www.sausagemaking.org

Hi Franco

I'm finally looking to make my own sausages. This year I have sold about 2 1/2 tons of sausage, next year I'm looking to sell (and make) about 4 tons in total. The largest batch will be 1/2 ton i.e. 500kg. The average batch is about 150 kg. The sausages are 6oz (170gm) in weight and about 8" long. I want to use natural skins and produce 5 different flavours.

Can you give me a suggested list of equipment?

Thanks

Peter

How have you been making them so far?

By giving our local butcher a large cheque!

I'm no expert on health & hygene - but I suspect you will need a fully kitted out area with lots of refridgeration to store 500kg of meat. If you are doing 500kg of sausage at once, you will need a cool place to keep it while you work. Large mixing machines, commercial mincer, pneumatic (electric) filler, commercial vac packer. You may well need to be inspected by the local food safety people, hair nets, rubber boots tile floors, stainless steel work surfaces, liability insurance - the list goes on.

Yes, I know all of this. In actual fact the regs are less stringent if you are a caterer (which I am) as it is assumed that you will be properly cooking the meat before sale. However the need for a cold room is accepted as well as much of the other.

I'm just asking for a suggested list of equipment, bearing in mind the quantities involved. I'm expecting it to take me a (long) day to produce 3000 sausages (which I can sell in a long weekend) which weigh 510 kg.

Does anyone have any idea what the likely cost per kg is of this quantity of meat? And where I might source it from? Presumably I could get hold of boned out shoulder?

Incidentally, my present butcher has been using a sophisticated stuffing machine which produces each sausage to exactly the right weight (170gm) but which produces a sausage which seems to lack texture. Does anyone know anything about these type of machines? Can they be used in such a way that I don't get a "mushy" sausage? I imagine that they are expensive.

As I sell each sausage individually it's important to get them all about the same size. I guess this takes a fair level of skill when using a normal machine.

Thanks for that. I've found a video of it in action.

http://www.gaser.com/gbr/nw06.html

Quite a machine!