Sausage grinding?

This is only the second time I've made sausage, and it was a bigger batch, about 5 pounds. I'm using a kitchenaid with the grinding attachement and stuffing horn attachment.

I was grinding on the small plate, about 1/8 inch holes. And it got very hard to feed. When I finished, I found that my plate and cutter were fairly obstructed on gristle/silverskin and such that was flexible enough to just slide around and tangle and not press through.

Is this fairly common? It sure made it tougher than it should have been.

Phil

Thanks for the info. I'm just a newbie at it all. I have found that I would prefer the coarser grind for most sausages now but a few will still get the fine grind.

Phil

Yes, that was clear even before I posted my question.

PHil

Jock is right.

I was making a sampler, just for kicks. Recipes from Jeff Smith and the internet. I did 1 pound batches followed with some ice to clean out the system and cool things down and distinguish between the sausage types in the casing.

A bratwurst with a coburger twist. Traditionally cooked over pine cones, I went with a rosemary, pine nut and bay leaf accent as I didn't have any pine cones I trusted on hand. Was VERY well liked.

Luganella, much praised my Marcella Hazan, but with a recipe from Jeff Smith. This was a very impressive sausage to me. Mild mild mild, but pleasant with the parmesan and wine. Very nuanced but without the brashness common to most sausages.

Chorizo, just for kicks. This needed extra fat in my pre-stuffing taste tests.

A standard and hot creole style sausage, mostly to satisfy some chileheads. It takes a lot of seasoning to make a sausage hot enough for a chile head. And I still came up short on the heat for two of them.

Phil

The Chorizo was more of a mexican flavor than spanish. It tastes pretty close to what I can buy in the Hispanic groceries around here, but with a more eurpean texture. And lacking the oddball material from the head and organs. I was surprised how close the taste and color was as Jeff's ingredients were heavy on chili powder, not ground dried
chile.

The Luganella is an interesting story. I had just been in the thrift store shopping for cookbooks. Turns out that lots of estates kids don't want the older cookbooks and so they get given to goodwill type stores. They sell them for a buck or two a piece. I got More Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan for a buck and the Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine for 2 bucks on a different but recent trip. M. Hazan talks a lot about and cooks with Luganella. Jeff Smith has a recipe for Italian Sausage with Parmesan and Wine that matches fairly closely what Hazan talks about. So, here is Jeff Smith's recipe, which I scaled way down.

4 pounds de-boned pork shoulder/butt
1 tablespoon coarse ground fennel (which I omitted as MH indicates it shouldn't be there)
2 bay leaves, crushed
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/4 cup dry red wine
4 yards sausage casings

Grind meat with the coarse blade. Mix all ingredients together and allow mixture to sit refrigerated for at least one hour before stuffing into casings.

He's using a pretty small casing to get a yard per pound. Adjust as needed for your casings. I wanted my cheese a bit chunky, so I crumbled it by hand and was a bit more generous with it than the recipe calls for. I used more wine too

Cabelas opened a store near me. They've got a number of different sausage casings so I picked up some collagen casings to give a try. I stuffed them tonight. I'll be having a pre-Labor day barbecue meat fest on Saturday. I'll smoke some ribs and a bit of pork shoulder, some trout and these sausages. My guests volunteered the sides. Don't know what I'll end up with except for a good time. In reading up on collagen casings, I found this site that looks pretty good.

http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/ His recipes are in the Formulations sections. Thought you would all enjoy it.

Phil