Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Grinder basics for a newbie.... help !

This year we're (wife & sons) going to start processing our own deer (&elk). I've never had a meat grinder before and I've just bought a decent grinder to start with (Cabelas 1/2hp commercial grade). But I have some questions on processing with it that I hope you can answer.

The different size grinder plates... If I want burger, Do I need to run the meat through twice? First with a course plate and then with a fine plate?

What are the bigger holed plates used for?

Sausages: I also want to learn how to make sausages (bratwurst, polish, kielbasa, Italian,....)
What kind of casings do you like (pro & cons of each)?
Do you add either beef or pork fat to any?

Looking forward to the new book I read something about from Eileen that includes sausages as I understand. It will set next to my "Slice of the Wild".

Thanks from a rookie grinder,
Claybreaker

Cannot offer advice on sausage but I can on grinding. I have the same grinder. I grind three to five deer a year. I trim as much fat and silver skin off the meat. Run it through the grinder just once with the small plate. To get a little fat in the meat I mix in some beef. I buy the fattest chuck roast I can find,cut into small cubes and mix with the venison before grinding mix 3 parts venison to one part beef. Gives just enough fat to reduce the crumble of the burger. Also make sure you have your meat as cold as possible to the point of slightly frozen is ok. You want to limit the amount of fat that melts during the grinding. I can do all the trimmings and both front shoulders of a deer in about ten to fifteen minutes. If you have not already get yourself plastic meat tubs. Cabelas sell them as I am sure other places do. Work great to mix your meat before grinding and a second one to catch the meat as it comes out. A tub will hold about 25 pounds.

I have a 1 hp cabelas grinder, Have used it for four years. It does a very good job.
First thing Take care of your game meat properly. Remove all of the fatty and connective tissue you can.
I use the smallest plate. For ground meat I mix 1 pound plain (cheep?) hamburger to 3 pounds of venison. This works good for most meals.

Some good info here.
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn176.pdf

All good info above.

Its so important, I'll repeat, trim all the fat, silver skin, and other junk from the meat before you grind. Do you really want to eat that crap later on?

Cold, nearly frozen, grinds the best. This is vital when you're making sausage as it keeps the added fat from melting and running.

I've used big plates for first grinds, then fine plates for final grinds. I've ground once. I've ground twice. I've ground twice through fine plates. I've left it coarse. Its all dependent on what you like and what you want to do with the final product. Trial and error until you find what you like.

For sausage, you'll want to add pork trim into the mix to get the final fat level to 20% or more. The fat makes the sausage moist. Some like more, some like less. I've got a Cabela's 3/4 HP #12 grinder, while it does work for stuffing sausage, it is nowhere near as easy as with a dedicated vertical stuffer. I picked my stuffer up on sale at Cabelas, works great. Instead of a 2 1/2 person job, I can do it myself.

Casings and seasonings are again personal preference. There are kind of standards as to what most use, but still flexibility.

I recommend calling the people at Walton's, formerly MidWestern Research and Supply (http://www.waltonsinc.com)and letting them make some recommendations. They've got everything you need to outfit a butcher business. They service many of the custom slaughter houses in their area. My brother in law has used them for many years, I've been using them and recommending them, and I've seen others on here recommending them. Tell them what you're wanting to do and let them tell you what to get.

If I am adding something to the venison, I like to double grind. Once with the large plate and then with the smaller plate. It seems to mix it more even. Most instructions say to grind and then add the sausage seasoning, but I try to cube my meat as close to the same size as possible and mix the seasoning in before I grind. I also let it sit overnight in the fridge. The cubed meat will pick up a lot of flavor before grinding and seems to even out the taste better. It could just be an idea of mine, but that is how I like to do it. miles

CB, works great.
http://www.dakotahsausagestuffer.com/

Trimming and the actual grinding process has been covered well.

My prefernce is to grind twice, but with the course grinder plates. My fine plates have hardly been used in 15-20 yeras. I add nothng to the meat.I don't do a lot of deer, but I do elk. I like the taste of the elk and I don't want to screw it up with beef or pork.

My use for ground meat is hamburgers, spaghetti, tacos, chille. The fine grind makes it too pasty for me.

Some have a hard time grilling hamburgers if no fat is added as they fall apart,but if you only turn once,it works fine.
These are my prefernces ad everyone likes to do it differently.

I'd suggest maybe grinding some course and some fine to start with and see what you like.

