Sausagefest

[Climber]

No, this not a freak show so get your head out of the gutter...

I spent all weekend grinding up two whitetails and a mule deer to make burger and sausage. My family eats these two things more than anything else (by a large margin) so I ended up putting up close to 100lbs of meat. I would have had more meat but I gave 3/4 of the mulie to a friend.

So, this is my second year doing this solo and I'm getting better but need to find out a better way to stuff the sausage. I am using my cabela's 3/4 grinder to stuff the casings but got really slowed down this year as I didn't keep the meet super cold.

Any of you out there use a dedicated sausage stuffer? I'm thinking of picking one up as i understand it works much better for making links versus using the grinder. What size and model do you like?

Thanks in advance!

 

[colonel00]

We (my buddies and I) have one of the Cabela's linked below. I'm not sure which model we use though. We finally broke down and bought one a year or two ago for a couple reasons. First, we have the grinder from Cabela's which worked fine but we usually process deer in large batches with several of us helping with different tasks. We use the grinder to not only grind but also power the fancy mixing container thing they sell. So, with grinding, mixing and stuffing, we kept getting bottlenecked waiting for one task to finish. The second reason was that the dedicated stuffer is much easier to use although it does pretty much require two people unless you have the motorized version. One person can do it but it would take some practice. Finally, one of my buddies works part time at Cabela's and gets a huge discount since he has been there forever so that also helps with purchases.

Now, have you looked into the idea of making a water stuffer? Basically it just uses water pressure from a garden hose or sink and it pushes a piston that stuffs the meat. Either way, if you are doing large batches like you said, I would definitely get a dedicated stuffer.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabe...gclid=CKvBs5a4i7wCFWRk7AodMAUAIA&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[CentennialELK]

I use a dedicated stuffer and it makes life easier. I make a lot of boudin and such so I don't like running back through the grinder to stuff it as it changes the texture of the meat. Kind of makes it mushy even just going through a stuffing plate. As said above you can do it by yourself but it isn't much fun... Two people make it MUCH easier. I use a 5lb stuffer because I don't do a ton of meat, maybe 100lbs a year max.

 

[todd kelly]

We picked up a LEM 11lb horizontal stuffer a few years ago and am glad I did. Trying to do it through a grinder sucks and can cause the meat to get mushy. I can rip through 11lbs of meat pretty fast, and am able to do it easily by myself.

I have the LEM stuffer and a LEM .75hp grinder and both are built like tanks. I don't think they make the horizontal suffer any more and have not used their vertical stuffer, so I can't comment on those, but from the videos I have seen, it does look like they would be easier to use with two people.

 

[Climber]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I was leaning towards the 5lb model since they are 1/2 the price of the 10 and 15lb setups. Centennial, do you ever wish you had the bigger setup or does 5lb seem to work OK? I usually do 20 or so lbs at a time as my smoker will not handle much more.

 

[Tuffy]

I have the 5lb LEM and it handles all I need. One thing to consider is that the LEM has metal gears where most of the others are plastic and they strip or break. The LEM is here for the long haul.

 

[Poser]

I'm a fan of the Weston vertical stuffers. Metal gears and they sell replacement parts for every moving part on all of their equipment. Many of the other companies do not sell replacement parts for their consumer and "prosumer" models. If you check the Weston website, the often run free shipping deals. Given the size and weight of stuffers, that can save you $$.

Also, the larger (10 lbs+) stuffers can be difficult to fully sanitize without a commercial sized sink. 7 lbs may be as big as you want to go for a typical household sink. The stuffers themselves also are quite large and take up a good deal of storage space, so don't go bigger than you can handle.