emulsifying

[cathouse willy]

The thread by Woodlawnsmoker on making hot dogs caught my interest so I just spent the better part of the day grinding,regrinding and emulsifying 5 lbs of pork and beef. My light duty food processor would only do small amounts at a time and it worked really hard to do that.
Sooooo I want to upgrade it but to what? Cost is a consideration,what do others use?

[tskeeter]

I'm using a Cabella's branded meat grinder.  I think it's a half horse, 6 pound per minute, number 8 die model.  Seems to work really well.  On the first grind with a medium die, it'll run about as fast as a person can feed it.  The second grind with a medium die takes more work to feed, but I've never heard the motor strain.  I paid about $330 on sale for  this model several years ago, even though it is a bit of overkill for what I do.

Regarding your food processor.  Do you chill the meat to slightly frozen between passes through your food processor?  I'm wondering if running really cold, less sticky, meat would be easier on your food processor.  A second approach might be to add some water to the meat with every pass through the food processor.

[Habanero Smoker]

My large food processor can only emulsify 1.5 pounds at a time, and as you experienced, if you are making large batches it can get frustrating. A few years back I purchased a Kirby Meat Mixer (Kirby is a member of this forum), and I now can easily emulsify a 5 pound batch within two minutes. No multiple grinding is necessary. I have to very carefully watch the meat temperature during processing. It can get very close to 60°F  in no time.

[cathouse willy]

My light duty food processor is all I need for most things so I was thinking heavy duty blender It's something I don't have so it makes sense.Does anyone use a blender to emulsify meat?