Meat grinders,manual or electric???

[Benny]

My hunting party and I are going to start making our own hamberger,salaumi and sausage this year.I would like to get some input on what style,size and brands work for all you people.
My ques would be at least a size 32 grinder and a large stuffer.

Part two question is about smoking the meat.
Is it better to use liquid smoke or to actually smoke the meat in a smoker?

Thanks,Benny

[Surface Tension]

Benny If your only going to grind once a year get a hand grinder. Northern Tool has them for for under 30 bucks. Once you have the hand grinder you can keep an eye open for an old commercial electric grinder. Don't bother stuffing with your grinder, get a 3 lb stuffer, their much faster and less work.

Smoking sausage requires accurate temp control. A thermostat or some way to control temp is a must.

[BarryG]

If your entire group is going to use it I would pitch together and get an electric grinder. It would make it much easier when you have to do more than one deer.

[Steve Bakken]

I've done both, and if your doing very many deer, an electric is definitely the way to go. Especially if everyone chips in. Call me a wussy, but it's amazing at how quickly your arm is ready to fall off from the repetitious hand cranking. Also, look at it from a practical aspect. There's no way to duplicate the speed of an electric, and if time is money how soon would you have paid for the electric one in additional time spent cranking.

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Steve @ Bakken's Boat Shop www.bakkensboatshop.com

[MNice]

I agree with Steve. We just made about 100# of sausage (6 deer) and with out the electric grinder, we'd still be there!! What we have is a large hand grinder that we coverted with a garage door opener motor to have "more power" Saves a TON of time!!

[bigdog]

If you get an electric, get a good one. I have a Oster (?) brand, white plastic housing, think it was about $100 new. Got it for $20 at Fingerhut. Problem is that it tends to bind up with the "silver skin". You either have to cut 99% of the silver skin off or you have to cut very small pieces, across the silver skin, or it continually plugs the screen.

[lip_ripper]

The easiest way to go is bring it to a meat market. They have the right equipment and in about 10 minutes they'll be done. It cost me 41 cents a pound to have it ground. Also if you smoke your sausage make sure you use a cure and watch your temp. carefully.

[Steve Bakken]

One way we've found to avoid the "silver skin blues" is after every couple of hours of use, take the two metal cutting surfaces off and slide them around for a couple seconds on an oiled knife sharpening stone.

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Steve @ Bakken's Boat Shop www.bakkensboatshop.com

[kindafishy]

I found my old #32 manual hooked up to an old washing machine motor works well for grinding. I see now outdoor store sell the pulley now for adapting. For stuffing look at auctions for the ol cast iron stuffers. You can get one for 50 -75 bucks. Had mine 20+ yrs and must be close to 100 yrs old and still works great. I just have a small smoker so my sausage has to be done by somebody else. Be careful who you trust with this. A few years ago we took 100# to a local store to save driving a few miles. Went to pick it up and they wanted $.75 a lb instead of everybody elses usual $.25. To make matters worse they must have used old 2x4's to smoke because you could taste the sap and it smelled like a lumber yard. Had to throw the whole thing and never got as much as a sorry from the store. Good luck and don't forget the electric frying pan to do "taste tests" before stuffing!