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KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment comments?

KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment comments?
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  • KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment comments?

    Post #1 - August 17th, 2006, 8:52 am
    Post #1 - August 17th, 2006, 8:52 am Post #1 - August 17th, 2006, 8:52 am
    Wanted to give homemade sausage a shot, and was thinking of getting the KitchenAid FGA. Does this do a reasonable job? At $50, this seems like an easy way to give sausage making a shot; but only if it works well.
    Thanks-
    Jamie
  • Post #2 - August 17th, 2006, 8:56 am
    Post #2 - August 17th, 2006, 8:56 am Post #2 - August 17th, 2006, 8:56 am
    Jamieson22 wrote:Wanted to give homemade sausage a shot, and was thinking of getting the KitchenAid FGA. Does this do a reasonable job? At $50, this seems like an easy way to give sausage making a shot; but only if it works well.
    Thanks-
    Jamie


    It works well. We just got it and used it to make kreplach filling. It does push the meat with reasonable force, so when grinding something wet like liver, you might want to put up a guard or something. We had a fair amount of meat-juice-splatter on the wall afterwards.

    Best,
    Michael
  • Post #3 - August 17th, 2006, 10:22 am
    Post #3 - August 17th, 2006, 10:22 am Post #3 - August 17th, 2006, 10:22 am
    Well, must be destiny as the price of the meat grinder attachement dropped $10 at Amazon from the price yesterday.
    So it has been ordered, now to decide what to make.
    Will it be an issue trying to run say 50lbs of meat through it in one day??
    Jamie
  • Post #4 - August 17th, 2006, 10:29 am
    Post #4 - August 17th, 2006, 10:29 am Post #4 - August 17th, 2006, 10:29 am
    Jamieson22 wrote:Will it be an issue trying to run say 50lbs of meat through it in one day??


    It'll only be an issue if you don't have a whole day to kill. I've never heard of the motor on these going, but then again, I've never heard of anyone grinding that much meat.

    Sounds like a lot of sausage. :)

    Best,
    Michael
  • Post #5 - August 17th, 2006, 10:37 am
    Post #5 - August 17th, 2006, 10:37 am Post #5 - August 17th, 2006, 10:37 am
    The KA grinder does a great job. Make sure the grinding disk/cutter assembly is screwed very tight and the meat is very cold.

    OTH, the sausage-stuffing attachment for the grinder is a piece of garbage.

    Bill/SFNM
  • Post #6 - August 17th, 2006, 10:48 am
    Post #6 - August 17th, 2006, 10:48 am Post #6 - August 17th, 2006, 10:48 am
    Jamieson22 wrote:Will it be an issue trying to run say 50lbs of meat through it in one day??

    Jamieson,

    A few years ago RevrenAndy, Ellen and I made a boat load of boudin. Don't remember exactly, but I think we started out with 35-lbs of pork shoulder, plus rice, green onions, etc. We started grinding meat* around noon and were still knee deep in sausage casings well into the evening.

    My KitchenAid showed no sign of slowing down, no problems whatsoever. If you have the patience, 50-lbs of meat is no problem. Just remember, not that you need reminding, to keep everything well chilled. I'd suggest, at least, two KitchenAid mixer bowls, that way you can keep one clean, chilled and rotate.

    The boudin recipe we used, and that I have any number of times, is from Hot Links and Country Flavors by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly.

    Enjoy,
    Gary

    *I simmered the pork earlier that morning as you use the liquid to make rice for the boudin
    Hold my beer . . .

    Low & Slow
  • Post #7 - August 17th, 2006, 11:09 am
    Post #7 - August 17th, 2006, 11:09 am Post #7 - August 17th, 2006, 11:09 am
    OTH, the sausage-stuffing attachment for the grinder is a piece of garbage.


    Bill/SFNM... I guess you are talking about This?

    Do you suggest a stuffer that would work with the KA? I'm also curious to try my hand at homemade sausage.

    Thanks,
    Joel
  • Post #8 - August 17th, 2006, 11:09 am
    Post #8 - August 17th, 2006, 11:09 am Post #8 - August 17th, 2006, 11:09 am
    Well perhaps my 50lb estimate was a bit of an overstatement. I just figured I'd do one cryo pack of boneless butts from CostCo (16lbs), a packer brisket (14lbs) and a thing of chicken thighs (10 lbs).

    Maybe I should just stick to 16lbs of pork sausage and one 5-10lb batch of chicken sausages.

    Just so hard to not want to try everything :)

    This site is the equvalent in my sausage making journey to finding dad's Playboys as a kid:
    http://lpoli.50webs.com/Sausage%20recipes.htm

    Jamie
  • Post #9 - August 17th, 2006, 11:20 am
    Post #9 - August 17th, 2006, 11:20 am Post #9 - August 17th, 2006, 11:20 am
    JoelM wrote:Bill/SFNM... I guess you are talking about This?

    Do you suggest a stuffer that would work with the KA? I'm also curious to try my hand at homemade sausage.



