smokeitall
Man, you've been busy! Summer sausage, snack sticks, and brats.
I get my spices and casings from Frisco's on the south edge of Omaha NE.
http://www.friscospices.com/sausageseasoningmixes.aspGreat prices, and helpful staff.
Beer brat 25 lb mix is $3.95 (I've made several batches of this--always a winner at this house).
Most other 25 lb mixes are $4-6.
150 feet of collegen casing is $12.
I guess I cheat on mixing. I cut up the meat (pork blade steaks and beef chuck steak) into 1/2-3/4" by 2-3" strips, mix in spices and enough water until it gets real slippery/slimey, then grind it thru a 7mm plate. Everything gets mixed as it is ground. Then I stuff it. I've done this with brats, several batches of summer sausage, and one batch of snack sticks. So far, so good. A mixer would be nice, but the load needs to be close to the designed size--too full or too empty, they don't work well (acording to the local Cabela's guys). I make 12.5 lb batches right now. May move up to 25 lb brat batches the next time.
drano