My first attempt at Sausage Making

calis72 · April 11, 2012, 08:56:36 AM

Hi Folks. So after 2 years of having the Bradley Digital smoker and constantly chickening out at making sausage because it sounded so daunting I finally gave it a shot this past weekend.

I went to Bass Pro and bought a kit that included the stuffer, a summer sausage spice mix (as well as some other mixes) casings. I also bought a hand grinder.

Here is a pic of the equipment after I gave it a good hand wash:-

The summer sausage kit was for 5lbs of meat and recommended an 80/20 beef to pork ratio. I bought a Sirloin Tip Roast, some pork butt chops and some back fat. I estimate the ratio ended up as about 80% beef, 14-15% pork butt, and 5-6% back fat.

I proceeded to cube up all of the meat and the fat. I removed and discarded a lot of the beef fat and gristle that I could and started grinding with my son - the free labor. I did notice some silverskin on the beef but just left it. maybe that was a mistake?

Now I had placed the cubed meat into zip lock bags and flattened them out and put them in the freezer to firm up a bit. The grinding started off nice and easy but I soon realized that it was not feeding any more. I pulled the meat out of the hopper and had a look at what was going on and you could see that I was essentially turning the meat into a paste and it was just swirling around. I disassembled the front and found the end plate was just completely clogged with gristle and crap that I had to pick out by hand. (the grinder came with two plates - a large holed and small holed one) I was going to do all of the meat with the small holed grinder plate and fat with the larger. Once I cleaned this out it fed alright again for a while and then within 5 - 10 minutes I had to dissasemble and clean it out again. This happened with the beef and the pork both. Was a huge pain in the ass and it took a good 90 minutes to grind the 5 lbs. I even switched over to the larger plate to see if it would clog up less and same issue was happening pretty much.

At the end of it I finally had my 5lbs of meat (after I would grind a small batch I would weigh it and put it in the fridge to keep cool).

Pic of the meat ready for seasoning after I thoroughly mixed it all together. I ended up chopping some of the back fat by hand - but the part I didn't hand chop actually went through the grinder very nicely and didn't jam up at all.

Anyhow, I mixed the spice mix with water and cure per the instructions and mixed it into the meat. Per the instructions I didn't overmix and didn't refrigerate. I stuffed the casings immediately. I didn't take any pics of the stuffing part as my hands were very dirty.

I had the smoker preheated to 130F and I hung them on an old broom handle I cut to fit inside. I let them dry for about 90 minutes with no smoke.

After 90 minutes I increased the temp to 160 - I added a water pan for the bisquettes and a brick I had heated in the oven and gave about 3 hours of smoke (crown royal flavor).

After about 5 hours in the smoker at 160 I moved them to a water bath at 160F for about 30 minutes or so until the internal temp read 153F and then into an ice bath for 20 minutes.

I then stuck two chairs on our island and hung them to bloom for 2 hours. Was petrified the puppy would get at them if I had them anywhere else as we had to go out for a bit.

After two hours I cut one open to give it a try! I was very pleasantly surprised by the taste and texture. I was expecting it to be quite salty due to it being a package mix but it had nice flavor. The texture was completely fine too - I was worried it would be weird due to the issues I was having with the grinding and the meat turning to paste at times.

The stuffing was remarkably easy - the first 4 were stuffed within 10 minutes and there was no air pockets at all.

The last sausage was tricky as after 1/3rd of the sausage was full I ran out of meat in the hopper and all the last of it was in the tube. I took the stuffer apart and used a wooden spoon to push to left over meat out into a bowl and stuffed this in by hand. That was quite tricky and messy and you can see from the bloom picture that the one on the left had some obvious air pockets in it.

Is there a trick for getting the last of the sausage out of the tube and into the casing easier? I was thinking maybe loading it with bread or something to push it through and then just pull the bread out of the casing if any went in. Suggestions would be great!

Also - the huge issues I was having with the plate jamming up constantly - is that just a fact of life when hand grinding or was it due to the wrong cuts of meat I may have been using? Would an electric grinder have the same issues? A friend suggested I purchase the grinder attachment for my kitchen-aid mixer - are these any good?

The grinding was such a monsterous pain in the ass I was thinking next time I would try and get butcher to grind them for me and I'll just not do it myself again.

Anyhow, I've ordered cure's from a place in Vancouver online and should receive those as well as a hefty supply of casings any day now.

