Homemade Sausage Making

I think that many people are put off by the many pieces of equipment and the tools specified for sausage making. I know that in the not too distant past home sausage makers had a meat grinder and two or three plates and one knife. They had to make do for stuffing and mixing and for weighing. Packing different grades of meat into different size containers.
We need a discussion on how basic our equipment can be and still allow us to make good sausage. I will never own a bowl cutter. It is only by vertue of a chance trip to an auction that we hve a food processor. For a kitchen scale I have a Pitney-Bowles 4 pound postage scale and because I rebuilt a boat I have a twin beam baby scale that I used for weighing resin. For years I had only a Universal food chopper that chopped everything coarse. I recently bought a #10 grinder with two plates. One is about 3/8 and the other is about 3/16 or 5/32 inch and it has 3 stuffing tubes. That works alright for fine mince but for anything chunky it is worthless.

Today I made a wooden plate to repair a kitchen sink countertop faucet mount. Because I have the tools I used six stationary shop tools to shape and fnish a 3x15 inch piece of wood. 40 years ago I would have done it with hand tools in ten times the clock time and it wouldn't have finished as nicely BUt it would have served the purpose.

When it comes to sausage making can we also make very fine sausage with just basic tools?

I think that many people are put off by the many pieces of equipment and the tools specified for sausage making

My thoughts are we all have hobbies. In my experience a whim burns out with time and a valued hobby tends to draw one in for the long haul. For me this started several years ago, mostly with simple jerky and snack sticks. Then it progressed into a larger endeavor, like salami and sausage. As for the equipment, I have purchased and built my own equipment over the years to support my hobby, and I`m always figuring out a way to improve my hobby, generally there is a cost, other times it`s a simple equipment improvement or design.

I would suggest if folks have questions regarding what equipment is necessary, they should visit the equipment section of this site. I`m sure most everyone here would be happy to answer any and all questions. Then one could decide if the cost is worth the effort.

I understand that there is a broad range of equipment that is used but what is the least that is needed. I am a bit of an antique buff and have seen some of the primative wood and steel meat choppers that were used on the farms. I have seen grinders mounted on old grindstone frames and driven by small electric motors with a two foot vee pulley on the grinder and a 2 inch pulley on the motor..

I have a pair of digital thermometers. I use one as a wet bulb and one as a dry bulb but for the sake of a stable reading the dry bulb thermometer is in a bottle of water and the wet bulb is equiped with a wick but the probe is above the water line. This gives me the chamber temperature and the dew point. You can find on line tables that tell you the RH for differences between wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures.

Google psychrometers and learn more.

ssorllih wrote:I think that many people are put off by the many pieces of equipment and the tools specified for sausage making. I know that in the not too distant past home sausage makers had a meat grinder and two or three plates and one knife.

My first book on sausage-making was the 1st edition of Reavis' Home Sausage Making, and I was using the grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer, with one knife and two plates. It didn't take but a couple of batches for me to decide to switch to a Porkert #10, I took off a friend's hands. I agree that there can be a lot of specialized equipment for making sausage, just as in homebrewing, but you don't have to have a lot of equipment to make good fresh sausage, just as you don't need a lot of fancy equipment to make good beer.

I do think people are put off by the cost of a lot of sausagemaking equipment, not so much the variety, because when you get down to it, there isn't that much equipment, but what there is can be expensive, even from the less expensive sources. I also see what is clearly reverse snobbery, by people who pride themselves on not using a lot of equipment or careful measurement of ingredients, and not taking particular care with their ingredients. I think perhaps the reverse snobbery is a way of rationalizing not being able to afford to get better tools, and is more about convincing themselves that less is more, than it is about putting down those who do rely on more tools and equipment.

For a long time, my only equipment was a used #10 grinder and stuffing tubes for it. I used volume measures for spices and other ingredients, and kitchen scales (and my collection of mechanical balances) for gross measures. I made decent fresh sausage and learned from the experience, and from that experience I also discovered what I really needed (and didn't need) to make good, reproducible results.

...We need a discussion on how basic our equipment can be and still allow us to make good sausage. I will never own a bowl cutter...Today I made a wooden plate to repair a kitchen sink countertop faucet mount. Because I have the tools I used six stationary shop tools to shape and fnish a 3x15 inch piece of wood. 40 years ago I would have done it with hand tools in ten times the clock time and it wouldn't have finished as nicely BUt it would have served the purpose...

