TerribleTed:That was neat to read about your old meat grinder! Maybe one day I'll be blessed with a real one. I wore out a #32 hand grinder by powering it up with a 1/2hp electric motor. Trouble was that grinder didn't have any bearings where the worm went through housing and it just flat wore out. The next one I bought has a set of bearings that I lubricate with food grade silicone and have been using for 3 or 4 years. At the time of purchase it was only about $50 at Northern. Had bought the pulley to replace the hand crank from Cabella several years earlier. My home made set up runs the "china made" grinder at about 80rpms.
so we covered grinding how about mixing.
I don't have a real mixer but find for 5 lb of meat in my pot. My hand held mixer with the wire style mixing blades work good.
When i mix venison i do 5 lb meat and add 1/2 lb of beef fat.
TerribleTed: The mixing at our house is done by hand. We bought some heavy duty plastic tubs and work out of them. For our last 90lb batch, about a month ago, I bought a little hand held garden rake looking device that is made of some type of fiber to use for mixing rather than my ol' fingers. With some ice crystals in the meat you can imagine how they feel after mixing 90lbs. They sell mixers but I'm retired and it all pays the same, in other words I aint in a hurry!We mix the venison and pork, then seasoning is added,then mix some more, then 2 trips through the grinder. Then the stuffing and smoking or put it up as bulk or patty sausage. By the way, my paw-in-law says our sausage is too lean to suit him but we like it that way. He's an old time cowman and meat packer and he would use a 50/50 pork trim instead of the boston butts if he were making the mix.
When I make sausage:
I dice the meat up into pieces small enough to go in grinder while still partially frozen and dump the diced meat in cooler. Add seasoning(s) and mix by hand, then grind. Been doing it that way forever and it works for me
I think by the time i have done 5o lbs of sausage or venison burger I really glad i use the hand mixer
By the way northern tool 5 lb sausage press stuffer has plastic gears. I don't know if i like that.
Another topic what percentage Weight wise do you get from a deer or hog. I know on a head shoot deer i harvest about about 45 percent of the deer gross weight. yes yes Biologist have commented that i don't even leave enough meat on the bone for a vulture. They even joked about gluing the skellington together when I'm done.
