grinder help?

[hybridcx]

 hello just curious what everyone recommends for a grinder for making sausage? I currently do not have one but am looking to pick one up in a week or so.. also will it do double duty as a stuffer too or will I need to purchase one of those also? thanks for the help I looked on site but did not see a thread on them also looking for the best bang for the buck so to speak... thanks 

[pmmpete]

I think that the kind of grinder you should buy depends on how much meat you expect to grind.  If you expect to make five pound batches of sausage a couple times a year, you don't need a very big grinder.  If you are going to prepare bigger batches of sausage, or you process your own animals, you'll be happier with a bigger grinder.  My first grinder was a meat grinder attachment for a Kitchenaid mixer.  It was pretty slow, but I jammed a lot of game meat through it.  It was made of plastic, and eventually cracked.  I replaced it with a small grinder.  I process two or three game animals a year, and I wasn't happy with the performance of the small grinder, so I sold it and bought a medium-sized grinder.  I'm happy with this grinder, but if I could sell it to somebody, I'd buy an even bigger grinder.  So I suggest that you think about how much meat you anticipate grinding, look at some grinders in catalogs or on the internet, and think about how much money you're willing to spend on a grinder.  Big grinders are pretty expensive, and medium-sized grinders aren't cheap.  Unless cost is no problem, you'll probably reach some compromise between a great big expensive grinder which will suck up hunks of meat like a shop vacuum cleaner and spit out ground meat like a fire hose, and a crummy little cheap grinder which will give you tennis elbow because you need to work so hard and long to cram meat through it.

I've never tried stuffing sausage with a grinder, so I'll let people who have used a grinder for that purpose give their opinion on how it works.  Apparently it doesn't work very well. I've never heard anybody say anything good about lever-style sausage stuffers.  Hand-cranked vertical stuffers seem to be the most common kind of stuffers.  I have a Kirby Cannon hydraulically powered stuffer, which works great.  Contact Pikeman_95 to learn more about them.

[hybridcx]

thanks for the info... having not done this before I guess I am not sure how much meat I plan on grinding... I can see our family tearing through snack sticks for sure, and probably more... I will shoot for a mid range grinder, and I figured as much about the stuffer and will be looking for a hand crank stuffer as well as pm about the kc. thanks

any particular brand that I should avoid, or try to stay with?

[JZ]

I just finished stuffing my first 15lb batch Summer Sausage and they have very large casings (2 1/2") I think. I bought a cheap $50 grinder that also has the stuffing attachment and here is my experience (remember though that this is my first time).

I ground up about 5lbs of meat, the rest was already ground by the butcher and that seemed to work fine. I would probably still go with something more powerful than the 250 watt machine that I got. Tried to get the 1/2 hp grinder, which I think would be fine for the small amounts I anticipate doing.

Now the stuffing was however a total waste of time. After fighting with the thing I gave up and stuffed the casings by hand. That was way faster. Hope that it works out but won't know until after the smoke. Hand stuffing also won't work for doing smaller sausage casings. If you plan on doing that I would find a better machine.

One thing I noticed in Kevin G's tutorial (and thanks for that Kevin) was that his grinder had a stuffing star and maybe that would help push the meat though the tube better than the stuffing plate that came with mine. My stuffing plate was similar to the grinding plates and did not turn with the auger. It had slots cut into it instead of holes and therefore had more open area but the meat still seemed to get hung up on the edges of the slots.

Hope others here can offer more assistance and good luck with the sausages.

[NePaSmoKer]

Grinder great for just that...Grinding

As a stuffer its really a major PITA

Better off to buy a stuffer of some sorts.

[Kevin A]

The 'stuffing star' that fits over the end of the grinder's auger does make stuffing more manageable—or I should say, 'tolerable.'
But as Nepas stated, its still a PITA using a grinder to stuff sausages.

One you stuff using a stand-alone stuffer, you'll realize how slow and inefficient stuffing with a grinder can be—particularly if you're doing a large load.
I've done 5-10 pounds using my grinder with stuffing tubes and it does work...but man, it's tedious.

[JZ]

Thanks Kevin.

Guess I am going to have to check out stuffers.

[mikecorn.1]

Thanks Kevin.

Guess I am going to have to check out stuffers.

I just looked at some here
sausagemaker


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ghost9mm]

JZ... you can get good stuffers at Gander Mountain, Bass Pro, Calbelis I would recommend something with metal gears...here is a link to check out stuffers.

http://www.meatprocessingproducts.com/lem606.html

[JZ]

Thanks for the links guys.

[pikeman_95]

JZ
If you intend to stay with 5 pound batches then the small 5 pound vertical stuffers are adequate. If you want more info PM me.
Here is stuffing Hog casings with the Cannon.

http://s943.photobucket.com/albums/ad274/pikeman_95/A%20%20SAUSAGE%20WITH%20FRIENDS%20280%20POUNDS/?action=view&current=STUFFINGTHEGERMANFRANKS.mp4

Kirby

[hybridcx]

Thanks for the links, sonsounds like 2 parts will need to be picked up. Thanks for all te advice and links. Got some reading to do it looks like...

[Salmonsmoker]

Grinders are good for grinding, but lousy at stuffing. Once the meat is ground it easily slips by and around the feeding auger when trying to stuff sausage and you end up having to push the grind down the feed tube of the grinder with the meat push rod. I did that for years first with an Oster Kitchen Center, then with the Kitchen Aid. Now that I have a stuffer I can't believe all of the wasted hours. I bought mine at Cabela's and their  grinders and stuffers are made in China. :(

[hybridcx]

so after reading around today would I be safe to assume any 1/2 hp grinder will be an ok mid range grinder to start with?

[Salmonsmoker]

Hybrid,
I have the Cabela's 1 HP grinder and it grinds my traditional Christmas sausage recipe of 20# in about 45 seconds, and it goes through the grinder twice. you make the call.