Sausage Fest and Meat Grinder Review

[Hanksaiditbest]

I was originally going to try the dry collagen because they looked easy to use. But then I read a lot of reviews from people who didn't like the taste and or texture of the collagen. So I opted for natural hog casing. I bought them from Amazon. I'll include the link below. Overall I thought they were good quality and produced a great texture. The package claims it will do 20-25 pounds of sausage. I could have done well over 30 pounds with what was in the package. My only complaint is that the casings were short. There were probably about 12-15 casings that were 2-3 feet each in length. Rather than doing about 8 small sausage wheels, it wold have been much easier and quicker to do a few longer ones. The slowest part of the process for me was loading the casing onto the stuffing tube and starting and finishing each wheel. I called The Pork Shop in Queen Creek to see if they had natural hod casings that were longer. From what the guy explained to me, they should be about twice as long as the others I used. I'm going to give them a go next time.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Home-Pack-Sausage-Casings-32mm/dp/B001RQOY94/ref=pd_sim_gro_5/175-7621390-3204402?ie=UTF8&refRID=11R48CGARASFWYEJDS9B

I've heard good things about them excited to try them, Thanks for the great info!

[bhuntin]

great info,....if meat grinder hadn't been in the thread title i would have passed it.lol

[azslim]

you can get hog casings from Demark Sausage Co in Phx, address is 7712 W. Golden, if you don't use them all up (hard to do because you get a big batch) store them in a ziplock in a salt brine, I make my brine with kosher salt

 

pick up a can of food grade silicone for keeping rust at bay while stored, I got mine from Cabela's

 

Bruce Aidell's Complete Sausage Book has the best recipes I have run across, I have 5 other books but I always go back to this one

 

Sprout's & Winco have bulk spices, you can also order online from Penzey's, these are the freshest, supposed to be a store in Scottsdale but I haven't visited it

[pyle762]

Here is a good site with lots of easy recipies.

 

http://www.lets-make-sausage.com/

 

All my javelina get ground into homemade chorizo and it comes out awesome.