Blimey it's gone quiet in here!

[BMII]

Okay, I know I've been away since about 2011, May?
Was it that long?
Anyway I've missed you lot and after all I did ask for my original username to be banned as I couldn't get on with a member here, water under the bridge I hope.

Good news and bad news, I was ill/am ill for some time, recent diagnosis to be confirmed on Jan 8th is very aggressive cancer, spine and lungs, gave me 3-6 months but that was a couple of months ago and to cut a long story short a biopsy may show TB not cancer, I don't know yet, it's something they have to rule out and is a long story.

Anyway, I find myself with a lot of time on my hands not being able to work, lost 2 stone in a couple of months, 1 stone of that in 6 days but I'm putting weight back on since they took me off fentanyl patches and put me on oxycontin and oxynorm for the pain control, my appetite is back!

So, because of the pain, I have 2 fractured vertebrae in my back apart from anything else, I can't make sausages, can't handle the grinder but I decided sod it, not made a banger in two years so I used a credit account I have to buy some bits, not the best I know but I'd appreciate any feedback on the bits I've ordered to help me in my banger munching enterprises.

I bought these two items,

http://www.isme.com/kenwood-km330-class ... 565472.prd

http://www.isme.com/kenwood-at950a-minc ... geNumber=6

I know it's not top quality kit but my credit would allow it and I've always liked Kenwood, just wondering if anyone has any good or bad news/experiences of these as it's the best I can do at the moment financially and the whole lot cost me £170, I only want to make 3-4lb of sausages at a time and my first planned is Italian sausage with no filler.

I know you're probably going to tell me the kit is crap but I've ordered it now and want to get the best use out of it so any tips would be welcome.

Cheers

Andy

[NCPaul]

Welcome back BMII; I hope your health issues take a turn for the better. I have a similar grinder and the main thing when using it is to trim out all of the connective tissue.

[yotmon]

I 'inherited' a 1970's 450w Kenwood and it's all I use for my mincing. One tip is not to put the mincer attachment in the dish washer (like wot I did) as it takes off the coating and makes it harder to push the meat through

Sorry to hear about your illness and all the best for the future. Enjoy the sausages

Ste.

[jenny_haddow]

Hi Andy,

I always use a Kenwood chef with a mincer attachment for all my sausages. It's a vintage model and still going strong, although I need to get a new auger as I stupidly used a wooden spoon instead of the pusher when I last used it and bu*****d the auger! I think you've spent your money well. Have you got a sausage stuffer or are you going to use the chef?
Sorry to hear you have health issues, and I wish you all the best with that. Things can't be so bad if you still want to make sausages eh?

All the best

Jen

[BMII]

Thanks for the replies all, the health issues are long standing, it was only an MRI picked up the bone lesions etc and since then the hospital has been fantastic!
My blood tests didn't make sense for ages, showed an infection they couldn't find among other things until I had a biopsy.
Anyway, enough of that!

I went for the Kenwood as it does so many different things and my ex gf had one in the 80's I used a lot, forgot to get the blender jug though which would have been useful.

I contemplated a stuffer but anything manual kills me at the moment which is frustrating, but the grinder attachment for the Chef comes with two sausage stuffing tubes and three chopping blades, probably slow going but it won't hurt!
From what I can tell the Chef with the K beater will mix the meat as well.

My butcher will sell me the casings etc but I want a rusk without preservatives if possible though I will do some without filler.

I know a lot of you use higher spec kit but for me I thought it was ideal, I've watched a few vids of it on youtube and it looks pretty robust and hopefully it arrives Thursday!

Andy

[DanMcG]

Hey Andy, Best of luck with your sausage adventure...and your health!! Keep us posted

[wheels]

Sorry to hear that your not well Andy.

Enjoy the sausage!

Phil

[BMII]

Thanks again all, it's been so long since I made a sausage I need to go through all the tutorials again!

