I've had a Porkert mincer for many years and have been very happy with it. I've used it many times during salami making, and recently have used for it for fresh sausage making. With the mince for the fresh sausages one thing I found was that the mince texture was too fine. I've bought several mincing plates, and recently used a fairly coarse plate (8mm diameter holes I think). I'm using a mix of pork shoulder and belly.
What I think is happening is that the cross-shaped cutter blade that sits just behind the mincing plate must be cutting through the mince as it's pushed through the holes, and maybe the meat is coming through a bit too slowly, so the cutter blade ends up "slicing" through the little worms of mince quite often as they're forced through. Should I try feeding in the meat more quickly? From memory I feed it in about as fast as it is taken in...
I was interested in other people's experience of this mincer or other hand mincers, especially regarding texture. Has anyone had this problem where, even using coarse plates, the mince is rather fine textured in the final (cooked) sausage?
thanks,
Howard