Rich G
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So, I finally decided on which grinder to get (Cabela's Carnivore #12), so the obvious thing to do was to grind some meat and make some links! 
I ground the meat up yesterday evening, and this grinder swallowed a whole pork butt in about the time it took me to blink. There's something to be said for a large bore feed tube. Saves time while grinding, and while slicing since the meat doesn't have to be cut up as small as it did for my previous unit. In addition to the pork butt, I trimmed and ground up a brisket as well for some excellent burger meat (or whatever.....) I used five pounds of pork, and one pound of brisket in the brat mix. The seasonings were:
1.8% salt
.27% pepper
.22% ginger
.22% nutmeg
11% ice cold water
2 large eggs, lightly beaten (for 5 lbs)
The original recipe calls for heavy cream in place of the water, but I didn't have any, so these will just be a bit less rich than usual. I mixed in all the spices, water and eggs, and then ran the whole thing through the 4.5mm (fine) plate. After that, I mixed the bejeezus out of it to get that really sticky sausage texture, and then tossed it in the fridge for an overnight nap. Today I rinsed and soaked my casings, and then used my trusty old Enterprise cast iron stuffer to fill 'em up. I linked them, poached them in 170F water to 150 internal, chilled in a water/ice bath, then packaged them up in four link packs for the freezer. I ended up with 15 links, one "scooby snack", and about 4 oz worth of mix left in the stuff that will become patties. I fried up the scooby snack to test how the sausage turned out, and I'm very happy! Seasoning is right on, texture is perfect, and it was nice and juicy. With the lack of cream, it's sort of a cross between a traditional brat and a polish flavor-wise (maybe because I threw some garlic in there on a whim (not in the recipe above as I just winged that one.) Oh, right, it's the photo forum......
I ground the meat up yesterday evening, and this grinder swallowed a whole pork butt in about the time it took me to blink. There's something to be said for a large bore feed tube. Saves time while grinding, and while slicing since the meat doesn't have to be cut up as small as it did for my previous unit. In addition to the pork butt, I trimmed and ground up a brisket as well for some excellent burger meat (or whatever.....) I used five pounds of pork, and one pound of brisket in the brat mix. The seasonings were:
1.8% salt
.27% pepper
.22% ginger
.22% nutmeg
11% ice cold water
2 large eggs, lightly beaten (for 5 lbs)
The original recipe calls for heavy cream in place of the water, but I didn't have any, so these will just be a bit less rich than usual. I mixed in all the spices, water and eggs, and then ran the whole thing through the 4.5mm (fine) plate. After that, I mixed the bejeezus out of it to get that really sticky sausage texture, and then tossed it in the fridge for an overnight nap. Today I rinsed and soaked my casings, and then used my trusty old Enterprise cast iron stuffer to fill 'em up. I linked them, poached them in 170F water to 150 internal, chilled in a water/ice bath, then packaged them up in four link packs for the freezer. I ended up with 15 links, one "scooby snack", and about 4 oz worth of mix left in the stuff that will become patties. I fried up the scooby snack to test how the sausage turned out, and I'm very happy! Seasoning is right on, texture is perfect, and it was nice and juicy. With the lack of cream, it's sort of a cross between a traditional brat and a polish flavor-wise (maybe because I threw some garlic in there on a whim (not in the recipe above as I just winged that one.) Oh, right, it's the photo forum......