    Joel,

    Yes, that's it. I am not aware of a different stuffing option for the KA. I use a separate manual stuffer.

    Bill/SFNM
  • Post #10 - August 17th, 2006, 11:54 am
    Post #10 - August 17th, 2006, 11:54 am Post #10 - August 17th, 2006, 11:54 am
    Jamieson22 wrote:Maybe I should just stick to 16lbs of pork sausage and one 5-10lb batch of chicken sausages.

    Just so hard to not want to try everything :)

    While it's hard to resist making mass quantities at once because of the up-front work you put into it and the desire, as you say, to try everything, you might want to consider making a small batch first -- like most cooking, the experience with sausage can be one of trial and error (e.g., how coarsely to grind, ratio of fat to meat, how tightly to stuff the sausage, etc.). Of course, if you're following a good recipe and/or set of instructions, you may not have a problem with your first batch, but it's something to consider.

    Edited to correct spelling of "coarsely."
    Last edited by Matt on August 17th, 2006, 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
  • Post #11 - August 17th, 2006, 12:02 pm
    Post #11 - August 17th, 2006, 12:02 pm Post #11 - August 17th, 2006, 12:02 pm
    I thought ~ 25 lbs WAS a small batch ;)
  • Post #12 - August 17th, 2006, 12:04 pm
    Post #12 - August 17th, 2006, 12:04 pm Post #12 - August 17th, 2006, 12:04 pm
    Jamieson22 wrote:Will it be an issue trying to run say 50lbs of meat through it in one day??
    Jamie


    Why do I have the feeling I'm about to be drafted? :wink:
  • Post #13 - August 17th, 2006, 12:42 pm
    Post #13 - August 17th, 2006, 12:42 pm Post #13 - August 17th, 2006, 12:42 pm
    Jamieson22 wrote:I thought ~ 25 lbs WAS a small batch ;)


    I've used the KA grinder many times for 30lbs. Its not the grinder attachment that can be a problem its the motor of your KA. Mine is the small sized motor.

    I have found that boning out the butts and then slicing the pork into 2" strips (not cubes) works very well. After cutting toss the grinder blades and meat into the freezer for 30-40 minutes to get the meat semi-solid helps grinding.

    Len's site is a great sausage site.
    Bruce
    Plenipotentiary
    bruce@bdbbq.com

    Raw meat should NOT have an ingredients list!!
  • Post #14 - August 19th, 2006, 8:23 am
    Post #14 - August 19th, 2006, 8:23 am Post #14 - August 19th, 2006, 8:23 am
    HI,

    In years past, all KitchenAids came with metal gears. Now KA's can come with plastic or metal gears largely the dividing line is cost of the machine. I believe it is the pro series which has the metal gears.

    Before grinding away, read the instructions to learn which gear/speed your KA should be at. This will go a long way to preserving your gears for another day.

    I 'inherited' a KA with plastic gears from a friend who wasn't interested in paying the $80+ to repair it. She got into trouble when kneading bread at too high a speed, which I learned from the service person that is typically where they get into trouble.

    Regards,
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
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  • Post #15 - August 19th, 2006, 10:11 am
    Post #15 - August 19th, 2006, 10:11 am Post #15 - August 19th, 2006, 10:11 am
    I have a 10 year old 4.5 qt Kitchen Aid and have never had any problems while using the grinder attachment or sausage stuffer.

    One purchase I would suggest is getting the larger food tray that is sold seperately instead of the using the small one that comes with the grinder.
  • Post #16 - September 11th, 2006, 12:33 pm
    Post #16 - September 11th, 2006, 12:33 pm Post #16 - September 11th, 2006, 12:33 pm
    Well, this past weekend was my virgin sausage making experience, and I have to say it went pretty well.

    I ended up making about 20lbs of pork sausage using recipes from here:
    http://lpoli.50webs.com/Sausage%20recipes.htm

    I made the Jamaican Jerk, Chaurice, Mexican Chorizo and Kielbasa (the Chaurice is VERY good). All of them were stuffed into 32-35mm hog casing that I purchased online through one of the venors someone linked in one of the sausage threads.

    The I spent my Saturday morning at Peoria Packing and then cutting butts into 1" cubes. After this it all hit the freezer for a few hours to firm up and was then ground. The grinding process was pretty easy, but as not all of the meat had frozen up, there were a few clogs. It really does help to have the meat near frozen.

    Stuffing was another story. I was using the KitchenAid sausage stuffer attachment and what a PITA it was. The first three batches I did had been in my fridge for overnight, so they were plenty chilled but still posed a problem for stuffing. The main issue was as we would plunge the meet down the tube, it would instead squeeze up past the plunger and back up the tube. So when we'd pull the plunger back up most of the meat was stuck to plunger (mine came with plastic plunger not wooden). Very frustrating and slow moving in general. Now, for the last batch (Chorizo) I didn't grind it until the morning, and had frozen it till most of it was solid. After grinding it went straight into the fridge and was stuffed a few hours later. This batch stuffed VERY easily (took 1/3 the time of other batches), and felt much colder. So my thought was that refrigerator cold is not enough to make stuffing easy.

