Made my first Bratwurst - Pics included

Thanks to the advice of everyone on this board I got motivated to make my own sausages, Pleanty of you have read my previous posts and are probably tired of reading about this topic from me. But what the heck, I had a pretty succesfull experience and thought I'de share.

So I got my grinder last week and made a batch of bulk sausage for breakfast and it was a too salty but not too bad. Deciding to take on a bit more challenge I ordered some hog casings this week and today I made Bratwurst for the family.

I followed Kevins advice from a previous thread on the recipe I used, thanks Kevin. It turned out teriffic.

I ground the pork and veal through the small plate on my grinder, mixed in the ingredients and then realized I had forgotten to prepare the hog casings so I placed the meat into the fridge while I soaked the casings. Advice I keep reading suggests to stuff as soon as possible after mixing so that the meat doesn't bind too much. 30 minutes didn't seem to make it too bad.
Next I attached the stuffing nozzle on my grinder, rinsed the casing and slid it onto the nozzle. Not as easy as some of the videos I've watch make it seem, but not too bad once I got the end on.
I can tell you this; this will be the last time I ever use the stuffing attachment on my grinder to do this job, what a pain in the butt. I couldn't keep a constant flow of the meat into the casings and it kept burping air into the casing, blowing the casing up like a ballon at times. I was able to work the air out and managed to work the meat in the casing so I had a nice even fill.

When it came time to tie off the links I discovered that I had stuffed the casing too tight and it made it real hard to twist them. One actually broke while twisting it The other problem I had was that when I went to cut the links apart they didn't stay closed, no meat came out so I think I am ok.

I grilled one up for lunch and it was good, my wife sampled it and gave me the big thumbs up. So, dinner tonight will be Bratwurst.

Nice work Bob!

I've got many lb's of spicy italian & smokies in the freezer. Love spending a weekend afternoon makin up a batch of home made sausage.

looking good - definitely catching my interest.

Cooked em up for dinner, the family mowed through them. Now I don't have any left, guess I gotta make more.

Think I'll go for Luisianna Hot links next round.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Hide Post
Cooked em up for dinner, the family mowed through them. Now I don't have any left, guess I gotta make more. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bob I make batches of 5-10 lbs and it's just me and my wife. I always feel like I'm stocking the freezer, and I always feel like I'm defrosting the last of any particular batch each time!

Great looking bratwursts!

That's beautiful man.

looks really good Bob!

Thanks guys. The only thing holding me up now is that I wont use my grinder to stuff ever again. Went ahead and ordered a LEM 5lb stuffer today (Payday) and now I'm just waiting for it to come in.

Bob,

Looks real good. On the air problem; keep a push pin (thumb tack) handy and 'pop the bubble' as it grows. Keeping a constant feed of meat in the grinder helps too. I use a tack when I start stuffing as you get air trapped at the tied end. What kind of grinder did you buy?

Paul

Paul thanks for the suggestion. I used a pin after I finish stuffing the casings didn't think to use while stuffing.

The meat grinder I have is the - Deni 3500 800-Watt Professional Grade Meat Grinder
The stuffer I ordered is the - LEM Products 5 Pound Stainless Steel Vertical Sausage Stuffer

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bob Hunter:
Thanks guys. The only thing holding me up now is that I wont use my grinder to stuff ever again. Went ahead and ordered a LEM 5lb stuffer today (Payday) and now I'm just waiting for it to come in. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

What's the brand of your grinder? I ask because I do not understand your problems with your grinders. I do not have a dedicated stuffer, and I do not need on. Mine works like a charm. It is very nice to be two people operating the unit, one that handles the casisings, and one that feeds the unit, but apart from that, no problems. So, what an I missing?

This is my meat grinder - Deni 3500 800-Watt Professional Grade Meat Grinder, it's great for grinding the meat. The problems I had with using to stuff my sausages is that the meat doesn't feed at a constant rate it only feeds as I am stuffing meat into the neck, also every time I pushed more meat into the machine it would burp air into the casings.

It could be that I am doing it myself. My wife doesn't mind eating the sausage, she just doesn't want be there while it's made. My daughter is kinda the same and my son would rather being playing on his xBox than help with this.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> It could be that I am doing it myself. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That sounds like the issue. Someone here had a good suggesting and that was to cut your meat in strips rather than cubes. Once the auger takes the end of the strip it keeps pulling the rest through. This gives you a little more time to handle the casings if you're working solo.

Paul