Difficulty stuffing meat into grinder while making Pepperettes.

Folks I am just new to the sausage and meat stick making art. I made some venison sausages earlier this fall with no problems other than them being a little dry because I didn't put in enough pork in them, they were good.

Today the Wife and I made venison/beef meat sticks or pepperettes. We are using an electric meat grinder from Cabelas (Model 54-0708) and used what they call the snack funnel and collagen casings.

This timw I found it was really hard to push the meat mix down thru the meat grinder (no blade just sausage stuffing ring). I had to really push down hard on the meat stomper and got tired. I am glad I only made 5lbs. We put some more water into our meat mixture but it was still hard, The Wife wouldn't let me put in more water.

Do any of your experienced meat snack artists have any idea why it was so hard to get the mixture thru the meat grinder and into the snack (pepperette) casings? I personally think we needed more liquid.

Thanks,

how cold was the meat?
typically I find that meat needs to almost be partially frozen to get maximum performance from your grinder

Did you use curing salt in the recipe? I've found the same problem pushing previously ground meat through with curing salt and spices added it almost turns the meat like glue. I would bet having it partially frozen as suggested by Dan would make it much easier. I'm going to try it when I make some next week.

I agree with DanE the meat should be close to frozen at all time.

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Originally Posted by DanE

how cold was the meat?
typically I find that meat needs to almost be partially frozen to get maximum performance from your grinder

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Originally Posted by Muskyhunter

[FONT=Verdana]This timw I found it was really hard to push the meat mix down thru the meat grinder (no blade just sausage stuffing ring).
Thanks,

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My wife and I had the same issue. Bought a 5lb sausage stuffer and never looked back. Results are sooooo much better with a sausage stuffer. Easier to use and less air trapped in the final product.

All great at advice Lads thank you.

I guess the meat could have been colder because it coated everything with grease. I left it in the fridge all night so next time maybe mix it and get it in the freezer for a bit to stiffen up.

I did put a 5 tsp of Mortens cure with 5 lbs of meat, so maybe that was too much cure. I just followed a recipe on line and that is what they recommended.

I watched a video on line with someone using a sausage stuffer and it did look much easier and more controlled stuffing of the sausages. May have to look at getting one I guess if I am going to continue making stuff like this.

Well Lads thanks again and Merry Xmas.

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Originally Posted by Muskyhunter

. I left it in the fridge all night
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Think this might have contributed to your difficulty. I primarily make dry cure stuff and never freeze, however try to keep it as cold as possible, the meat. Also never season the meat until ready to stuff immediately.

Sausage stuffer is a must when making sausage. I bought a cheap one at princess auto and its awesome...

Peavey had a fantastic deal on the 5lb Lem just last week. It was $113 off normal price. Maybe check and see if the deal is on. It’s a great stuffer. I use one and really like it. One person can run it and stuff at the same time. We used to use our Lem grinder to do sausage but it was a two person job. I never had problems using it to stuff. Just make sure you added the correct amount of water based on the spice brand you're used. Some brands have a lot of filler and require quite a bit of water. Make sure your stuffing face ring is not on backwards before you screw on the face ring. Adding pork fat to your sausage also makes it go thru the stuffer easier. I put 18% by weight of pure pork fat in my pepperettes. My routine:
Single pass with venison thru coarse plate. Now add spice, cure, and required water. Hand mix for a good five minutes. I use 1/4 cup cool water per pound of meat.
Weigh out your pork fat sheets. For pepperettes i use 18% (by weight) pure pork fat . Now run the slightly frozen fat through the coarse plate once
Sprinkle ground fat over meat and then hand mix again for a good five minutes. You’re now ready to stuff ! Ive been using High Mountain jerky peperoni kit lately but i drastically reduce the amount of spice as it upsets my gut if you use their recommended amount. I also don't follow their cure measurement as i cant stand strong salt and i dont like eating all the nitrates. I use 1/3 the recommended amount. You don't really need any cure if you smoke until internal temp is 165 and you freeze your pepperettes during storage.

I looked up my recipe ratios for the mild italian sausage i make, using commercial mix spice. Last batch I made:
35 lbs ground venison
10.4 lbs ground pork picnic shoulder
10.44 lbs of pork fat
4.04 lbs of spice mix
21 cups of warm water

The spice to water weight ratio is 4.42lbs of spice : 12.5lbs of water if you'd rather weigh your water.

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Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers

Think this might have contributed to your difficulty. I primarily make dry cure stuff and never freeze, however try to keep it as cold as possible, the meat. Also never season the meat until ready to stuff immediately.

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Fins - Sorry I may have not been clear. Just the meat was in fridge and I did not mix spices and cure till I was ready to stuff.

I agree I need to get some better sausage making gear so I will be checking that out in the new year.

Fenelon - Thanks for the great input. Given your knowledge, it sounds like you do a lot of sausage/pepperettes.

Lem’s 3/8” steel stuffer tube works well with 21mm casings. The package says it can be used also for 19 and 17mm collagen casings but thats a pile of dung.The smaller casings wont thread onto the tube in the stacked formation. I’d advise getting real sheep casing from the butcher as it’s way cheaper than Lem collagen casings. Nicer to eat as well. I find the collagen casings thick to eat. Get yourself an electric smoker. Watch Kijji and you’ll get a good deal. I just picked up a $700 digital Bradley for 250 bucks! I just smoked 5 lbs of pepperettes yesterday. Set it in my unheated shop by the slightly open doors. Set the oven temp at 320F and it delivered an internal temp of 195F with the cold blizzard blowing. Smoked two pucks of maple. With 4 racks loaded It took about 3hrs 50 minutes to give me a meat temp of 165f when i checked with a digital meat thermometer. Make sure you buy a digital meat probe so you can monitor the stove interior temp. continuously as youre smoking. The set oven temp on the smoker will always read higher than the actual temp in the chamber. I put the probe wire down through the flue hole so the probe hangs in the middle rack. The $40 thermometer that i bought comes with a cool remote. You can take the receiver at least 100ft away from the smoker and you can easily watch the temp as you do other things.

The stainless Lem stuffing tube is sold at Peavey

I see you add quite a bit of water with the spice mix, was that experimental or part of the instructions?

As per the instructions that come with the spice. Lots of water gets added to frying/breakfast sausage as the spice mix contains a lot of binder.

Thanks for clarifying, I haven't ever used a commercial spice mix.

For the OP, I ran 5 lbs of venison pepperettes through the grinder to stuff over the holiday and tried keeping the meat on the edge of frozen. It definitely made a difference to break the suction pushing the pre ground meat down the tube. I had to reload the horn a couple of times with casing and put the meat back in the freezer between runs.