I'm a sausage newbie with a bit of a problem (I posted this on the smokering's forum as well, so apologies for cross-posting).
I just purchased a grinder attachment for my kitchenaid mixer, and I was planning on making 5lbs. of smoked sausage yesterday.
I diced up the pork butt and combined it with all of the ingrediants (pink salt, salt, onion, garlic, and some other spices) and let it sit overnight in the fridge. This morning when I went to grind it, my grinder gave me serious problems (it would run for a few seconds, then stop). I spoke to a friend who has the same setup, used it with no problems, and he couldn't see anything wrong with it, so I think it is a faulty grinder attachment-I think either the auger or the body it sits in is bent, causing friction. I know, I should have done a trial run, but too late now.
Anyway, Kitchenaid is sending me a new grinder to arrive within 7-10 days. However, that doesn't do any good for the cut up pork butt. My two questions are:
1. Is it ok to freeze the sausage mixure for about a week? I don't care if the quality is affected slightly, I just want to save 5 lbs. of organic pork butt. I put it in a bunch of small freezer bags (so that they would thaw evenly) and tossed them in a very cold (-10) freezer.
2. I had soaked my hog casings for a couple of hours before the problem occured. Will they be ok sitting in water in the fridge for a few days (I added some extra salt to help the preservation). Altneratively, I was just thinking about drying them out and packing them in salt in the fridge. This is less of an issue since casings are cheap.
Thanks