    Either way it was a fun experience and will definitely do it again, though it is quite labor intensive, and I don't see how you can do the stuffing portion alone using the KitchenAid setup. Well, I certainly do have a lot of hog casings in the fridge so I BETTER do it again ;)

    One thing I did notice is the sausages are quite dry, though I'll better be able to judge once I cook some more up as the taster samples could very well have been overcooked.
    Jamie
  • Post #17 - September 11th, 2006, 3:01 pm
    Post #17 - September 11th, 2006, 3:01 pm Post #17 - September 11th, 2006, 3:01 pm
    Jamieson22 wrote:
    One thing I did notice is the sausages are quite dry, though I'll better be able to judge once I cook some more up as the taster samples could very well have been overcooked.
    Jamie


    The three most important things to remember for juicy sausages: are 1) fat, 2) fat, and 3) fat. You need to make sure there is enough fat to start with (I like 25%-30% by weight as a general rule.) You need to make sure you don't melt the fat during grinding - use very cold meat and proper speed and equipment. And, as you mention, you shouldn't overcook to the point that all of the fat/juices have escaped. Low-fat sausages are subject to prosecution to the full extent of the law.

    Bill/SFNM
  • Post #18 - September 11th, 2006, 3:12 pm
    Post #18 - September 11th, 2006, 3:12 pm Post #18 - September 11th, 2006, 3:12 pm
    I know people said the stuffer was lousy but it's worked fine for me. The kids enjoyed watching it blow up pig-gut balloons, anyway.

    In the Charcuterie book he makes a big point of how everyone overcooks sausage and recommends cooking it with a thermometer, like a piece of meat, to not dry it out.
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  • Post #19 - September 11th, 2006, 3:20 pm
    Post #19 - September 11th, 2006, 3:20 pm Post #19 - September 11th, 2006, 3:20 pm
    Although I think the Kitchenaid stuffing attachment is widely criticized for the problems you experienced, you might want to try adding a bit of water to the batch that was in the refrigerator overnight. The ground meat probably dried out a little, which will cause some of the sticking problem.

    Once I get my big-ass cast iron stuffer cleaned up and primed for sausage-making (with a little help from LTHers), I'll happily loan it out to anyone. I think it fits about 8 or 10 pounds in the canister (so you don't have to keep 'feeding' the ground meat in) at a time. My family has gone through many a motorized stuffer and Kitchenaid attachment, but the consensus is that the old cast iron stuffers are the best.
  • Post #20 - September 12th, 2006, 8:51 am
    Post #20 - September 12th, 2006, 8:51 am Post #20 - September 12th, 2006, 8:51 am
    Bill/SFNM wrote:
    The three most important things to remember for juicy sausages: are 1) fat, 2) fat, and 3) fat. You need to make sure there is enough fat to start with (I like 25%-30% by weight as a general rule.) You need to make sure you don't melt the fat during grinding - use very cold meat and proper speed and equipment. And, as you mention, you shouldn't overcook to the point that all of the fat/juices have escaped. Low-fat sausages are subject to prosecution to the full extent of the law.

    Bill/SFNM



    Well I did notice my finished sausage did not have much of a "marbled" look of meat/fat, but rather seemed more mixed together. Perhaps it was not cold enough somewhere along the processing line. Will try to ensure I keep things colder next time around.

    Also, the recipes I used all called for about 5lbs of pork shoulder, stating this is an 80/20 mix of meat/fat. Only the Chaurice called for he addition of more fat; 1/2 lb I believe. The butts from Peoria did seem rather well trimmed, so maybe they were too lean.

    One thing I did find odd is that I couldn't find "pork fat" at Peoria. I figured they have a bin of fat back but alas they did not. I ended up having to buy a sheet of pork skin and trimming fat off of that. This turned the whole sausage making process from disgusting to frightening for my vegetarian fiancé.

    I certainly didn't TRY to make low-fat sausages, and I'll have to see how they are once I actually cook a batch up.

    Jamie

    BTW-> Anyone have decent recipes for chicken sausages that can go in a 32-35 mm hog casings? Figured might give that a try next.
  • Post #21 - September 12th, 2006, 9:46 am
    Post #21 - September 12th, 2006, 9:46 am Post #21 - September 12th, 2006, 9:46 am
    I don't think fat is the primary issue for the sticking/stuffing problem. Yes, if it's not the right temp., you'll get the 'smearing' of the fat, but it sounds like you kept it cold enough. Because of the difference between the batch you made the night before and the day of, I think the 'backup' is from the consistency of the stuffing being too dry. Thus: add water.

    I saw a couple of tips on different recipes recommending adding water to the mixture, but I can't seem to find the links anymore.

    Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book should have the chicken sausage recipe you're looking for. I don't have a copy of it, but you can find 'em on Amazon for under $15.

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