Meat Processing Equipment 103 - Meat Mixers
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Meat Processing Equipment 103 Meat Mixers
Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!
What Are The Main Functions?
A Meat Mixers main function is to mix in seasoning, cure, and other additives with your meat. It also plays a very important role in protein extraction when making a cured sausage product.
How Do They Work?
Most retail meat mixers, like the Walton’s 20 lb and 50 lb models work on an axle and paddle system, where you turn the axle with the hand crank and the paddles spin through the chamber. The meat is added first and sits on the bottom of the mixer, the paddles are angled which allows them to scoop the meat off the bottom, rotate it up, and drop it back down to mix it. This way you are getting multiple impacts to help break up the proteins as the seasoning is mixed in.
How Important Is It?
Mixing seasoning, cure, and other additives in with your meat can be achieved by hand fairly easily, so if you are making a lot of fresh sausages then a meat mixer offers convenience but it is not necessary. However, if you are making cured sausages then you need to achieve high levels of protein extraction during the mixing process. Protein extraction is a very important part of making certain types of meat snacks, anything that is going to be smoked generally needs protein extraction to keep the meat, fat, water, and seasoning all bound together. If you don’t have good protein extraction you run the risk of “fatting out” which is when your fat renders out of your product during the cooking process. This leaves you with an unappetizing fatty film on the outside and a dry product.
Alternatives
You can mix in seasoning, cures, and additives by hand or you can add them between the first and second grind on your products and let your Meat Grinder do some of the work for you. These methods are easier to do with uncured products but they can also work for cured products, it will just be more time-consuming and you might end up with an inferior product.
Should You Buy One
If you are making cured products then I believe them to be absolutely necessary, right up there with Stuffers and Meat Grinders. Lack of proper protein extraction can lead to a host of problems during cooking and smoking products. If you are making only fresh products then it is not necessary but it can be convenient to have.
Best Choice For Beginners
The Walton’s 20 lb Meat Mixer is a nice size for making smaller batches, the scoop and drop action helps with protein extraction and it is fairly easy to break down and clean, all for $169.
Other Information
Be sure that you are spinning the crank an equal number of times in both directions, this will help disperse the seasonings and cures quicker and ensure even distribution. Some mixers like the Walton’s 50 lb will hook up with Walton’s meat grinders, size 22 and above, and it will do the mixing for you.
You also need to use a certain amount of the capacity for this type of mixer to be effective, trying to do a batch that is much below 1/2 of the capacity will give you issues.
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bpeel1077 I don’t know but I don’t think so, I believe the gearing is shaped differently. I might be wrong though, I’d say you best bet is to go to cabellas and take an auger out and look at the shape of where the auger meats the motor, it might be the same or close enough to make it work. If you are looking at mixers/grinders and can wait our mixers should be in in about 30 days and we are hoping to have the grinders in before Thanksgiving. The mixers we are getting work with both ours and Westons grinders.
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bpeel1077 I don’t know but I don’t think so, I believe the gearing is shaped differently. I might be wrong though, I’d say you best bet is to go to cabellas and take an auger out and look at the shape of where the auger meats the motor, it might be the same or close enough to make it work. If you are looking at mixers/grinders and can wait our mixers should be in in about 30 days and we are hoping to have the grinders in before Thanksgiving. The mixers we are getting work with both ours and Westons grinders.
Jonathon thank you for your response. I already have the cabelas grinder. Had couple hundred dollars of gift cards so went that route. I was wanting to compare the gears but neither item description or the Meatgistics video gave me a very good picture and Walton’s sales team suggested I try this forum. I know it a stretch asking you about another companies product. I do know blue sky makes the cabelas mixer.
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bpeel1077 Yeah without a cabellas I can’t be sure but here is a pic of the Weston 44 lb meat mixer
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Your mixer should have some stationary fingers in the tub that catch the meat mix off the rotating paddle.
On my mixer the fingers are removable for cleaning and it is possible to reassemble them upside down. Not sure how yours are attached.
On one occasion when I assembled the fingers incorrectly, I noticed the meat did not catch on them correctly and would just spin with the paddles.
Changing direction of rotation sometimes helps too.
The stationary fingers on my mixer are shown at the top of the picture.
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Young how big is your mixer and how much meat are you adding? That sounds like what happens when you don’t have a big enough batch.
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Young how big is your mixer and how much meat are you adding? That sounds like what happens when you don’t have a big enough batch.
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Young that doesn’t seem as if it would be a problem with that size verse the capacity but I’ve.never used that mixer so I don’t know for sure. How much water are you adding?
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Young that doesn’t seem as if it would be a problem with that size verse the capacity but I’ve.never used that mixer so I don’t know for sure. How much water are you adding?
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Young It has been my understanding that 100gm of water per kg helps in the stuffing, and is transparent to the product. Cheers
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Greetings.
I’m new to the snack stick making but when I do it, it will only be maybe 5lbs at a time. I already ordered the sure cure and carrot binder. But in your opinion, do you think I’ll be able to mix the mixture by hand okay or should I still look into a meat mixer?
Thanks -
Greetings.
