Fattie meat

[slatts]

Cheap sausages are wrong just wrong

wont be using them again and it split open, tastes lovely but can imagine decent sausage meat would be amazing.

live and learn

[aris]

Re freezing meat is not an issue if it stays within the right temperature ranges for the right amount of time once defrosted. The advice on re freezing meat is there because most people have no idea on food safety.

[Mj2k]

If it goes above 5C then it starts to become unsafe & unwanted organism growth.

Freezing doesn't kill bugs, it inhibits their growth - if you thaw it, and they start to grow & then re freeze, you have many more to contend with on the next defrost.

The worst are when you kill any organisms through cooking, but their toxins remain & you are ill from those...very nasty.

I've not minced my own meat, but would have imagined all the shearing forces would warm the meat considerably, even with a frozen grind plate.

Matt


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[keith157]

It does raise the temperature as you say the best you can do is use well chilled meat and keep eberything as cold as possible. I was always told, in the shop, that everything had to be kept as cold as possible, it's no exaggeration to say that in the summer of 1976 the mince was made in the freezer as the chiller (fridge) was struggling enough as it was. We used well chilled meat, and ground it in the freezer then transferred it back to the chiller.
Personally I wouldn't refreeze any supermarket meat, I trust my butcher so MIGHT refreeze stuff from him, I haven't had cause to yet.

[Gary Morris]

Small cubes of frozen fresh meat, mince very well. Try freezing some and then examine them, they are certainly 'softer' that an 'ice cube' which I regularly blitz in a liquidiser with blades that are a lot thinner and more flimsy that the cutter blades in my mincer. I monitor the warmth of the mincer barrel and it rarely gets warm, when it does, I detatch it and freeze it. I only mince what I need to cook, so there are no re freeze issues.

[aris]

I just cube up the meat, and put it in the chest freezer until it is semi-frozen - lets call it crispy on the outside. Then I grind it. Personally I use this grinder:

http://www.northerntooluk.com/food-prep ... 8632E.html

It is a beast - and weighs about 20kg, but does the job in double time.

I use one of these to mix the meat (sometimes I do it by hand - depends).

http://www.northerntooluk.com/food-prep ... 1042E.html

And one of these to stuff the sausages:

http://www.biltongbox.com/shop/index.ph ... oductId=48

[YetiDave]

My grinder's a cheap thing, but the only plastic bit's the outer casing. You've gotta turn it off and rest it after it's been going for 10 minutes, but I can easily grind 7 or 8kg of meat in that time. As for my stuffer - it's a big metal syringe with a suction cup to stick it to the work surface and a crank handle on the back. Only holds 1kg so it's a bit of a ballache refilling it half way through a link but it does the job. I couldn't justify spending that much on a stuffer and grinder as I only make batches of maybe 40 sausages at a time, I don't have the freezer space for much more (nor the stomach space )

It's a cheap setup but I've made some damned good sausages with it, my favourite of which are probably my pork sausages with sage, juniper and Kampot pepper. The best part? They taste best when smoked

[keith157]

I use the sausage nozzle on the mincer. I must admit I do hark back to the days in the butchers when we had a contract for 400lb of sausagemeat per week (not in skins or tubes), the same in beef mince, steak & steak & kidney for a local chain of bakers.

[Eddie]

Cheap sausages are wrong just wrong

wont be using them again and it split open, tastes lovely but can imagine decent sausage meat would be amazing.

live and learn

I believe that what you pay is what you get in sausages. I use korkers http://www.korker-sausages.co.uk/page1.htm with my fatties. You can purchase them large tubes and just with a little extra Chopped chilli and cracked black pepper make a fantastic difference.

Eddie

[slatts]

Hi

Just done my second fattie and used a nice Cumberland sausage and was very happy with the results, in fact I have one slice left on the plate in front of me that isn't going to last.......... gone

Your definitely right with sausages, buy cheap get cheap.