I have always skinned, quartered, de-boned, and cut up my game, but from there I have sent it to the processor to get sausage made. I got to thinking (dangerous, I know) that since I do most of the cutting anyways, I might as well start making my own sausage.

With that being said, I may process 3 deer a year so I don't need industrial grade equipment, but I do want quality. What would be a decent quality grinder and stuffer for making link and pan sausage that you would recommend?

Also, I love polish sausage so what do you consider a good brand of seasoning for the link and pan sausage?

I recommend:

the Weston #22 meat grinder,
the LEM stuffer (15 lb),
and "Old Plantation" seasoning.

Will the wife's Kitcheraid mixer grind and stuff sausage? That's pretty entry level but way cheaper I suspect.

It will, but it's way slower.

Where's your location? My borther inlaw is a butcher and the shop he works sells some dang good all natural polish seasoning.

Stuffing witb a grinder is time consuming . I did it last weekend and it was a pain. I was by myself. It can be done though

Houston, Texas / The Woodlands

I have no problems with purchasing a stuffer separately. Thanks for the suggestions so far, I will check on the Weston and LEM products.

I will look at the package of seasoning I have. Maybe you can order the brand online.

If you are in H-Town make a trip to Allied Kenco Sales, they have tons of meat processing supplies including different brands of seasoning (or look on-line). I was like a kid in a candy store over there. They have the biggest selection that I've found around Houston.

This place is west of Houston in-between Columbus and Industry at a little town called Frelsburg. Heihson's Country Store and it is on the corner at the stop sign on FM 109. They have tons of stuff on hand in the store.
http://www.texastastes.com/

We started off not thinking we needed something very large to make sausage (mostly just pan type) and quickly realized that bigger was better. We upgraded to a table mount #32 manual grinder (bought at Buttery Hardware in Llano in about 1972), but that worn thin really fast with the manual crank, so my dad got a pulley/belt to a small electric motor. We mounted it on a 2x10 to make it a bit portable but yet stable. Dad was overly frugal (raised thru the great depression) and we also used it with a stuffing funnel for making link sausage. It worked like a charm IF there were two people available (one to feed meat in, one to handle the feed & casings). Something like this will be MUCH less expensive than the all in one motorized grinder, especially for the larger size grinder we had. Then after you figure out how much you will be using it, you can add a separate stuffer later ... just a thought.

We typically saved all our grinding meat till the end of season to make our hamburger and sausage (unless we were out in the freezer). We were a family of 4, all filling our tags plus a bunch of feral hogs, plus a few friends would bring their grinding meat to us too for HB or sausage, so in other words, we did a lot of grinding. Just depends on your needs and your budget... a large hand grinder like we had is under $50, a pulley & belt another little bit and an electric motor ... likely all total under $100 for a old school set up like we had. I wish I still had it!!!

Find a rusted out swamp cooler that the motor still works, the pulleys are in the cooler. All you need is the grinder, but a #32 is easy to find used.

I have an old #32 hand grinder, it has been in use longer than I have been alive. If nobody is there to help, I don't make sausage, making sausage is a 2 person job even with powered units. For my sausage stuffer I have a real antique, an Enterprise 4 quart stuffer fruit press. You can find the on eBay, if you are around Rowena, Texas, Ballinger, San Angelo area there is a seller on eBay that sells them and refurbishes the Enterprise stuffers. It will still be working when hell freezes over and your great-great-great-great grandkids are using it.

yep, my dad found out the hard way that it's a 2 person project, circa 1975. We were just into the seasoning of the meat mode when I got a call to do an errand for one of my HS teachers. Dad said go ahead but hurry back. I ran the errand and when I got back, I found a blood trail from the house across the street that my parents owned, that we had set up the kitchen for our processing, followed the trail across the street, into the house to a bloody sink. Hmmmm ... about a hour later, my parents showed up with my dad's hand all bandaged up. He decided to go ahead and start grinding instead of waiting on me to get back. as he was dropping meat in the hopper, his ring finger went a bit too far in, the screw caught it and proceeded to suck his hand into the grinder. Of course with our set up, there wasn't an on/off switch, merely plugged into the wall ... here he was with left hand/arm being fed into a grinder and he couldn't reach the cord to unplug it. He finally grabbed the cord and ripped it out of the wall. Then he had to one handed take the belt off the pulley and un-screw the feed mechanism to get his hand out, then remove the cutting plate and cutter to retrieve about half of his ring finger. The doctor got it sewed back on, but dad installed a switch before we continued making sausage.

They make floor safety stop switches, that you have to keep your foot on it to keep the motor running, it's like an emergency stop button, remove your foot and the motor stops. I personally would go to a place like Grainer Supply and buy a better one.
http://www.harborfreight.com/momentary-power-foot-switch-96619.html

I got mine at cabelas, and it has been great. It has their name on it but I believe their stuff is made by weston, but I have been wrong before. As said above a stuffer seperatly is awesome and much easier.

Walter

Lems stuffer, and if your wife has a kitchen aid mixer you can get the grinder attachment for it. It works great, but get the metal one, not the plastic. You can find them on ebay all day long.

I would do it this way until you find what you really like (flavor) or if you enjoy working that much in the kitchen. Then you could invest in a good grinder if needed. Maybe some here has good grinder and you split work and split the sausage?

Kitchen Aid would do the job. Get one with at least 450 watts power.

Get a Deni 3500 grinder. Well worth the money.

http://lpoli.50webs.com/Sausage%20recipes.htm

Enjoy!