Loving my new Christmas present!!

[LilyD]

GreAt! I am about to put an order in for the grinder attachment myself. Love my mixer too!

It's worth it's weight in gold I am loving it so far. I also ordered the strainer part so I can use it for my tomato sauce come summer. So looking forward to having the machine do the work rather than my poor arm lol.

 

[rarely bored]

My Kitchen Aid needs a good cleaning and greasing... Been waiting for a rainy day, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Now I have motivation and something new to order! Thanks. Using it for tomato sauce sounds great too!

 

[hydroswiftrob]

My wife is wanting one of these really bad. Guess I will have to get one and add the grinder attachment for me.

 

[LilyD]

My wife is wanting one of these really bad. Guess I will have to get one and add the grinder attachment for me.

That's the way it should be you buy her the present of the machine and you get the attachments you like. I can honestly say that my husband loves my Kitchen-Aid and attachments as much as I do and also the fact that I can find new homes for all the other machines that I have floating around taking up space in the kitchen. It's a win win situation.

 

[Oregon Blues]

[[[[[......I found places online to buy casings that sell quite a bit of casings but you are totally right they are expensive. ....]]]]]

What are the good places to buy casings that you've found? I'm looking for something cheaper than what I got. Although, quality is going to be foremost. As much work as it is to make sausage, I'm not going to ruin it with poor quality casings.

I don't have a smoker yet, so all I will do is to put whatever sausages we will eat that night off to the side of the barbecue with a low fire, put some wet wood chips on the fire and put the lid down. Once they are hot and cooked, we will eat them right then, and they will be smoked. It might not be a real smoker, but it sure beats nothing.

Since this is a poultry forum, I am really looking forward to making sausage out of home raised chicken and home raised waterfowl. The grocery store chicken sausage isn't much good and I don't like their ground chicken because it feels like there is ground bone in it (mechanically separated). I can make ground chicken at home that is first class pure quality meat.

Additionally, I make the food for my dogs at home and I can buy large chunks of meat for less than burger. Burger is easier to make dog food with and so I can now buy large chunks and grind it at home.

 

[LilyD]

[[[[[......I found places online to buy casings that sell quite a bit of casings but you are totally right they are expensive. ....]]]]]

What are the good places to buy casings that you've found? I'm looking for something cheaper than what I got. Although, quality is going to be foremost. As much work as it is to make sausage, I'm not going to ruin it with poor quality casings.

So the website I found has hog casings in various sizes for between 10 and 30 dollars depending on what casing you are looking at. For the cases of casings. The one I would use for the hog casings is the 32/35 mm and those are around 20$ for enough to do 100 pounds of sausage. They said that even if you don't use them all they store brined in the fridge for up to a year in the package they came in.

http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=85_94_96

I am still looking to see if I can find it cheaper but so far that's the cheapest I have found.

 

[PotterWatch]

I wish I had one of those! I would really love to make my own chicken and turkey sausage. Maybe my next birthday...

 

[jcatblum]

I have made turkey sausage, but not chicken. (I just did a google search & used whatever recipe came up). Don't remember where I ordered casings from but I didn't like them! They had a strong smell & flavor I couldn't get over. I enjoyed the sausage in patties.

For those that don't yet have a stand mixer, Amazon always has a great buy on them around black friday (if you can wait until next yr). The 6 quart is usually around $220 when they put it on sale. I love my mixer I use it for more things than I ever thought I would. I do have to admit I hardly ever use any attachments (only a few times a yr).

 

[LilyD]

I have made turkey sausage, but not chicken. (I just did a google search & used whatever recipe came up). Don't remember where I ordered casings from but I didn't like them! They had a strong smell & flavor I couldn't get over. I enjoyed the sausage in patties.

For those that don't yet have a stand mixer, Amazon always has a great buy on them around black friday (if you can wait until next yr). The 6 quart is usually around $220 when they put it on sale. I love my mixer I use it for more things than I ever thought I would. I do have to admit I hardly ever use any attachments (only a few times a yr).

I found a website online that says if you get natural casings you have to really rinse them inside and out and let them soak for up to 30 minutes rinsing periodically while you do it. They said the smell would be strong when you start out but that it would go away when you stuff them if they are rinsed out enough. I got the impression that from the way they said it that you have to keep rinsing them for the whole 30 minutes to get them unsmelly. Not sure I haven't tried them yet but I will let you know what I think of them when I get my first pack. The ones that I found are packed in brine in a vacuum bag and are supposed to be good for a year after purchase. I do love the sausage that is in patty form but I would really love to make links for breakfast and home made hot dogs as well since I won't eat the ones from the store.

I have made more cookies and cakes since I got the mixer but my favorite use for it so far is the meat grinder and the slicer. I made chicken Caesar salad last night in record time because the slicer did all my veggies really quickly. I have the pasta maker too but haven't gotten a chance to play with that one yet. Hopefully this upcoming week I will get time to see if I can figure it out.

 

[galanie]

Concerning making hot dogs, I was reading on another forum site, this one about making sausage, that you can do them this way:

Make the hot dog "sausage" by running it through the grinder at least twice. You can use them just like that but if you really want the texture of store hot dogs you can put the mix in a food processor and process till it's a smooth paste, then put into the casings.

As for the casings, I dont' have a stuffer and probably wont' get one. My goal is to save money, and if I buy the attachment and the casings, I won't be saving much if any at all. I look for pork roasts and shoulder and such on sale as well as beef. If I can get either more cheaply then ground beef then I snap up a few and grind my own, usually turning it into sausage but I do save out some plain ground beef for recipes.

I just have bulk sausage and if I really want a link sausage look (like when I make them into corn dogs lol - only they're sausage dogs) I roll the meat into sausage shapes then bake it at around 375 for 20-30 minutes in my convection oven. Ends up with a dry outside sort of like a sausage casing but more tender.

Oh and I found using something like Tender Quick makes it taste a lot like 'real' sausage instead of a ground meat/seasoning thing. I never have used the mixes. Again, because I'm saving money and I already have all the spices except I did spring about $4 for enough Tender Quick to last me a long time. And I don't have to smoke it unless I want to. Given that I hate firing up the smoker, I doubt I ever will.

ETA: I did make chicken sausage once, a sort of breakfast sausage, using one of my birds and boy was that good!