I think your example is different from using basic tools to turn out very fine sausage. Your example is more about using basic tools to turn out acceptable sausage. I certainly can't afford thousands of dollars for a bowl cutter. Right now, I can't afford hundreds of dollars for a smoker for cold smoking, or refrigerators and other vessels and equipment for drying and curing sausages. As a result, there are things I don't have any illusions about making. I have a food processor, so I can attempt a decent emulsion sausage, even if I can't make a true emulsion meat batter. However, my horizontal offset hot smoker (which makes excellent barbecue) is not for cold smoking and does an uneven, lousy job of it, and I know I won't make decent cold smoked sausages until I obtain or fashion a cold smoker. I know that I can't make good, safe semi-dry or dry cured sausages without being able to create the appropriate environment. So I will wait until I can. What I can do, right now, is make very good fresh sausages, and I only need a little equipment to do that.

...When it comes to sausage making can we also make very fine sausage with just basic tools?

Certainly, we can. I think sausagemaking is 90% technique and ingredients, and 10% equipment. You can "do the job" with a Universal grinder and a single plate - grind 30 pounds of pork shoulder and divide it into three 10 pound batches, throw lots of garlic at the first batch and call it kielbasa, throw garlic and French four-spice powder at the second batch and call it saucisse a l'ail, and throw garlic, oregano and paprika at the third and call it fresh chorizo. But do you want to do more than "do the job"? If you want to make "very fine sausage" then you either need to focus on sausages that call for a coarse texture, or you need to expand and refine your equipment a little, so you can achieve the subtleties of flavour and texture that the equipment can help you achieve for different sausages - like having several different grinder plates for achieving a blend of textures. If you want to make "very fine sausage" then you may want to consider investing in a stuffer so the fat and meat do not heat up quite so much during stuffing, as happens if you are using your grinder or hands to stuff the forcemeat into the casing. Very fine sausage, though, begins with selecting good ingredients and handling them properly. Beyond that, a properly maintained grinder and a means of stuffing the casing are all the specialized equipment you need to make very fine sausage. Everything else - knives, containers, bowls, measuring and weighing - are things you should have in your kitchen, anyway. Just my opinion.

After I got my #10 grinder with two plates and stuffing tubes, I invested in additional plates and knives so I could achieve a variety of textures. The quality of my sausage improved. After many years of stuffing through the grinder, I invested in a vertical stuffer, which speeded up the stuffing process and made it much easier for me to do alone in a reasonable amount of time. The quality of my sausage improved. For medical reasons, I switched from my old manual grinder to a #12 electric grinder. My shoulder was spared. Now, I'm giving serious consideration to adding a meat mixer. Because of my medical condition, when my hands get cold, they stay cold. I'm tired of mixing almost ice-cold meat with my hands and then having my hands hurt and stay cold. I think a meat mixer will spare my hands, but up until now, all I have needed was a grinder and a stuffer, and I have turned out sausage good enough that people ask me to make sausage for them.

Tom, Thank you for your erudite response. I posted that quite some time ago and had quite forgotten it. I am ,among other things, a machinist by training and have been privileged to have used some very old shop tools. There can be no doubt that archaic tools will produce good results by a skilled worker but modern tools in the hands of knowledgeable workers will produce better results.

very interesting posting Tom.

And as Ross said:- "modern tools in the hands of knowledgeable workers will produce better results" will stand yes.
I compare to my beginnings of Sausage making as a hobby when I used a hand grinder as a stuffer as well. It did alter the texture and although I got good practice with stuffing the casing and keeping the air pockets out, it never was a good result to me.

Since investing in a decent grinder with various plate sizes, a good stuffer etc the consistency and quality has become a lot better, and much faster. A lot of practice obviously added to better sausage as well.