As for health, I don't feel unwell like I did it's just the flipping pain ramping up all the time and the knowledge if it isn't cancer(they still think it is or could even be both)and it's TB I might have to have a whole year off work!
Rather that than the alternative though, trouble is they can't start treatment until they know what to treat and apparently mine is incredibly complex.

Apparently TB can kick in if you're run down and I was for a while, work was mad!

@Jenny, I read about your hubbies issues, I had borderline high cholesterol, 6 or 6.5, can't remember but my good cholesterol was high so on simvastatin, doc says I can come off it because I miss my grapefruit but until I know what this is I'm sticking with it, 3.7 now I think, plus my blood pressure kept fluctuating so on BP meds now and it's perfect, it was even a little low when I had the biopsy.

If it's any consolation two Christmases ago a good friend had 6 heart attacks in two days, he was 71 then, they put a stent in and he was back at work as a carpenter in a month!
He's still working and the mad thing is, bear in mind his age, his mum keeps nagging him to give up smoking!
I did lose a lot of weight and wanted to, got down to just under 15 stone but my doc's happy for me to gain a bit as it helps fight the infection, having my home made fish & chips tonight in beef dripping!
When all this kicked in they thought it was gut trouble as I'd suffered for years and I had three days in hospital and a colonoscopy which was clear but I did change my diet to a lot more chicken and fish and one of my big weaknesses, noodles!
I've always been big on my fresh veg too.

Back to bangers, I was planning starting again anyway but as I said I have to use electric kit now so it's a good excuse and I'd be interested in anyones experience of using the Kenwood Chef as a stuffer, I used to use my ex gfs one for all sorts, soups, burgers, faggots, juices etc but always made pastry by hand!
This one comes with a kebbe maker as well, never even tried kebbe.

I'll keep you all posted on the sausage front and hopefully make a batch this weekend, dreading all the washing up though!

Andy

[jenny_haddow]

Hi Andy,

If your Kenwood comes with a dough hook you might find it better than the K beater for mixing sausage meat, I always use it. As to the stuffer tubes, I started out using those for some time. It's better with two pairs of hands, but I was usually alone so I used to stuff a foot or so of casings, switch off, reload with sausage meat, switch on, and so on until the job was done. It did a good job though, especially if you are only making a few pounds.
All's well on the health front here. The old man's back at work, jetting off to the States next week for various conferences. I went for a health check and I'm fit as a fiddle.
You take care and enjoy the sausages.

Jen

[BMII]

Hi Jenny,
I did a search on the forum and found your post about using the dough hook, and yes it does come with one so I'll be trying that.
I guessed it would be a two handed operation with the stuffing tubes but from what I can gather it is with a lot of machines, when I did it by hand with my old grinder it could take me an hour to stuff 2lbs so it has to be easier and I'll only be doing 2-3lbs at a time initially.
Most I ever made in one go was 4lb and it took me all night!

My Kenwood is the basic one but what surprises me is the good reviews it gets even over the Kitchenaid and the things it can do, I've read of someone still using a 40 year old machine, I've read up on the pros and cons of the machine and know it's not perfect but I'm pretty good at trimming my meat and I'll keep the parts cold, maybe I'll get a dedicated stuffer later but I physically wouldn't be able to use a manual one at the moment and I'm not planning any large scale production but I may get a mate to help me on occasion, he wants to have a go himself but he's one of these that until you get him to try something he puts it off forever!

Thanks for the advice, can't wait to get started

[wheels]

My Kenwood is the basic one but what surprises me is the good reviews it gets even over the Kitchenaid and the things it can do, I've read of someone still using a 40 year old machine, I've read up on the pros and cons of the machine and know it's not perfect but I'm pretty good at trimming my meat and

IIRC, the Kenwood's motor is a lot more powerful than the standard Kitchenaid's. I've had mine years and it was second-hand when I got it. It makes all our bread and gets occasional use for mincing/grinding meat when I t's not worth using my big machines.

