www.sausagemaking.org

I dont have a hand crank stuffer only the machine.

I have seen the in past with my grinder/stuffer that if I put so much in the inlet that it fills the entire opening, then when I add more it will trap air which it has to push through into the casing. If the casing is too tight on the tube this gets trapped in the sausage. If the tube is smaller the air can escape through the unstuffed casing. It greatly depends on how sticky the sausage is.
More water in the sausage mix made this less problematic. Or use a smaller tube or larger casing to make it easier to vent the air through the unstuffed side.

That sounds about right!
I was reading a book on home production sausages and it said I should use 3% water. I was using 4%. On thier recipe of breakfast sausage they use 10%. Now I I'm confused with the water ratio.
I am looking to buy a new sausage stuffer. One of those where you wind the handle. Hopefully that will help but the shipping is so expensive.

senorkevin wrote:I was reading a book on home production sausages and it said I should use 3% water. I was using 4%. On thier recipe of breakfast sausage they use 10%. Now I I'm confused with the water ratio.

The book if fine but as yet I have not come across saying

it said I should use 3% water

I do realize that on page 236 (Breakfast Sausage Recipe) that they call for 10% water

Do yourself a big favor --- disregard any water numbers as they will not do the world of good

Add as much/or as little water that you need to add to your mixture to make it pliable ---

Pork that has just been killed/processed contains a lot of moisture -- hence you will add very little or no water at all.

Pork that has been hanging for a week or more (under refrigeration) will have less moisture and thus will require some or a lot of water

Cry o vac pork has the same traits as (I have found) as week old hanging pork-- moisture needs adding

HTH

The other thing; Most; if not all the folks on hear tell you is all strait up.

They wish to help and most if not all are wise in there ways --- besides it is known that one ore two that drop there hat in this ear place actually do/make said products for a living making a few shackles along the way

Thanks for the reply. No spondules!
Also thanks for the tip about the water. I was just following a rule of thumb for percentages, so maybe thats where the problem is.
I always listen to advice on here because I know nothing! Ssometimes I ask to many questions but that is only because I want to know why as I am learning

It is the mixture or the machine. I ground the mixture though the machine today without the horn and when I am pushing the meat into the grinder it is creating a vacuum and the mixture is sticking. When I push down it is ok, but when I try to take out the pusher (I dont know what it is called) some of the mixture come back up and then when I try to push more mixture into the grinder air is getting trapped.
How can I lube up the pusher?
Sorry for all the innuendos!

IIRC, some people find it helps if you drop small balls of the mix into the grinder to avoid getting the vacuum.

Personally, I found the only solution was to invest in a dedicated stuffer.

Phil

Im going to order this on monday...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009KK ... d_i=507846