Fresh sausage - pork pron - and pretzel extrusion

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pjj2ba

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In preparation for our Oktvemberfest party this Saturday, a co-worker and I made a bit of fresh sausage - a 45 lb bit! This is what you get from the two shoulders of a pig (~250 lb) from a local farmer. We made two kinds, a Weisswurst style made with pork only and a garlic brat. The photos are of the weisswurst. I finally motorized the grinder and man was that sweet!
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I made pretzels last night and I had already decided to make rods instead of twisting as I could fill the baking sheets better. I'd been contemplating a way to not have to roll out all the dough and I though I'd try extruding it with my Kitchen aid stuffing attachment. I omitted the ring that normally holds the auger in place (this would split the dough) figuring back pressure would hold the auger in place. It did!! All I needed was a little oil lube in the horn.

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Sausage!!!! Who knew you could make professional quality looking sausage on your own?!! How much did you pay for all the equipment needed to make your own snausages?!

:tank:
 
I started out with a kitchenaid grinder and stuffer attachment. The grinder worked OK, if a bit slow, but the stuffer was a pain as the ground stuff just slipped on the plastic auger. I basically had to force the meat through by hand. Perhaps if it had been better chilled after grinding and spicing, it wouldn't have slipped so badly, but I didn't want to wait an hour for it to chill (it was still cool, but not ice cold) The next year I bought a dedicated stuffer. Mine hold 5 lbs. I recall it cost around $100 which is about as low as you'll find a dedicated stuffer. The next year I bought a larger hand grinder for ~$45. (it can stuff too, but with not much of a hopper, I haven't used it for that). Now after two years of hand grinding, I've motorized it (I use the same motor and pulley assembly I use for for my grain mill). Let me tell you, hand grinding through a fine grinder plate takes a loooong time. It still took a while this time, but at least I didn't have to crank it.

Casings and other ingredients are pretty cheap. I buy my stuff on-line from Butcher Packer in Detroit
 
wow thats impressive. What recipe did you use? Ill have to try that although it sounds like a ***** and a half with a kitchenaid
 
"We don't need no education.....we don't need no thought control..."

C'mon sing it with me :D

I did 9 kilos with the Kitchenaid for O'fest, it is a bit of a pain especially one person working the machine. 45 lbs would be a chore for sure.
 
Sausage PRON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love making sausage, you just can't buy sausage the way you can make it. Here are some shots from O'Fest prep 08....

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Grinding. We made 40 lbs of traditional Weißwurst and 40 lbs of Bratwurst. That veal is a pair to grind!

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Inspecting the grind... looks good

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Time to get up to your elbows in meat! Its great for the skin. That's my BIL getting into it.

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The girls really get into it, once the casings come out and we start pumping out sausage!
 
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Here's a good group shot. I bought a big food processor this year. The key to a perfect Weißwurst is to amalgamate the meat in a food processor with some ice water.

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Here is my wife Danika, handling some sausage... yeah, she's good.

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BIL Shane sporting a nice chain.

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The ladies can't get enough of my sausage!
 
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No comment necessary...

So the moral of the story, is that sausage making is awesome! I hope this thread can grow with more and more sausage fests and sausage pr0n in general!

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YES I'M TALKING TO YOU!!!!:ban:
 
I have a Cabela's grinder and I love it. It is very easy to clean, grinds great, and has as much power as I need. I can grind ten pounds of meat in a couple minutes.
 
Have you used the Cabela's grinder on veal? I am looking at the 1/2HP grinder from them but want to be sure it will handle veal (lots of "silk" that clogs a regular grinder like a banshee).
 
So who's been making sausage lately? I am knocking out 25# of traditional coarse ground bratwurst tonight. No weisswurst for this years fest, we are doing 15 rotisserie chickens instead.

I can't wait it has been months since I made any sausage! I'll get some motivational pics up later.
 
I am planning on making 25lbs of brats once it cools down a bit, still over 105° here, I have a tough time keeping everything cold enough. maybe in a few weeks I can get to it.
 
I have the grinder, but need to get a sausage horn.

Would you be willing to tell us about the motor arrangement you have? I was thinking about that last night, one motor to run either the meat or the grain mill.

Hmmmm good!
 
I have the grinder, but need to get a sausage horn.

