Mushy sausage

[Jonathon]

coladad I’m going to guess that your plates and/or knives are not sharp and need to be either replaced or sharpened. That is what is sounds like at least.

[coladad]

Thanks Jonathon.

[Jonathon]

coladad If you’ve got any pics maybe we could try to delve in a little deeper but I don’t really know if that would work as mushy probably isnt going to come through so well through photo? Might be worth a try though!

[coladad]

Jonathan – thanks. I stuffed the bit that went through the grinder/stuffer then used a jerky cannon to stuff some, just to check, and the texture there was fine. I put the rest in 1 lb. bags. So, everything is frozen in vacuum packs now. Not sure photos will do it justice, but I will try.

The machine is literally brand new - second project. I made one batch of snack sticks last weekend, and tried the sausage this time. The meat was pork shoulder and some trimmings from a couple of racks of spare ribs from a month ago – the pork was frozen prior to the first grind, thawed just enough to handle in the grinder. It ground the first time perfectly fine. It sat in the fridge while we went to the football game - so several hours – and when i got home, I ran the the coarsely ground meat through the stuffer. The texture was just about the exact consistency of the snack stick mix when it came out through the stuffer - really mushy, almost creamy, like it had been whipped or something. I’ll try a different blade next time and see what happens. I think I followed the instructions, but maybe i put too much water in with the seasoning mixture. Next purchase will have to be a stuffer, i guess.

[Jonathon]

coladad Okay, so if the grinder is brand new I feel safe to assume the plates and knives were as well? So that would pretty much scrap my theory of dull plates and knives, wouldn’t make any sense. I didn’t understand that you were using a grinder to stuff but after reading your initial post again it seems that this mushiness was happening before you went to stuff.

Did you add seasoning after you mixed the first time and then let it sit in the fridge for a few hours? I’m wondering if it started to “set up”

[Jonathon]

coladad One other thought that was brought up was if the meat was totally frozen and you had to push down with stomper with too much pressure? This might have done it. Ice crystals are fine but fully frozen might cause some issues.

[geraldr622]

Jonathon I had an issue with a mushy grind. Upon taking the grinder head apart I discovered lots of fat stuck to the grinding tube, plate and cutting blade. It was actually frozen to the metal surfaces. I cleaned up everything and let the grinding head and all parts warm up for a bit more than 1 hour. Before starting the original grind, I had put the grinding head and all parts in the freezer for more than three hours.
I had set the meat back in the fridge while I was cleaning up everything and letting the grinding equipment warm up a bit. Commenced grind again and everything was as it should be. The theory I developed for my self was the grinding metal was so cold that it was freezing on to the metal surfaces and it clogged up and was turning to mush. Kind of like putting your tongue on a piece of frozen metal. I would not claim that this was 100% the problem, but it worked for me.

[Jonathon]

geraldr622 That is super interesting…can the grinder head get too cold? Hmmm Okay, so we have an infrared thermometer. Maybe we need to do some “test” grinds at different temperature with the grinder head to find out if you can, in fact, “over-freeze” you grinder head and if that is the cause of some problems.

Might be a while but this is definitely going on the board for futre Meat Fact Friday or Meat Hack Monday ideas, thanks!

[AdamCA]

Jonathon I don’t think that is an issue, at least not one that I’ve experienced. I usually put the head assembly in my deep freezer the night before (at least 3 out of the last 5 times) and didn’t have any issues. That is complete with plates and knives. If I forget to put it in the night before then I’ll throw it in for at least an hour or two. But I’ve also stored it in the freezer for about a week because I didn’t get around to processing when I originally planned and I didn’t have any issues then either. I wonder if you were on to something about the meat being frozen?

[Jonathon]

AdamCA But it sounds like a good excuse for me to grind up some meat…and then once it is ground it would be a shame to not make some sausage out of it…

[AdamCA]

Jonathon can’t argue with your logic, please let us know how the experiment turns out.