I’m new to the snack stick making but when I do it, it will only be maybe 5lbs at a time. I already ordered the sure cure and carrot binder. But in your opinion, do you think I’ll be able to mix the mixture by hand okay or should I still look into a meat mixer?
Thankskeoni02 said in Meat Processing Equipment 103 - Meat Mixers:
Greetings.
I’m new to the snack stick making but when I do it, it will only be maybe 5lbs at a time. I already ordered the sure cure and carrot binder. But in your opinion, do you think I’ll be able to mix the mixture by hand okay or should I still look into a meat mixer?
ThanksHand mixing is an option to mechanical mixing, particularly for small batches of 5 lbs.
A mechanical mixer become a real help on larger batches due to the sheer amount of product that needs to be mixed, although you can even hand mix a 25 lb batch. It is just more work, and your hands might get cold. Rubber gloves help with the cold.With some sausage styles, complete mixing is important to get adequate protein extraction and to get all the ingredients evenly combined. A mechanical mixer can help do that.
In my opinion, for a beginning sausage maker shopping for mechanical equipment , a mixer is a distant third compared to a good grinder and a stuffer.
Paul
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keoni02 said in Meat Processing Equipment 103 - Meat Mixers:
Greetings.
I’m new to the snack stick making but when I do it, it will only be maybe 5lbs at a time. I already ordered the sure cure and carrot binder. But in your opinion, do you think I’ll be able to mix the mixture by hand okay or should I still look into a meat mixer?
ThanksHand mixing is an option to mechanical mixing, particularly for small batches of 5 lbs.
A mechanical mixer become a real help on larger batches due to the sheer amount of product that needs to be mixed, although you can even hand mix a 25 lb batch. It is just more work, and your hands might get cold. Rubber gloves help with the cold.With some sausage styles, complete mixing is important to get adequate protein extraction and to get all the ingredients evenly combined. A mechanical mixer can help do that.
In my opinion, for a beginning sausage maker shopping for mechanical equipment , a mixer is a distant third compared to a good grinder and a stuffer.
Thanks Paul. I have a Weston grinder and my LEM stuffer arrived today, just waiting on the 3/8 tube attachment. Is there any other option for a meat mixer smaller than a 20lb? I was searching a bit this morning but didn’t see anything. I would like to get a mixer eventually but I also saw in a post above that a small amount of meat won’t work properly in a 20lb mixer
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Thanks Paul. I have a Weston grinder and my LEM stuffer arrived today, just waiting on the 3/8 tube attachment. Is there any other option for a meat mixer smaller than a 20lb? I was searching a bit this morning but didn’t see anything. I would like to get a mixer eventually but I also saw in a post above that a small amount of meat won’t work properly in a 20lb mixer
keoni02 said in Meat Processing Equipment 103 - Meat Mixers:
Thanks Paul. I have a Weston grinder and my LEM stuffer arrived today, just waiting on the 3/8 tube attachment. Is there any other option for a meat mixer smaller than a 20lb? I was searching a bit this morning but didn’t see anything. I would like to get a mixer eventually but I also saw in a post above that a small amount of meat won’t work properly in a 20lb mixer
There were a few recent posts on guys who successfully mixed small batches in a kitchen style bowl mixers using the usual dough hook attachments.
For a typical Kitchen-Aid type mixer, I think one guy said 3 lbs was the limit.
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Thanks Paul. I have a Weston grinder and my LEM stuffer arrived today, just waiting on the 3/8 tube attachment. Is there any other option for a meat mixer smaller than a 20lb? I was searching a bit this morning but didn’t see anything. I would like to get a mixer eventually but I also saw in a post above that a small amount of meat won’t work properly in a 20lb mixer
keoni02 said in Meat Processing Equipment 103 - Meat Mixers:
Thanks Paul. I have a Weston grinder and my LEM stuffer arrived today, just waiting on the 3/8 tube attachment. Is there any other option for a meat mixer smaller than a 20lb? I was searching a bit this morning but didn’t see anything. I would like to get a mixer eventually but I also saw in a post above that a small amount of meat won’t work properly in a 20lb mixer
Here is the link with the discussion about using a kitchen mixer.
[link text]https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/3569/small-batch-protein-extraction(link url)
Paul
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keoni02 said in Meat Processing Equipment 103 - Meat Mixers:
Thanks Paul. I have a Weston grinder and my LEM stuffer arrived today, just waiting on the 3/8 tube attachment. Is there any other option for a meat mixer smaller than a 20lb? I was searching a bit this morning but didn’t see anything. I would like to get a mixer eventually but I also saw in a post above that a small amount of meat won’t work properly in a 20lb mixer
Here is the link with the discussion about using a kitchen mixer.
[link text]https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/3569/small-batch-protein-extraction(link url)
processhead
PERFECT!!! Thank you, sir! -
Jonathon thank you for your response. I already have the cabelas grinder. Had couple hundred dollars of gift cards so went that route. I was wanting to compare the gears but neither item description or the Meatgistics video gave me a very good picture and Walton’s sales team suggested I try this forum. I know it a stretch asking you about another companies product. I do know blue sky makes the cabelas mixer.
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