Sausage grinder recommendations?

[Gypsi]

I'm kind of in a hurry to get the grinder, picking up my pig (quartered) to brine on Saturday afternoon 3/8. I have a pond customer that raised some last year, 250n lbs should make 100 lbs of pork, and will make sausage from quite a bit of it.  (doctor said no prepared foods, right?)  probably do a lot o pork loin type roasts too. Not much fat on these so no bacon which is fine cuz I am not allowed to eat bacon. But I do enjoy a will spiced sausage. so I need a grinder, would like to not over spend.

With this kind of selection I am lost, don't know if I want electric or manual, probably electric.  Don't necessarily need a stuffer.  anyone done this before?

This is what my first search pulled up: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A1055398%2Ck%3Ameat%20grinder%20and%20sausage%20stuffer

[iddee]

Sportsman MEG300 3/4HP 350W Electric Meat Grinder with 3 Cutting Plates (Fine, Medium, & Course Grind)
by Sportsman

I like the Lem and this one. I like my warren pro best, but so do they, according to their price.   
Weston is also good.

We grind 300 to 500 lbs. each year.

[LazyBkpr]

I cant help much... My grinder is the old crank style with the handle taken off and a pulley installed, and a 2 hp electric motor running it.  I clamp both grinder and motor to the table, flip the switch and start grinding..
   Usually do quite a lot of ground pork. I like it mixed with venison quite a bit, and the wife will actually eat venison that way..   We usually have a couple pigs, but the last couple years I have not found any piglets for sale..    It may be time to buy a boar and a couple gilts just so I have a regular supply.
   Also considering buying some goats. I have eaten it in the distant past, but gave it up in favor of beef.. yes we have a calf, a little heifer..  Strong possibility were going to keep her and breed her as well....    but goats..  they have to be as good as venison right? Pigs and goats are animals sized so that I can handle and cut them up myself..  I have been hurt by cattle one too many times in the past to want more than one or two of them in my fields.

[iddee]

""   but goats..  they have to be as good as venison right? ""

Like opossum has to be as good as rabbit, right?

NOT HARDLY........

Deer is better than beef by one step.
Goat is better than opossum by one step.

Kill an uncut Billy and you can't stay in the kitchen while cooking. You will think you are cooking skunk.
Nanny and wether are edible, but not great.

[LazyBkpr]

Really?  Thats depressing..  Well, the optimistic side is I no longer have to worry about upgrading my fences....  there are not many critters I would not eat, but possum is one of them.  if I was starving? I think I could find something better than possum.. like.. fried maggots....

   No, never intended to eat a billy. Need one and only one. I have a bander for the others.

[brooksbeefarm]

When i want pork i call my neighbor the hog farmer, he will take one to the locker plant. We call them tell them how we want it cut and packaged and cured. They call us when it's ready. My neighbors hogs are lean with less fat, he has sold Boars for $75,000.00 the best pork i've every ate. I have raised hogs over the years and i think i can buy a hog from him and have it processed cheaper than i can feed one out, and a whole lot less trouble. All the old timers are gone now, but around Thanksgiving we would all get together and form an assembly line and kill as many as 20 to 30 hogs and hang them, we had a blast, but the hogs didn't. Jack

[Gypsi]

Jack those days may come back again if the grocery store gets any less safe.  I'm getting this pig from a pond customer who raised a few this summer, her twin sons (in their 50's) are killing quartering and skinning for me, cheaper than fancy cuts, I'll do a major chunk in pork loin and roasts, the rest in sausage.

speaking of which, anyone think a sausage stuffer is worthwhile?  (I'm ordering the sportsman, doesn't seem to have a stuffer but I am not sure I  need one anyway.

Thank you for the review on goat Iddee. At one time I thought I could maybe eat a baby goat if my doe had boys, but when I got attached to her and she died when pregnant, nope, no eating goat.  Lamb yes, but I'm not butchering it and I can't raise it as a pet.  Esp with my little granddaughters running around.

[LazyBkpr]

Deer is better than beef by one step.


   I have to disagree..   I like venison, in fact, I like most meat I have eaten, porcupine, muskrat, squirrel, (red, gray, black) and a whole plethora of other critters..  I have had Ostrich and Gator meat, most big game, like Moose, Caribou etc..  some of it was fantastic, some was OK..  But, If offered ANY other meat over a big thick Prime rib cooked JUST right with a layer of fat around one end.. I would take the prime rib..
   I have had burgers made from a lot of different grinds as well, even Coon.. tbh it made coon almost palatable grinding it up..  None of them compared to a good beef burger..
   Now..  I dont like marinades or barbeq sauce..  I like to taste what I am eating, not the flavors of marinades.. If the meat is good why do you need to hide the flavor? So most I have tried were with nothing but a dash or two of salt..
   As i recall, the goat I did have when i was younger was...  unmemorable?  I dont recall it being bad, or good, in fact, i dont remember it, I do remember being told thats what we ate, AFTER the fact..  the girls were disgusted, the other cousins and i just shrugged and went back to whatever ornery destructive thing we happened to be doing at the time..

[brooksbeefarm]

Most farmers are meat and tater eaters , like Scott i've ate alot of wildlife growing up, but given a choice i'll stick with beef, pork, and chicken .I like quail better than chicken, but the weather and predators have taken a toll on them over the years, use to have 5 covey on this farm, now only one, i protect them and don't hunt them. I miss cutting up my own beef grinding hamburger, sausage (i like it hot) and home cured and smoked ham, bacon,and jowls. My neighbor after he quit the dairy business made his milk barn into a butcher shop with all the elec. equipment to process beef and pork. I ask him how he knew how to make all the cuts like sirloin, rib, round steak etc., he said, i don't i just figure whats not on one piece will be on the other. He let all the neighbors use his meat shop, you just had to buy your own meat wrapping paper, and clean up when you got through. He's gone now like most of the old timers, his son lives there now, the shops still there, but no one uses it anymore. Jack

[Gypsi]

Well that is a great grinder Iddee. My daughter and I did 10 lbs of fresh sausage after we got the hams and bacon in to wet cure and everything iced down good.  I've had the ribs and rest of the meat for sausage brining for a couple of days. Spent today getting my refrigerator UP to 40 degrees for wet cure and building a shelf that would hold the ham & bacon containers stable and covered. I can't work and do the ice in cooler stuff.   She's coming back tomorrow so we can finish up. Once we got the first batch made she just loved learning it.  Who knew a part of a weekend with mom could be "exciting"?  She is jazzed and so is her husband, it is really rewarding to learn skills together and pass them on too

[iddee]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, it does make a fun, profitable day with family.

[Gypsi]

glad it is over though. Kind of dominates the kitchen