The Grind

I decided that I would give myself a late birthday present.  I have been thinking about getting a meat grinder, one capable of grinding poultry bones because (1) I want to grind my own meat for hamburger and sausages and (2) I want to be able to transition my pets to a raw/semi-raw diet.  I have

a Kitchen Aide Grinder attachment, but I liken its efficacy to trying to mix a swimming pool with a hand mixer.  It just is not very powerful nor engineered to handle the task of grinding regular meat (sans bone).

After much research I bought the Weston #22.  The Canning Pantry had it for the best price which included free shipping.  It is an investment--as would be any piece of good kitchen equipment.  It is commercial grade.  I gave it a test spin this a.m., and I'm HIGHLY IMPRESSED.  No regrets.  I was at Food Lion yesterday, and they had whole cut up chickens marked down (date expiration close).  I thought that would be a good place to start.  I cut it up a bit further so it would feed through the feeder tube, and put it in the freezer to firm up.  I used coarse grind plate.  2 chickens were processed in less than 5 minutes.  Cleanup was a breeze.  The machine is heavy (62lbs), so it is best to have dedicated counter space, of which I have.

My next culinary adventure will be to make some Italian Sausage or just regular breakfast sausage.  But, I'm getting ready to go on vacation, so I'm a couple of weeks away from doing that.  My husband goes down to the Nahunta  Pork Center in NC.  While we love the sausage, it is a very long trip.  Plus, all of the sausage has to be processed and frozen.  It took me almost a day to vacuum seal all of the sausage. And, I did not care much for the Italian Sausage.  Love the link sausage. 

However, I think that we can find a recipe for Italian and breakfast sausage that we like, and leverage our investment to make sausage that we enjoy. There are a number of great recipes at The Spicy Sausage which you can find here.