Help with stuffing, please

[SimonSez]

1st wanted to say thanks to all the knowledgeable people who participate in this site,I have been reading and learning lots over the past few weeks.

As an Englishman, it goes without saying that I love sausages, and having lived in Namibia for many years I got a good liking for Boerewors.

So I set about making some English bangers and some Boerewors, using recipes and directions from from this site, including making my own rusk.

I have a #8 electric grinder with an 8mm plate, a 4.8mm plate and a stuffing plate with 7 holes in it. My stuffing tube is plastic, 7/8" and tapered. The grinding mechanism comes from the freezer, and the meat mix from the fridge.

My bangers turned out OK, the flavour was good, but the texture I need to work on. I ground the meat coarse, then seasoned/watered and then added the rusk mixed and cooled. Next it was ground through the finer blade, cooled and finally stuffed into 32mm hog casings, and left in the fridge overnight to 'bloom'.

My Boerewors was a different story, flavour was good as well and my issues cannot be blamed on the recipe, but maybe more a grinder/stuffer issue. The beef/pork was cut into cubes, and I added belly fat (shredded and frozen)added the vinegar spice mix and mix up a little. the meat mix was ground on the coarse blade(8mm). (For those who don't know, Boerewors is a coarse ground loosely packed sausage cooked over coals in a coil.) My next step was to stuff, and this is where I need help.

1) for both sausages I used the same hog casings, but had the hardest time 1stly get the casing on my stuffing tube, and 2ndly getting the casing to flow off the stuffing tube in a smooth and easy fashion. Th casings were soaked in warm water and then cold water, the were soaked for a couple of hours and then overnight, I tried them on the tube as is, blowing them up(inflating them), passing water through them, sitting in cold water, sitting in warm water, the result was the same every time, it feels like the casing has stuck to the tube, or it has shrunk a bit. Trying to get the casing to flow has been extremely frustrating, and rather than holding between thumb and forefinger to stop it sliding off too fast, I actually have to help the casing off tube and even this cannot be achieved fast enough to keep up with stuffing.

2) When it come to stuffing the boerewors, I do not want to grind the meat any more, so I started with just the stuffing plate, the 1st 6 inches of 'Boerie' looked good, after that the stuffed sausage looked like English sausages (fine mince), upon opening the auger, the stuffing plate was completely blocked. Next I tried with just the auger, result was the same, except this time the stuffing tube was the culprit and blocked up. I purchased a three(kidney) hole stuffing plate, and again the stuffing plate(despite having much larger holes) blocked up, next I had to modify the stuffing tube to allow the mincing blade to be fitted with the stuffing plate and stuffing tube(I could not get the grinding unit to close with all 3 out of the box), and once again I got what resembled English sausage and the stuffing tube blocking.

So I guess my 2 questions are - what am I doing wrong with the casings, and how do you stuff a coarse ground loosely packed sausage.

[Massimo Maddaloni]

I recommend that you do yourself a favor and buy a crank stuffer.
Maddmax

[crustyo44]

Massimi hit your problem right on the head. Quality sausages cannot be made without a dedicated horizontal or vertical stuffer.
All stainless, including the tubes is mandatory for trouble free results.
The 3 and 5 kg sizes seem to be the most popular.
Jan.

[NCPaul]

Welcome to the forum. If your grinding plates are blocking up, you might want to consider how carefully you trim the meat. With small home grinders it is important to remove sinews and connective tissue between the muscles. It takes me more time trimming the meat than grinding it. The meat and fat can come from the freezer in an almost frozen state (dry to the touch). Your casing problems sound as if they were old or of poor quality or stored improperly. Where did you get them from? When? Were they frozen? A stuffer will help as well and Christmas is coming; perhaps a word with Santa.

[SimonSez]

Thanks for the replies.

I am in Upstate South Carolina, and I purchased a LEM grinder. I also bought LEM hog casings dried in salt, soaked them in warm water, then in cold water, etc.

As for the grinding, I don't think it is my butchery is an issue, the sausage I made ground down well and also stuffed very nicely. My big issue is tryin g to stuff a coarse ground mix and keep it coarse and somewhat loose without the grinder/stuffer stuffing up!!!

