New grinder: sausage/ pepperette making kits

last year I received a manual meat grinder for Christmas, and after my first use (making meat balls) I misplaced/ threw out the blade. well since Yukon Gear does not supply replacement parts, they were nice enough to send me a new upgraded grinder for free!!

when using the typical Hi Mountain pepperette or sausage kits from Canadian Tire, do you need a smoker? there isn't much information on their website.

can anyone recommend different or better mixes for sausages and pepperonis?

do you typically grind the meat, than put it through again to mix the seasonings and cures?

Thanks for any tips.

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Originally Posted by bowj

last year I received a manual meat grinder for Christmas, and after my first use (making meat balls) I misplaced/ threw out the blade. well since Yukon Gear does not supply replacement parts, they were nice enough to send me a new upgraded grinder for free!!

when using the typical Hi Mountain pepperette or sausage kits from Canadian Tire, do you need a smoker? there isn't much information on their website.

can anyone recommend different or better mixes for sausages and pepperonis?

do you typically grind the meat, than put it through again to mix the seasonings and cures?

Thanks for any tips.

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You don't need to smoke all sausages. Any pepperoni recipes I seen typically involve cooking the in an oven etc. and they recommend against smoking. I don't smoke the breakfast sausages I make either. Backwoods also make sausage kits (spices only) and are available at Bass Pro as well as the High Mountain. Princess Auto sells High Mountain kits as well as sausage making equipment and smokers.

Some kits are spices only and don't come with casings. I buy my casings at Bass Pro as well. On a thread started by GW a few days ago, someone post a website to get casings.

Here's a site to look at that has many great recipes on it along with other info.

http://www.lpoli.50webs.com/Sausage%20recipes.htm

Good luck.

Roe+

You don't need to use the Nitrates with the High Mountain kit's if you intend to eat the Sausage as fresh sausage just be sure to thoroughly cook them. I froze mine to eat for camping this Summer (Also had to hide them in the freezer from the kid's, last time they found my two pounds of jerky they ate the whole thing).

Like Roe says you can buy just the casings and use your own spices which is what I intend to do next year. I put my meat through the medium grind twice which was a mistake (maybe???). I should have just put it through medium once then into the casings some use coarse grind.

Medium, coarse, fine your preference. Grind once. Depending on how much meat you have. Smaller batches are easier to add spices to. I use Rubbermaid containers. I mix venison with pork. I grind meats separately then mix after by weight ratio. I don't put all seasoning in at once. Sprinkle a layer of seasoning on meat then mix thoroughly. Add another layer of seasoning and mix again. Do this a few times to make sure seasoning gets in all the meat. I also let the mix sit a night in cold place. Garage is good this time of year since it's cold. But don't let it freeze. Next day ready for sausage making. I got a busy weekend, production starts Friday night.

just cube your meat never grind first... cube meat, put spices in , store if fridge over night ,then grind and then stuff. you will make far better sausages that way.... never grind meat first if you can help it.... if your turning old burger into sausage thats differnt but if your starting out from scratch .. just cube meat...

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Originally Posted by mark270wsm

just cube your meat never grind first... cube meat, put spices in , store if fridge over night ,then grind and then stuff. you will make far better sausages that way.... never grind meat first if you can help it.... if your turning old burger into sausage thats differnt but if your starting out from scratch .. just cube meat...

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That's one way to do it. I've tried both, but prefer grinding first for these reasons;

1. Most of the recipes I've seen/used call for grinding meat while it is partially frozen as it will grind better. I've found this to be true.

2. I grind my meat several times coarse - medium -fine* (* optional depending upon desired texture) as in most cases I'm grinding more than type of meat and this helps to mix the meat. During the initial grind add proportional amounts of each meat to the hopper, additional grinding will mix it further.

3. For grilling or frying sausages, you need 20% - 30% pork or bacon fat. I grind the fat completely frozen. If allow to thaw the fat will become soft and limp and some of it will stick in the grinder in addition to not grinding well.

4. Running your spices through the grinder is fine if your recipes call for fine ground spices. Some recipes (summer sausage, pepperoni) call for whole or partially ground spices suck as cracked black pepper, mustard seed, anise seed, fennel seed etc. These spices will get pulverized in your grinder and affect the consistency of your sausage. Been there, done that, learned my lesson.

5. If you try freezing meat after adding salt/cure etc. for grinding purposes, it may be harder to freeze.

I mix in my spices into the meat afterwards by hand. You can buy meat mixers if desired. It takes a little longer and you can leave the meat overnight for the spices to work their way through the meat, but, salt/curing will stiffen the ground meat so most recipes recommend stuffing the sausages right after mixing, then leaving the sausages in a cool place, refrigerator or cold cellar (if it's cold enough) for 12- 24hours before cooking, smoking or freezing.

From where I sit, I prefer to use a separate grinder and stuffer. For the novice, a grinder with a stuffer is a good place to start, but as you gain experience and try different recipes, have 2 separate machines is better.

Roe+

Busy day!

Nice job - garlic pork sausages?

Roe+

this is where we need smelovison ... so we can smell the sausage ...looks good

Smoked some today! Now the vacuum sealing begins.