Hey all
This is a great topic, thanks Ross for posting early on!
The one thing I would add, like all crafts/hobbies, we all seem to collect our tools of the trade over time, regardless old or new equipment. Like a few folks mentioned, upgrading to the new and approved equipment sure does have its perks, makes the craft much easier. Of course the larger the project, the greater demand for better equipment. Sure things cost what doesn`t these days, but sure is nice to grind a 15# pork butt using a 1 hp meat grinder in a matter of a couple of minutes versus hand grinding, then again, we go with what we can afford.
On another note, I have collected several used stuffers I bought over the years that I purchased because they were inexpensive. Long story short, after stuffer number three, I spent extra green on a new and improved with steel gears and have no complaints, works every time I set it up, with no hiccups.
Later
Wally

Elsewhere on this forum I posted that I had found 4.5 pounds of pork chops for 69 cents per pound. As always the bones will get cured and smoked later. The tenderloin medallions were supper last night and the rest made a small batch of sausage.Sweet Italian. Also last night I started a batch of dinner rolls to be finished today. I made some of the sausage into small uncased links and baked them @ 200 degrees until they were firm. Then I rolled some dough out quite thin and rolled sausages up in little pieces of the dough and baked it for pigs in blankets. I needed only the most basic equipment.
I think that with more sophisticated equipment even more interesting concoctions could be put together.

What I would start with is a good hand grinder.Be careful of rummage sale grinders as some of the parts may have seen some rust and will not give you a good clean cut. Next a good food quality sausage tub for mixing.It will be easier to clean. Mixing can be done by hand,it's nice to have latex gloves. If your just starting out you may make your sausage into patty's by hand. sausage suffers can become a bit pricey. I have not had good luck with the horn type or suffers with nylon or plastic gears El-junko. Using stuffer horns off a hand grinder can be a test of your talents.Smoking--- lots of great ideas in the book home production of quality meats and sausage by the Marianski brothers.This book should be read BEFORE making any tool purchases.Send three men into a hardware store to buy tools for a project and see what each one will return with : Equipment sources,Sausage maker,Butcher and packer,Allied kenco
John

partycook wrote:Next a good food quality sausage tub for mixing.

A long while back I found, what I think is the ideal entry level meat mixing tub, at Walmart.

I stand under correction, to my recall they are around $ 3.00 in the kitchen plastic ware section, and makes an ideal meat mixer.

here is a photo from a previous post.

I have a 12 quart stainless steel bowl in which I mix bread, sausage, potato salad for a crowd, apples for several pies. I use it for a kneading trough and I have allowed more than one 6 month old baby to sit in it and play. I buy my tools with an eye for how much use they will get. That bowl is my tub when I cut up several chickens, or roasts. It must be 30 years old now and is still like new. No dents anywhere. I don't see me stuffing large quantities of sausage so the purchase of a stuffer is not in my near future.
I may buy some more grinder plates and perhaps a knew knife or two.
I believe that there may be a cold smoker in my near future.

If you can get a butcher friend to do the mince for you, I think the only equipment necessary is the sausage stuffer.

I believe, equipment is something to be used to reduce the time on preperation. When you get older or wanted to spend more time with the family, you need to reduce the time spend on some of the sausage making tasks

It is said that the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. on the left is my newer ss.stuffer which has been replaced by my "new" reconditioned vintage F. Dick 15 liter. This baby is absolutely awesome. It fills the casings much nicer, easier to control the filling speed. also on the left back is my higher temperature fermenting chamber(white).On the right (gold frige) is my ageing-curing chamber which is temperature,air speed and humidity controlled. I just have obtained another freezer for $20.00 . She didn't want it anymore as her husband put a dent in the door while moving.Fermenter was free. Curing chamber was $15.00. SS.stuffer $125.00 Vintage stuffer $600.00 + reconditioning,approximately $15.00.I have also purchased computer fans, $5.00. Fan controllers $40.00. Temperature controllers $30.00-$50.00.Green Air humidistat $175.00. I have tried to improve my equipment over the last 40+years. As the price of meat continues to rise so will the cost of screwups and the dissatisfaction of turning out a lesser product by using inferior equipment.

John

I have the same stuffer, only bought mine at Northern Tool, and now I see Grizzly is more reasonable with their price.

In the Youtube video, one point on the air vent valve fitted in the stuffing head that he says is difficult to clean:- I keep the Acorn nut that retains the valve only hand tight, and after stuffing I loosen the nut, remove the valve and wash everything separately. Stuffing with a hand tight nut works 100%, because the nut can never fall out, it only serves as a stop to prevent the valve from dropping down.

And also anyone who has stripped the plastic bevel gears has applied much too much pressure on the stuffing head that is really not needed.

This stuffer works really well.