Jonathon

Thanks for the input! Last night I wrapped up the last bit of breakfast sausage and called it a night. I did have an issue with both the 2nd grind and with stuffing and I think you hit the nail on the head and need to meat to be still mostly frozen if to get it down in chunks a little bit at a time and pushed through the auger.

My trip was pushed so I will try again probably tomorrow night to see how it goes.

On a good note, I fried up some last night and it was DELICIOUS so that is good!

Again, I appreciate all the help and input from you all! I can only learn so much in the vids and the hands-on work with some advice is always the best way to get good at it! I’m not giving up!

Dave

Yeeeeahhhh… no go.

Added just shy of 3.2oz of water, I read 1pt per 25lbs, for the 4lbs that was left after last night’s attempt. It was really cold to point of numb fingers and really not sticking at all on the gloves. Perfect I thought.

Nope, still had to put a ton of weight on it, sometimes using both hands, to get it to put out any sausage. It takes a bit to fill the horn or hopper while ‘burping’ the air out of it so I can push down and get the most out of the push. I still get a ton of meat coming back up the feeder hold around the stomper and if I stop midway down the stomper pops up an inch or better and if I have any air in the horn if get next to nothing out.

It took me about 20min to get about 3lbs through and I had to stop because (a) the motor to started to smell ‘warm’ and needed to cool down and (b) felt like my arm was going to fall off. I pulled something like 3wks ago so not 100% the stuffing but I had forgotten about pulling that until I got about 2.5lbs through that 3lbs.

At this point, I am going to try finishing the rest of this breakfast sausage when the grinder cools a bit and try one batch on the bigger stuffing tube for the brats. If that doesn’t go I will end probably having to freeze it again and wait to get an actual stuffer as that I’ve seen and read is a MUCH faster way to go but still does not address the problem I am having.

I just do not get why I am getting so much resistance from this. I have torn it down probably five times taking this apart and putting it back together again. Doing the initial grind was a dream! I barely used the stomper and it went down by itself and was ecstatic! It was with roughly the 2" chunks of average cold meat and not too much fat mix in with the pure fat bits diced to 1/2"-3/4" chunks to evenly disburse it and keep bigger chunks from clogging things up.

I get why the raw meat goes faster on the first grind but it is just like the auger is not doing any pushing of the meat and only seems to spin and emulsify the meat and fat chunks into a pink paste because I can’t keep a steady pace.

Anyway, again, I appreciate all the help and insight and will keep trying and let you know the final outcome.

Dave

Thawing the meat a little bit more, it’s still a bit crunchy frozen, and will update when I try.

I thought it was a backward knife when I first changed from the 3/8" to the 3/16" plate but it was correct so switched back to the 3/8" and toughed it out for the rest of the 2nd grind.

After I chilled down the meat again I had the large 3 bean shaped hole ‘plate’ in place with the smaller stuffing horn with the stainless tube, 3/8" I think, for the breakfast sausage. Still super tough and took it all apart and back together again but no joy.

It may take a few hours or in the morning to update here, depending on how things go, but I will let you all know how it goes.

Thanks for all the help & input!

Dave

Jonathon said in Pushing REALLLY hard and nothing! 25lbs waiting!:

alanburkholder Is correct you should add water BUT it also shouldn’t be impossible like it was without water. Couple other things to make stuffing easier, use really cold meat, when fat gets warm it gets sticky and will fight you when trying to stuff, don’t use too small a casing/stuffing tube and make sure everything is properly ground. It sounds to me like something (a hunk of fatty material is the usual culprit) gets stuck in your stuffing tube and won’t let anything get past it.

Is your medium plate a 3/16"?

Thanks Jonathon! I have it in the freezer now and am going to let it thaw a bit so it’s not frozen but not sticky either. I had it cold last night and it wasn’t sticky when I started but it warmed up pretty quickly.

Yeah I do believe it is a 3/16" plate for my medium and a 3/8" for my largest one.

I appreciate all the input and will update tonight when I hopefully have several successful ropes of brats!

Dave

Oh man! Geez I thought I saw to NOT add water, apparently I had it backwards! Thanks much! I am going delay my trip so I can try it tomorrow night.

Dave

Almost none, just enough to mix in the spices. For a 5lb batch should I add more?

Thanks!

Hi All,

Been reading and reading and learning and yesterday started my first batch of brats and breakfast sausage. I but have something I didn’t expect.

I cut and ground 25lbs of pork bottom with the largest hole plate, 3/8" I think, in my new Weston #8, 575W grinder. It was SUPER easy and did not take long at all.

Added spices, lightly kneaded with no protein extraction, and started my 2nd grind with the ‘medium’ plate. It was really hard to push it through and it was a pink paste with no variation in the texture, a puree almost. I know it is going to be harder to push the 2nd grind but after 10min of really cranking down on the stomper, I barely had a single pound done.

I went back up to the larger plate, cooled the meat to almost frozen and firm, then proceeded to really mash on the stomper again to get it all through. It had a little more texture but much less than I expected and still took forever to do.

I now have the meat really cold again and trying to use the plastic wide open ‘plate’ with no blade for stuffing using a 3/8" tube for some breakfast sausage and again I am having to really crank down HARD on the stomper, all the way to the bottom which creates a hard pull out because of the suction, and am still barely getting anything out. All the vids I saw you pushed down what looks to be firm but the sausage comes out and still has texture. I’m making a tiny, pink muck sack and my arm is getting sore to get about an inch a minute.

It really feels like I am getting zero push from the auger and only getting ground meat out the end by pure force and pressure.

Any ideas, please?! I am desperate and I really, REALLY need to try and get this done or it may have to go in the freezer until late next week before I can even attempt it again because of my schedule.

Thanks!!!
Dave