Sausage making equip.

[Wildsky]

I need some suggestions on what to buy as far as equipment to grind and mix meat and make sausages. I will want to make fat and thin sausage.


Any suggestions welcome, what to get and what to avoid as well!

 

[SKR8PN]

I have this one
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...arentType=index&parentId=cat280028&id=0025603
and I also have a patty maker attachment that works very well.

 

[FarmerDenise]

My mother had a metal grinder that she screwed to the table. So when I found one at a yard sale a few years ago I purchased it. I haven't used it yet though.
The one from Cabela's looks nice though. Especially, since it comes with all the parts.

 

[Wildsky]

Yeah I've looked at cabelas and drooled all over the keyboard! I love the idea of electric to make it easier but they're so pricey, more than I wanted to spend, and might be tooo much for the amount of sausage we'll make.
Its only going to be for our own use, and perhaps we'll eat sausage once or twice a week, so even the amount I'll need to make per month wouldn't be much, and I am just a little money shy on some of those nice machines.
I might just go with the manual grinder, mixer and suffer - I can always rope hubby into the kitchen for his workout!

I am also going to make dried sausage, the skinny setting........ YUM!

 

[TanksHill]

Modern Pioneer is into making sausage and such. He might be able to make some suggestions!!

 

[dipence71]

My favorite is LEM. www.lemproducts.com

I have a #8 grinder. This year added the food controller ..awesome.. Especially when you do 170lb of ground venison by myself. I use it for the grinding, stuffing sausage, and I am going to order the jerky attachment soon.

Plan on adding a meat mixer next year. It attaches to the grinder and mixes the the meat. Woohoo no more hand mixing all the meat...

If you are going to get a dehydrator I recommend a good one. Not a walmart one. I bought one on ebay that is a 10 tray with the heat and fan in the back so it circulates more even than the heat and fan on the bottom. It has dial control temperature and works awesome. I dehydrated jerky and it was done in no time at all I was use to the other style taking like 24 hrs or more. This was quick almost too quick because I let it get a bit to dehydrated lol was still really good but it took less than 6-8 hrs.
I wanted an excaliber but this one was cheaper was comparable to it and I love it.

 

[steve_of_sandspoultry]

This is the grinder we use, it's a hand grinder but it works great. We got the plated cast iron looking back should have got the stainless steel. With cast iron it will rust so you need to store it in mineral oil. We use an old cooler and store it in the oil.

http://www.sausagemaker.com/6320032meatgrindercastiron.aspx

Stuffer

http://www.sausagemaker.com/51200sausagestuffercastiron3lb.aspx

We also bought a card table and I drilled holes in it to mount the grinder and stuffer.

and the end result.

That is Muscovy duck sausage.

Steve in NC

 

[Wildsky]

My favorite is LEM. www.lemproducts.com

I have a #8 grinder.
If you are going to get a dehydrator I recommend a good one. Not a walmart one. .

Thanks for that website, I never heard of them before.

I have a dehydrator, its a cheapo one, but works great, I use it for making jerky - its small, only has 5 round trays, its annoying when there isn't enough space for the meat I've sliced, but I can't really complain.

 

[Wildsky]

This is the grinder we use, it's a hand grinder but it works great. We got the plated cast iron looking back should have got the stainless steel. With cast iron it will rust so you need to store it in mineral oil. We use an old cooler and store it in the oil.
.

Steve in NC

Yes those were the grinder and stuffer I was looking at, thanks for the tip on the cast iron, I probably would have purchased that, but now will look for the stainless steel. (those can probably be cleaned in the dishwasher too)

Your sausage looks great, that would be like a months worth for us!

 

[Wildsky]

Some of the hand grinders say they come with a sausage stuffing tube' or attachment, are those any good?

Seems you grind straight into the casing perhaps? Not sure how well that would work if you want to mix different meats and spices etc..