Any sausage making tips?

[Pigsticker]

Im gonna grind up a batch of 50/50 antelope pork fat sausage tmrw. Gonna use hot italian seasoning. Any cool tips or tricks to make the grinding/mixing/stuffing process easier?

Any suggestions on a good smoke for hot italian? Ive pretty much got it all but just wondering what would compliment that hot italian flavor well.

Also, gonna try to use the kitchenaid mixer with the grinder and stuffer attachments. Should be fun!

 

[Big J]

Half all pork fat sounds a little fatty, PS.

Do you make bun length links or larger sausage sizes?

 

[Brian Renville]

First time I made sausage was with the stuffer attachments that came with my grinder. It was kind of a struggle even though the end result was fine. I ended up getting a separate stuffer and like that method much better.

 

[Pigsticker]

Big J, These will be regular ring sausage. 38/40 casings. Would u do 60/40 or 70/30?

 

[Kickemup]

I have always found it tough to get ground meat back into a grinder for stuffing. Unless it has a big throat. I have a separate stuffer after every thing is ground. Apple or cherry chips would probably be a good wood I think
A wood with stronger flavor might clash if it is over smoked.

 

[NDwalleyes]

We've had great luck with 50% ground pork butts (meat and fat) and 50% venison.

 

[Brian Renville]

I'll 2nd the apple or cherry smoke as well.

 

[gr8outdoors]

Drink Busch light while doing it:;:cheers

 

[Kentucky Windage]

Add water. Let the ground/seasoned meat blend/season for a day or so. Don't use metal containers as overnight meat containers.

 

[Big J]

50% fat is high. I try to keep my ratio closer to 70/30 or so. Sometimes maybe even 80/20. Unless we get a whole pig I use Boston butts. They are about a 75/25 ratio of meat to fat content. Often I'll mix half that and half wild game and then get some ribeye or sirloin fat for free from a butcher to bring the fat content back up and bring moisture in. I do this every time with summer sausage but do that at 70/30. I just made all my antelope roasts into muscle jerky last week!

 

[nxtgeneration]

We've had great luck with 50% ground pork butts (meat and fat) and 50% venison.

This is what we shoot for too.

 

[WormWiggler]

Has anyone tried an attachment to a Kitchen Aid mixer to grind meat?


For 50 bucks seems like a way to ease into meat making.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/sto...YqESvlv-MQ0y8A7rfTKmyIBZV1a3oUK9LGRoC1q7w_wcB

- - - Updated - - -

I like this site.

http://www.meatprocessingproducts.com/

 

[Davey Crockett]

Not positive what brand we have but it looks like the one in the pic and it works very good. Came with extra plates and cutters so you can grind fine or coarse and has casing tubes. By looking at it you would think it was junk but it's all we need for one or two deer a year.

 

[DonC]

After experimenting with hand grinder and the one shown on the mixer. I decided to buy ground pork which is 80/20 at the store and mix with what ever meat I am using. It is reasonable priced at $ 1.50 to $ 2.00 a pound and saves a lot of time and head aches. I have found most stores give u beef suet for free just ask.

 

[gst]

We've had great luck with 50% ground pork butts (meat and fat) and 50% venison.

This is what we do as well. We get the whole butt and cut it up and grind it as you grind your game meat and it mixes pretty well. Hand mix with your seasonings and it ends up mixed pretty well. We start with a 60/40 game/pork mix and end up with about a 75/25 meat/fat mix.

Don;t know if your looking for basic info or how others do it but we mix our seasoning in warm water to mix into the meat as said. 2 quarts for 25 lbs. The water makes the meat slide thru the stuffer easier. We also let it sit for 48 hours in plastic containers covered with wrapping paper before stuffing

We smoke our Italian sausage with apple wood. Have used plum from trimmings off our trees as well...like the apple.

 

[Pigsticker]

Worm wiggler, that is the grinder i purchased for my kitchenaid. I will report back how it turns out tonight after grinding. Thanks for the tips everyone!

 

[KDM]

If you are going to use non-edible casings, you will have an easier time getting the casing off clean if you "Shock" the sausage in ice water or a good snow bank as soon as you remove it from the smoker. When we didn't "Shock" the summer sausage, you would get the outer skin of the sausage sticking to the casing which is unfortunate, as much of the "Smoke" flavor is contained in this outer skin. Have Fun!!

 

[Pigsticker]

How long u guys finding it takes to smoke a batch? Lowest I can get my smoker is 150F and gonna have to use the amazin tube smoker since my smoker isn't good at making smoke at that low temp.

Also, how long to soak the casings. I am using natural. Its been years since I've done this so I have forgotten a lot of what i've done before.

 

[KDM]

8 hour smoke for just about everything, but I only put smoke on the sausage for the first two hours or so. The sausages seem to form a sealed surface by then and adding more smoke doesn't seem to add more flavor. It just cools of the smoker and meat when you open the door which then takes longer to get the sausage up to temp. The casings we used for the ring sausage and brats came in a solution so we never had to soak them in anything. However, the casings we use (non-edible) for the summer sausage is only dipped in water long enough to get them soaked inside and out.

 

[dukgnfsn]

I also do for the most part half and half Boston Butts and deer. After cutting up butts we do a real course grind alternating deer and pork fed into grinder. After this we mix in out spices and garlic water, mix well and regrind to get spices mixed in well. Then stuff with hand stuffer. For smoking I use half apple and hickory. I smoke mine at low heat, usually not higher than 180 deg until we see water beading on outside of sausage, usually about 2 1/2 - 4 hours depending on weather and how cold at time we smoke. My smoke house is just old fridge with somke house built in fridge frame and a hot plate.