Antique sausage stuffer

[Norm Matthews]

I went to Bass Pro today to look at sausage stuffers and what I saw was a stainless steel version of a cast iron antique I got decades ago at a yard sale.  Because it had a perforated liner, I thought it was an apple cider press but the liner comes out and there are two plates that screw on to the crankshaft. One that fits inside the liner and one larger on that is for ground meat.  The problem is that the collet (or whatever it is you call it) is missing. That is the part that fits over the spout and locks the feeder tubes on.  I originally bought it for its decorative  potential but instead it has been moved from one garage to another as I moved from place to place.  The same size stainless one at Bass Pro has all the parts and I trust stainless more than this old thing but still it's fun to realize this thing has more than one purpose. 

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Norm Matthews (log)

[andiesenji]

Lard press is what we called it when I was a child (1940s).  I had one for years but traded it to a friend who wanted it for display in his butcher shop - he owned an abattoir licensed to handle wild game and did butchering for hunters.  

Mine was made by Griswold but Enterprise was a big name.  

[Norm Matthews]

I suppose it could double as a duck press too. This one says Laclede Mfg. St. Louis pat. 1897. Without the insert, it is it is nearly identical to the new ones for stuffing sausage, except the new ones are stainless and this one is cast iron.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Norm Matthews (log)

[lesliec]

Then there's this, at La Tour d'Argent in Paris a few years ago:

Give yours a bit of polish and claim it's a duck press.  A more authentic, back room, less showy duck press.

 

 

[Toliver]

14 hours ago, lesliec said:

Then there's this, at La Tour d'Argent in Paris a few years ago:

Give yours a bit of polish and claim it's a duck press.  A more authentic, back room, less showy duck press.

 

 

Love the duck feet at the base! Thanks for sharing. 

[andiesenji]

It could also be used to crush and extract the "juice" from pressure-cooked poultry bones, which my grandpa's cook often did to make some of the potent broths with which she made her "famous" bread sauce. 

If you have never tasted bread sauce, it is a revelation.  I guess it fell out of favor when everyone became so worried about calories, carbs and cholesterol, but I could make a meal off it, like a hearty very thick soup.

 

As a child, I loved to turn the crank after the bones and whatever else was in the pot had been ladled into the press, hearing the crunch of the softened bones and watching the juices pour out of the spout and into the pot that had been placed on a stool below the edge of the table.  One of the women always had to finish it because I wasn't strong enough to quite crush the last bit out.  

 

Thanks for posting about this, it has revived some delightful memories for me.