My next project is Mike's Kielbasa - I think I'm going to try a 20lb batch.

Any advice would be very welcome to this total newb at this art!

Keymaster · April 11, 2012, 09:17:40 AM

Looks great from here, Nice job !! Did you have the sharp side of the cutter towards the Grinder plate, if so this was correct? Some people have had it backwards in the past and it clogs up fast.

calis72 · April 11, 2012, 09:23:42 AM

I'm pretty sure I had it installed the right way...the flat side of the blade was towards the plate and the rounded end was towards the helix.

ghost9mm · April 11, 2012, 09:56:48 AM

Great job... and now I bet you won't wait to long to make more, it looks real good..

Sailor · April 11, 2012, 10:11:05 AM

Nice job on the sausage. That photo of the grinder takes me back a great number of years. Growing up that is what the folks used and I was the hand cranker. Crank, clean, crank, clean, crank, clean, crank, clean. You got the picture ;D I vowed that I would never ever again use a hand crank grinder and I have not gone back on my Vow. :o

rajzer · April 11, 2012, 10:31:27 AM

Nice effort. Just make sure you get the right cures from Stuffers Supply in Langley, (that's where I'm assuming you will be getting your order from). I will be ordering some larger casings from them because this week. What size are those casings? Thrifty's have whole pork legs on sale for 99cents and I will be making a batch of Krakowska. I also gave up on my hand crank, it had a tendency to mash the meat as well. Have a nice Lem 3/4 hp, and no back once you have one of these!

rsherman24 · April 11, 2012, 10:39:05 AM

Great Job. Those are some great looking chubs for your first go. To get the last of the meat out of the tube, I use a wadded up paper towel pushed through on a wooden spoon or dowel. Also, I use an electric grinder rather than a manual, but keeping the meat as cold as possible prior to grinding makes all of the difference. I try to put the grinder parts and the meat in the freezer prior to grinding.

calis72 · April 11, 2012, 11:05:23 AM

So an electric grinder would not get blocked up with the fat and cartelidge?

From stuffers I ordered cure 1 and cure 2

Also ordered some hog casings and a bunch of 50 - 55mm for more summer sausage

Keymaster · April 11, 2012, 12:05:53 PM

Not sure if Canada's Costco has the Same products as the US but I saw that Costco has a canadian made grinder for sale.

Click here

Sailor · April 11, 2012, 12:37:24 PM

Quote from: calis72 on April 11, 2012, 11:05:23 AM
So an electric grinder would not get blocked up with the fat and cartelidge?

From stuffers I ordered cure 1 and cure 2

Also ordered some hog casings and a bunch of 50 - 55mm for more summer sausage

Using my #12 electric grinder I can grind 20 pounds of pork butt in about 5 mins. I cut the meat in 1 inch strips and it just eats it up and spits it out. I use the fine plate for a lot of my grinds and don't use the med plate first. I find that I can use the fine plate first and never had a clog up. This grinder has done hundreds and hundreds of pounds and never had a problem. No hand crankin either ;D

calis72 · April 11, 2012, 01:16:04 PM

holy crap! 20lb in 5 minutes? I did 5 lb in 90 minutes!

$399 is waaaay outta my budget. Might be able to do $100 or so - thats why I was thinking the kitchenaid attachment.....

Sailor · April 11, 2012, 01:35:09 PM

This is the one that I have been using for 2 years http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200451267_200451267 I paid $99 for it and it was the best investment I have made. Lot of other grinders cost more but for the money this does just fine. Not sure if they will ship to the North County.

Smoker John · April 11, 2012, 05:52:03 PM

Nice job on the sausage & a nice pictorial to go along with it looks really good.

mikecorn.1 · April 11, 2012, 06:00:53 PM

Way to go. Beat me to it. I want to make home made sausage also but the grinder/stuffer $$ is the hold up. I make due with my coworker giving me his home made venison and pork. Fresh. I smoke it myself. It is very good.

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rajzer · April 11, 2012, 07:17:26 PM

Quote from: Keymaster on April 11, 2012, 12:05:53 PM
Not sure if Canada's Costco has the Same products as the US but I saw that Costco has a canadian made grinder for sale.

Click here

Looks like a good grinder. I would flip if it's made in Canada, only the distributor is in Canada (well sort of, since they're in Quebec). And it's not available through Costco.ca. Go figure.