I may try a stainless steel stuffing tube that doesn't taper and to also get my meat a bit colder.

[Oddwookiee]

Mossimo is right- a combination grinder/stuffer is a complete waste of time if you're serious. Get a dedicated stuffer and you'll solve half your problems right from jump. Tapered horns, while they sound like a money saver, are also a mistake. Get a horn that will fit what casing(s) you plan on using. I have an 18mm horn for breakfast sausage links & pepperoni (or called snack) sticks, a 27mm for hog casings, and a big 40mm for big jobs (this one usually stays on the other stuffer for stuffing hamburger chubs, though). A straight pipe is the way to go. I prefer stainless over a plastic, but I use the hell out of my equipment and need the durability.

Don't go through Cabela's, though. For the price they charge on what you get, each purchase should come with a gnome to do the work for you.

[DiggingDogFarm]

FWIW, Gander Mountain has their 15 lb. stuffer on sale.
I have one and I'm very pleased with it.
SS tubes are available from LEM.

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/p ... i?i=401088


~Martin

[SimonSez]

OK, it has been a long time since my initial post and question, but had a lot of 'stock' to finish up before I made my next batch of Boerewors, which I managed to get round to over the weekend.

However, first things first, I bought myself a 5lb vertical stuffer over christmas and finally got round to using it over the weekend - this is way easier that stuffing around with a grinder with a stuffing attachment (pardon the pun).

So i made up a batch (14lb) of Boerewors (50%beef/50%pork butt), ground once through a 10mm plate and then stuffed into 32-35mm hog casings using a 3/4" ss stuffing tube. the whole stuffing process was much, much easier, but (and bearing in mind that Boerewors is supposed to be a coarse ground somewhat loosely packed sausage) I got a fair amount of air bubbles in my sausage which is definitely coming from the stuffer and not form air introduced whilst putting the casing on the tube.

Any suggestions as to a solution for this, or is it dealt with after the fact???

Thanks

[vagreys]

Several thoughts.

1) you can't avoid some air under the casing. It happens. That's where having something to prick the bubbles is your friend.

2) if your 5-lb stuffer doesn't have an air release valve in the piston, you want to add one. Makes a big difference in the amount of air that gets into the casing. I have an old 5-lb stuffer, and I got a valve from the sausagemaker.com parts department, drilled a hole in the piston and installed one. Made a huge difference. I might have made one, myself, but the one I bought fits very well and flush, making cleanup easy.

3) there are a couple of techniques to loading the cylinder that reduce the amount of air in the mixture. When you place the first fistful of mixture in the cylinder, tamp it down with your knuckles to express the air, flattening out the mixture to cover the entire bottom, without any air around or under the mixture. Add another fistful and do the same, repeating this with each handful of meat until you fill the cylinder. If the cylinder is less than full when loaded, and you have an air release valve on the piston, when you crank down the piston, the air in the headspace will come out the valve and you will have very little air in the cylinder and very few bubbles in the casing.

An alternate method works better with larger stuffers, and depends on how wet the mixture is, but you throw the fistfuls of meat into the cylinder with force, before tamping down with your knuckles, and that also forces air from the mixture and eliminates any air from underneath that handful of meat. The 5-lb stuffer cylinder is so narrow that it takes a little practice, but this method leaves the least amount of air in the mix, in my experience.

[DiggingDogFarm]

In my opinion it's best to work the air out of the sausage before loading the stuffer by slamming it against a surface (that's the way I was taught to do it.)
A potato masher with a mostly solid face is the best tool I've found for loading the stuffer and excluding air.

See this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SJ5fugYWCM

He loads the stuffer very early on in the video.


~Martin

[SimonSez]

Thanks for the replies, and I will will try the suggestions out next time I make sausage.

I guess a pin prick will probably be the best solution for the Boerewors (this is supposed to be a somewhat loosely packed sausage).

Again, thanks.

[Big Guy]

air in the sausage can be reduced but not eliminated. take care when loading your stuffer to pack the meat in firmly this will eliminate a lot of air, also make sure to squeeze out any air in the caseing once it is mounted on the stuffing tube. Finally if you get some air bubbles just prick the cases while you are linking them and squeeze out the air