Phil

[BMII]

Hi Phil,

Yes I read up on that, I think mine's 800w, I've been reading up on the stuffing issues people have with the grinder as well, some people stuff with the cutting blade on still and it turns the meat to mush, I like a really coarse sausage so planning on grinding once, not sure if the grinder comes with it but there is an attachment you can use to fill the space when stuffing, I'll figure something out.

Also the auger will warm the meat up as it pushes through so I'll have to be careful there, I was looking at the hobby stuffer here but at the moment I just wouldn't be able to use it, I even thought of one of the plastic funnels but I'd probably struggle there as well, I'm already on nearly the double dose of oxycodone which helps and doesn't KO me but it doesn't take much to kick the pain off, I can chop the meat up okay though, did a big batch of belly pork the other night for a stew, yeah unhealthy I know but great with some home made apple juice I was given

I was just reading an American forum and people there are trying to get Kenwoods instead of Kitchenaids, many especially for the grinder!

Bread's something I'll be having a go at as well so I'll have to read up on that now as well.

Andy

[wheels]

Andy, what's unhealthy matter? Enjoy!

If you can make bread, do! Toasted home-made bread reminds me every-day why I do this. A crisp slice of toast from home-made bread along homemade jam, is one of the simple great pleasures in life.

Phil

[yotmon]

Hi Andy, if you do find it difficult to stuff the sausage you can always try something similar to this - Can't fault mine for small batches.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11317

Ste.

[BMII]

@Phil,
When I was a kid my great gran used to make bread and strawberry jam, never tasted anything like it and wish I had her recipes, I remember the bread was yellow in colour, may have been soda bread, I don't know, but she must have put butter in the mix, straight home from school, warm bread just cooling and strawberry jam straight from the pan still hot!
Heaven!
Never tried making jam but I used to make a lot of marmalade, grapefruit and lemon being my favourite but can't have grapefruit because of the statins, if they tell me not to bother on the statins anymore it's back on the menu!
I only used to use half the recommended sugar and it was perfect, no pectin or anything, just ordinary sugar, water and fruit, I adapted the recipe from one in the Good Housekeeping cookery encyclopedia and used my girlfriends old tights to put the pith and pips in!
A local specialist shop did a St Clements marmalade with whisky but it's been discontinued so I may have a go at that, love it on crumpets as well as toast and I've even been thinking about making crumpets but I'll try bread first!

@yotmon,

I saw that post mate and I've seen a clip on youtube, I've got a big industrial gun like that used for pointing but useless for the lime mortars I use when working, all you need to replace the tube is cut a piece of plastic drain pipe to fit, problem I'll have is the gripping/pumping action because the pain will travel to the muscles in my back from the shoulders to the site of the lesions on my spine, funny thing is I can still lift something not too heavy without too much pain, I really do want a proper stuffer and will get one if I can get back to the point I can use those muscles again.
I've got tons of work booked for next year so I'm just hoping they can treat whatever it is they hope it is and I hope it is, I'm optimistic which is part of the reason I want to use the time I can't work on grub but I have to do it the easy way.
I had that gun idea a couple of years ago but wasn't sure it would work, glad to see it does, mind you for the price I might just get one and try it anyway, I think I saw a vid where someone mechanised it with a drill?

Another reason for buying the Kenwood and grinder attachment is in the last year I've got into steak hache, can't afford my favourite ribeye from my butcher at the moment, he matures it for 28 days himself but it's more expensive than sirloin!
I've made my own burgers for years but steak hache is a bit different, sorry if I'm preaching to the converted, but a good bit of best braising steak or similar at maybe a quarter of the price at about 80-20 or 85-15 fat content ground up, formed into a steak, no seasoning or additives, season before frying as you would a proper steak then in the skillet to rare/medium rare is beautiful!
Nothing like a burger at all but best freshly ground.

Making myself hungry here, if you haven't tried steak hache do

Andy