You grinder won't work so hard if you grind the first time with the course plates and the 2nd time with either the course or fine plates.

I don't do much sausage so can't offer much advice there.

You wanna make sausages?? Here you go.. http://thespicysausage.com/sausagemakingrecipes.htm

Thanks for the feedback, Some good looking reference sites listed that will come in handy.

We'll use the grinder mostly for ground, like saddlesore we do a lot of "spaghetti, tacos, chile" plus stuffed peppers, enchiladas, lasagna,...

But I would like have something to offer the family (kids) as a sub for a "Hot Dog" and the junk that is in them. So that where a lot of the sausage interest is.

For burgers between the buns we still use beef. I will try mixing with some deer or elk like 7-08 said.
Good idea on the tubs also.

More is welcome,

Adding the beef really makes a difference when making patties. Still tastes like venison though. I have pretty much stopped buying ground beef. Every now and then if I need something quick and I forgot to take ground venison out of the freezer and beef is reasonable price I will buy it. Otherwise I use venison in everything normally calling for beef. Just finished up a great batch of stuffed peppers.

For ground burger, are most of you buying the 1 or 2 lb round bags? Or using freezer paper and wrapping? Our local processor uses the bags and the 1lb bags are the right size for us. Was thinking of getting one of the "meat bag tape machine" like this one.
http://www.waltonsinc.com/p-3347-meat-bag-tape-machine.aspx

Was hoping to be able to slide the bag on a 2" stuffing tube and go directly from the grinder to the bag to reduce some of the handling. Having never done it, I just don't know smooth the operation is going be.

Still learning,

there is a sausage section over at the smoking meat forums.

Pretty darn active section with a wealth of knowledge, you won't have to wait very long for some good input.

Denny.


http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/130/sausage

Mo' bettah. JMHO.

http://www.sausagesource.com/Mercha..._Code=TSS&Product_Code=EQ-RingPliers

The larger plates provide more "bite" but also break down meat faster--so it's often a good idea for the effective feeding life of the auger to go from coarse to fine. (less overall revolutions to feed the meat).

Remember to coat the bearing surfaces of the auger and the knife side of the plate with mineral oil when you assemble it to run, in order to reduce wear on start-up.

You get what you pay for--and not in just horsepower. The price of the grinder will more likely than not include a little engineering design costs, i.e. a well-designed auger and throat contributes to the ease of the feeding, cutting down on ineffective rotations...

Once you wear down the auger's edges on your home grinder, then what? ...:)

I have found that I personally don't like the small plate for anything, particularly sausage... comes out more like hotdog... could also be that I have at times run my meat through the machine 3 times... two grinds, then a stuff... as others have said, get yourself a dedicated stuffer... I wish I had years ago. I like to use natural casings... you can buy them online from lots of sources but I have also found that if you just ask the butcher at your local grocer they will almost always sell it to you. I mix in pork shoulder or straight fat to sausage but nothing to straight ground venison. Generally if I make meatloaf, burgers, or meat balls, I mix the straight ground venison with some other fatter meat at the time of making it.

If those are Mo' bettah, then they really must be something.

I've got the LEM taper, looks pretty much identical to the one linked in the quote, works awesome.

We don't grind straight into the bag (not saying thats the only way to do it though), but after all is ground will add a kidney shaped plate without a blade, then stuff through a large diameter horn to 1# packages.

If we're out of the pre-made tubes, we'll wrap in saran wrap, force all air out, then wrap in freezer paper.

I put my burger/sausage/stew meat in one gallon bags that come with a twist tie. They are cheap and fairly thin. I roll those to make a package similar to bought sausage tubes and then put several in a vacuum bag, and vacuum. I just roll them and leave the tops open (no twist ties) and the vacuum process will push all of the air from individual bags. When you use one, just take one out and reseal. The product keeps a long time using this method. In fact, if you will take the rolls out while still frozen the vacuum bag is still clean and can be reused with little trouble. miles

Lots of good info here, all I can add is cleanliness, cleanliness, cleanliness...

Working surfaces, meat, grinder, knives, etc.. Keep things clean. Ground meat can become a very nice little science project by design if you're not careful. I wear gloves, and I'll constantly wash and then wipe down working surfaces and knives with a bleach solution (1 cap bleach to 1 gallon water), and always - when in doubt, throw it out!

For storing I use Zip Loc freezer bags wrapped in freezer paper with tape. I've eaten meat that is 2.5 years old that has little to no freezer burn this way.

Tom