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Problem with Kenwood sausage filler attachment


glennbech

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Hi,

I did one of my first attemts at sausage making yesterday; and had a rather frustrating experience with my Kenwood Chef sausage filler attachment.

I had to press really hard to get anything to come out of the nozzle, and the "plastic stuffer" was hard to get up again, because of the vacum beeing produced. The meat was gooy and a mashy when it finally got into the casings.

Is this attachment any good at all, or did I do something wrong, like pressing down to hard? I sure was hard work, I got a real good workout.

I sous vided the sausages to 61.5c and shock-chilled. I have not tasted them yet; but they look almost like emulsified sausages (not intended!) - I am hoping for great taste and sub-par texture :-)

Edited by glennbech (log)
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In my experience, all stuffer attachments to mixers are garbage, for exactly the reasons you describe. The only people I know who've had success with them ground directly into the casing, without the added mixing step. Obviously this results in a different (and in many cases inferior) texture. I had a go at using one a couple times (the price was right!) but in the end relented and bought a dedicated stuffer.

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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In the several attempts with my KA stuffer attachment I had the same experience you describe, and like Chris, I ultimately relented and bought a dedicated stuffer. FWIW, I got a 5-pound piston stuffer, and for me, at least, it makes a world of difference. I really would have a hard time overstating how much it improved my final results.

 

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We had very good results by doing the grind first then removing the cutting blades when we were doing the stuffing.

I do the same thing wih my KitchenAid. It is a two-person operation and is relatively slow, but I am able to successfully stuff sausages with the sausage attachment. I am sure that it's much faster with a dedicated stuffer but I just can't justify the expense.

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I've not used a stand mixer attachment for sausage, but I have used an electric grinder, which I assume is similar, (Later, I moved to a hand-cranked grinder, which I prefer. Have never used a dedicated stuffer.) Yes, you are very definitely supposed to remove the blade and disk when using the stuffing attachment. (The OP doesn't indicate whether he did or didn't.) It shouldn't take much force to use the attachment. Only enough to move the sausage mixture into the screw, which does the actual work.

Assuming leaving the blade-and-disk in place isn't the problem, two other possibilities come to mind. One is that the mixture warmed in grinding. The solution is to chill before stuffing. (Indeed, I would say this is a good idea regardless of the method used to stuff.) Another is that the mixture was ground too finely and/or sheared rather than cut. Chilling the meat well before grinding (preferably until ice crystals just begin to form) will help with this problem as well.

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