wrote:

I've not been doing this very long, but do know you should follow the advice of guys like CW on this forum. It's been a lifesaver for me.

Tim, that is very kind of you to say that! Thank you pal.
Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon