Chicago Brat time.
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To get everyone on board with the new meat processing idea I let them have a say in what we were gonna do first with the new equipment I ordered. Well waltons made it easy for the Cubs fans by naming one of the Bratz the “Chicago Brat Seasoning”. So as long as the weather holds and the river don’t rise we will be grinding and stuffing this weekend in the new stuffer. I was hoping the mixer would get here, but it hasn’t updated shipping and is slated for Monday.
Picture of the new stuffer which just arrived.
Its a 15lb stuffer. I decided on that size because allot of the butts I get are 10-13 lbs and stopping to load just doesn’t sound fun. I did allot of reading and folks who went with 10lb stuffers envied their friends with 15lb ones.
So should I use real hog casings on this my first stuff or stick to collagen. I have both so its really up to me this first go round. I have watched the videos, but I’m up for anyone’s opinion.
pr0wlunwoof Just an old man’s opinion. Always use natural casing. I ordered a lot of collagen casing for a very large batch of breakfast sausage. I hate chewing paper. I have kept it if anyone wants it, but I just don’t like the texture. The breakfast sausage in Lamb casing is fantastic. I like hand pulled and trimmed casing, where all the “whiskers” are trimmed, it cost more but the final product just looks better. I’ll put my bisas up front, Use the best materials and products I can get.
As far as equipment, you seem to be growing in this “hobby” so always get beyond what you think you need. I got a 30 pound stuffer and glad I did because between friends, family, and customers, a typical batch of sausage has grown from 15 pounds to about 180 to 240 pounds. I can sell as much as I am willing to make. It is really about what you see yourself doing 5 to 10 years from now. I knew I wanted to go big, so even when I only needed a 10 to 15 pound stuffer, I went with a 30 pound. Glad I did. Is this a passion you want to pursue, or do you want to make 15 pounds every few months.
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Natural Casings seem like the winner. Just gotta remember to soak and rinse them. As far as vacuum packing them I saw on one of the videos to freeze them for a half hour or so as to keep the vaccum from forcing the meat out of the casings. Anyone got any tips as far as vacuum sealing?
pr0wlunwoof What kind of vacuum sealer do you have? I have a chamber and I agree with Tex_77 , longer than 1/2 hour. You will want them as solid as possible.
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pr0wlunwoof Just an old man’s opinion. Always use natural casing. I ordered a lot of collagen casing for a very large batch of breakfast sausage. I hate chewing paper. I have kept it if anyone wants it, but I just don’t like the texture. The breakfast sausage in Lamb casing is fantastic. I like hand pulled and trimmed casing, where all the “whiskers” are trimmed, it cost more but the final product just looks better. I’ll put my bisas up front, Use the best materials and products I can get.
As far as equipment, you seem to be growing in this “hobby” so always get beyond what you think you need. I got a 30 pound stuffer and glad I did because between friends, family, and customers, a typical batch of sausage has grown from 15 pounds to about 180 to 240 pounds. I can sell as much as I am willing to make. It is really about what you see yourself doing 5 to 10 years from now. I knew I wanted to go big, so even when I only needed a 10 to 15 pound stuffer, I went with a 30 pound. Glad I did. Is this a passion you want to pursue, or do you want to make 15 pounds every few months.
To be honest I don’t have the time and probably won’t for a couple years to do more than a batch here and there. My goal at this point is to make things we like to eat on a regular basis. My inlaws moved to town recently and we eat together two or three times a week. Allot of what they like is hard to find because of the limited grocery store options.
My father-in-law worked at a deli/butcher for a few years after retirement and he agreed that making our own processed meats would be a good use of our time. We tried doing italian sausage with an old belt powered #32 grinder i built a few years ago, but it wouldn’t stuff as I didn’t have the right plates and 1 kidney plate was like $40. So I went looking for a solution. I really thought an 11lb stuffer would do it, but I kept reading about reloads and decided against it and got the 15lb. I got enough tooling now to make it a while. Slicer, smoker, stuffer, grinder.
Next purchases will probably be plates for my old grinder, but I gotta get some product made to keep everyone invested.
Your right though. If I really get into it I will need a bigger stuffer, but if at that point I’m prolly gonna go powered instead of manual. -
To get everyone on board with the new meat processing idea I let them have a say in what we were gonna do first with the new equipment I ordered. Well waltons made it easy for the Cubs fans by naming one of the Bratz the “Chicago Brat Seasoning”. So as long as the weather holds and the river don’t rise we will be grinding and stuffing this weekend in the new stuffer. I was hoping the mixer would get here, but it hasn’t updated shipping and is slated for Monday.
Picture of the new stuffer which just arrived.
Its a 15lb stuffer. I decided on that size because allot of the butts I get are 10-13 lbs and stopping to load just doesn’t sound fun. I did allot of reading and folks who went with 10lb stuffers envied their friends with 15lb ones.
So should I use real hog casings on this my first stuff or stick to collagen. I have both so its really up to me this first go round. I have watched the videos, but I’m up for anyone’s opinion.
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pr0wlunwoof What kind of vacuum sealer do you have? I have a chamber and I agree with Tex_77 , longer than 1/2 hour. You will want them as solid as possible.
I bought this one a while back. I got tired of the “consumer grade” models flaking out on me. It works great and is adjustable so you can run different thicknesses on bags. I did want a pressurized one, but that wasn’t happening at the time. I’m very happy with it so far.
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To be honest I don’t have the time and probably won’t for a couple years to do more than a batch here and there. My goal at this point is to make things we like to eat on a regular basis. My inlaws moved to town recently and we eat together two or three times a week. Allot of what they like is hard to find because of the limited grocery store options.
My father-in-law worked at a deli/butcher for a few years after retirement and he agreed that making our own processed meats would be a good use of our time. We tried doing italian sausage with an old belt powered #32 grinder i built a few years ago, but it wouldn’t stuff as I didn’t have the right plates and 1 kidney plate was like $40. So I went looking for a solution. I really thought an 11lb stuffer would do it, but I kept reading about reloads and decided against it and got the 15lb. I got enough tooling now to make it a while. Slicer, smoker, stuffer, grinder.
Next purchases will probably be plates for my old grinder, but I gotta get some product made to keep everyone invested.
Your right though. If I really get into it I will need a bigger stuffer, but if at that point I’m prolly gonna go powered instead of manual.pr0wlunwoof You touched a little on a problem that you may have with your taller, 15 pound stuffer. Stability can be an issue when you’re cranking it, as it may take a fair amount of force to crank that handle with a full cylinder. It’s not something you can’t overcome with some good clamping or an assistant, but just be aware.
You get some back pressure on that handle, too, so don’t just let go of it abruptly.
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pr0wlunwoof You touched a little on a problem that you may have with your taller, 15 pound stuffer. Stability can be an issue when you’re cranking it, as it may take a fair amount of force to crank that handle with a full cylinder. It’s not something you can’t overcome with some good clamping or an assistant, but just be aware.
You get some back pressure on that handle, too, so don’t just let go of it abruptly.
Thanks for the tips. I was going to clamp it down with some spring clamps just in case. I don’t think it will be completely full especially for the first couple of runs. My father-in-law will be assisting so if anything goes wrong I’m going to blame him
.I did think of the height especially when I sat it on the table. The center of gravity is higher than with the smaller units. Hopefully it won’t matter too much.
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pr0wlunwoof You touched a little on a problem that you may have with your taller, 15 pound stuffer. Stability can be an issue when you’re cranking it, as it may take a fair amount of force to crank that handle with a full cylinder. It’s not something you can’t overcome with some good clamping or an assistant, but just be aware.
You get some back pressure on that handle, too, so don’t just let go of it abruptly.
TexLaw pr0wlunwoof I agree with TexLaw , but it is brand dependant. I know Waltons doesn’t sell F. D I C K ( I know if I spell it, I would be censored LOL) but with my 30 Pound stuffer, I have no problem with force nor back pressure. I was able to stuff 220 pounds of breakfast sausage in 22 mm sheep casing in about 45 minutes by myself. But, then again, you pay through the nose for it. I got mine on ebay for about 1/2 price. I’ve worked way too hard in my life, so I have learned to just go with the best, which is not always the highest price, just well made.
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I bought this one a while back. I got tired of the “consumer grade” models flaking out on me. It works great and is adjustable so you can run different thicknesses on bags. I did want a pressurized one, but that wasn’t happening at the time. I’m very happy with it so far.
pr0wlunwoof It pulls enough to make sure the sausage is frozen solid prior to sealing it
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pr0wlunwoof The only time I’d use anything other than natural casing is if someone requested a vegetarian sausage option. Luckily that doesn’t happen often.
Joe Hell I had to make a vegan sausage once, actually it wasn’t bad but nothing I would make unless specifically requested.
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TexLaw pr0wlunwoof I agree with TexLaw , but it is brand dependant. I know Waltons doesn’t sell F. D I C K ( I know if I spell it, I would be censored LOL) but with my 30 Pound stuffer, I have no problem with force nor back pressure. I was able to stuff 220 pounds of breakfast sausage in 22 mm sheep casing in about 45 minutes by myself. But, then again, you pay through the nose for it. I got mine on ebay for about 1/2 price. I’ve worked way too hard in my life, so I have learned to just go with the best, which is not always the highest price, just well made.
Yeah I’m all about well made stuff, but I take into account value/cost. I’ve got allot of hobbies and through them all I have very few regrettable purchases.
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Yeah I’m all about well made stuff, but I take into account value/cost. I’ve got allot of hobbies and through them all I have very few regrettable purchases.
pr0wlunwoof don’t we all.
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It has begun. Will only be a 5lb batch as walmart decided that for me on delivery. Everything has been prepped just waiting on my second set of hands to get here.
Boned the butt then sliced and diced and ran through the kitchen aid grinder as the old #32 belt driven grinder seemed like overkill. I remember why I built the #32 the kitchen aid is god awful slow.
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Went pretty well.
pr0wlunwoof Would you post a few pictures of the #32 belt drive grinder. Thanks
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Here is a screen shot from a video I did. This is the front of it.
This is a picture of motor specs.
It has a 3 inch pulley on the motor. I want to change that to a 1 inch, but haven’t been able to find one.
The grinder has a 12 in pulley that comes with a handle for hand cranking. Took that off and run a v-belt from the hardware store.
Use a turn-buckle to tension the belt. And wired a light switch in line.
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It grinds pretty much as fast as you can put it in. Fastest we have clocked it is about 10lb a minute, but if you expanded the hopper with some type of funnel (which I have seen on youtube) you could probably go faster than that. Only thing I would change is probably slowing it down with a smaller motor pulley, but that would just be to ease my mind as its north of 400RPM if I did my math right. A 1 inch pulley would bring it down to around 150RPM. Probably going to get some more plates/knives for it as that is the only one it has.
I take care when putting it together as to make sure the bearings and everything are running true so their is no metal on metal action.
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Got what we arent eating tonight all packaged up. Definately room for improvement, but all in a great experience.
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Here is a screen shot from a video I did. This is the front of it.
This is a picture of motor specs.
It has a 3 inch pulley on the motor. I want to change that to a 1 inch, but haven’t been able to find one.
The grinder has a 12 in pulley that comes with a handle for hand cranking. Took that off and run a v-belt from the hardware store.
Use a turn-buckle to tension the belt. And wired a light switch in line.
pr0wlunwoof Thanks, that’s such a good backup. I wanted a manual grinder just in case power was out, having that as an option is terrific. I have several pulleys and motors, sure I could get one to work. Kill two birds with one purchase.
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