Would you be willing to tell us about the motor arrangement you have? I was thinking about that last night, one motor to run either the meat or the grain mill.

Hmmmm good!

I use one motor for both my grinder and mill. I have the motor mounted on a board along with a second shaft with a set of bearing and two pulleys. One pulley reduces the motor speed and the second drive either the grinder or mill. I have a board that my meat grinder clamps onto and a spot for me to clamp the board with the motor onto it. I use a set of two wedges to adjust the belt tension.

I have a similar set up with my grain mill. I just move the motor back and forth as needed.

Sausage making is scheduled for the 17th. Typically ~ 40 lbs worth. I need to order my casings.
 
It went quite well. Our whole pig hasn't been butchered yet so I ended up buying two smaller shoulders. We made two recipes, about 15 lbs total. All of which got consumed at our O'fest party.

Last night I made 7 lbs of elk sausage to take to a wild game, wine pairing party

When our whole pig is finally butchered we'll make another 40 lbs.
 
I am not sure what the Hamilton beach unit is??? The grinder? I just picked that up on CL, it is crappy IMO. The stuffer is an F.Dick, and it works well with hog and sheep casings. Those are the only casings I have used. I use the hog for full size sausages, and the sheep casings for breakfast links.

In other news I am getting a 5# stuffer for Christmas!!! I can't wait to have fresh sausage for dinner any night of the week!

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200449319_200449319
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No. It is fine, and for $5 it will do great. It works fine for beef and for trimmed beef. Veal is a nightmare though, it just can't get through the silk. You have to do so much trimming on the veal it isn't worth it. I have my butcher grind the veal now.
 
I've got a '#32' grinder - it makes super-quick work of grinding meat when paired with a 3/4hp furnace motor. It's almost not worth taking it off the shelf for anything less than 50lbs, or you'd spend more time cleaning the damn thing than actually grinding the meat.

I have a sausage horn for it as well, so I'm going to try using it (minus the cutter) to stuff the casings. I've had limited success with other stuffers for small-diameter snacking sausage - the meat seems to want to squirt back out over the piston rather than fill the casing.

So far this year I've made about a hundred lbs of smoked sausage - polish-style and snackers, as well as some fresh, unsmoked italian sausage. The backyard smells amazing with the mesquite smoke going all day; I'm sure it's driving the neighbourhood dogs nuts :)
 
nice... I'm getting an 8# stuffer for xmas as well. I'm chuckling reading through this thread because it looks like there is a progression just like starting with extract, then doing partial mashes, and then AG rigs...

I've used the ole' Kitchen Aid for a while now as my grinder and stuffer... and now I'm graduating to a larger stuffer... next I'll need huge grinder.
 
I couldn't even get the KA to work as a stuffer. I couldn't even double grind meat with it but for just one grind it is fine.
 
I am at the point of needing a huge grinder. I want it so bad. But that is a big investment. To be worth upgrading, I am looking at $200-300. Unless I can find a steal on CL, which I look for at least once a week (for the past 2 years). Pretty much everything that comes up is industrial three-phase... boo hiss.
 
A local cooking store is offering a sausage making class tomorrow night. I was considering going but they are charging $75. It is a 3 hour class so the money may be worth it but I'm also just beginning to upgrade the "brewery" to 10 gallon batches and have plenty of brewing stuff I could buy instead. Is sausage making really something you need a class to learn how to do?
 
If it is cured sausage it might be worth it. That's next on my list.

There is a local restaurant that makes their own sausage so I asked them if they had classes. The owner said it was not something they taught in cooking school so he just decided to jump in and do it. So he told me the same, to just do it, and I did. There are plenty of resources on the web.
 
On second thought... that class may be on cured sausage or charcuterie. In which case a class would be a good idea and a lot of fun. Fresh sausage is easy.

I recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0025668609/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

+1, I've been making my own sausage for years and this book is what got me started. No need to take a class, believe me.

I usually make 30-60lbs at a time and have always used my Kitchenaid with the meat grinder attachment. I use a 3lb horn for stuffing now, but for a couple years I used the KA stuffing attachment.

It seems to me that a meat curing and sausage making forum would be quite appropriate here. I think I'll PM Txbrew and see what he says.

Moose

Edit: tagged this thread for Smoking, Curing and Sausage Making Forum.

#tag#smoking, curing & sausage making
 
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