I have a friend that wants to go hog hunting he keeps talking about making sasauge.

I have a Cabelas 1 1/2hp grinder but am not sure what size of grinder plate to use.

Here is a link to Cabelas web site if it will help.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link....=search-results1.jsp


Thanks for your help

That depends on the sausage you are making .I normally use the 10mm and only rarely use a 4.5mm.Try both.

I was conserned that with the smaller size I might turn it into pulp.

I like to run mine thru a Chili plate (!/2")three times for most sausages that I would use as fresh sausage.Smoked sausage can be run thru a finer plate.I have run meat four times thru a regular ground beef plate to make bologna & summer sausage.

Partially freeze the meat before grinding it for various reasons that I don't have time to list. Fine plates are for fine sausage-bratwurst, weiners etc. 1/4-3/8 for fresh sausage is probably best. The down side with larger plates is you can't put gristle in because it will end up as chunks in the sausage. 1/4 or smaller for smoked saugege--generally speaking. Also add about 10-15% water ....so 1 kg (2 lbs) meat 100 ml or about 1/2 cup water. Mix your salt and spices in the water it will help disperse it in the meat. Grind coarse first, mix salt water etc. with the meat then grind a second time. This way will really help to mix everything nicely and form the elusive "emulsion" that good sausage needs.

the chef

I've found that the finer plates tend to break down and "over-work" the fat, leading
to somewhat dry sausage. My buddy and I also learned that ( in our recipes, at least ) griding the meat a second time has the same results...somewhat dry sausage.

As mentioned above, partially freezing the meat and fat ( 1 hr. in the freezer) after it has been cut into perhaps 3/4" cubes and seasoned helps get a consistent grind.

We've not been at it as long as others, but have learned from our mistakes.

Bob do you guys use a stuffer or the grinder to stuff with? Using the grinder definately overworks the meat and does make the sausage dry. The reason it's dry is that it gets a little cooked by the friction in grinding and the protein is already a little coagulated.

the chef

Chef...

We stuff directly from the grinder. At first we tried using a hand stuffer, and that was brutal work and the results were so-so. We found that by stuffing directly from the grinder we could work much faster, better prevent uneven stuffing and air pockets and...most importantly...we were handling the meat much less, making for better hygiene.

We learned to grind only once and stuff at the same time. This has resulted in more uniformly made links which are plumper and juicier than our earlier efforts.