Retiring the KA Mixer

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CraigC

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From sausage making duty, that is. I picked up an LEM, "Big Bite" meat grinder yesterday. The 5# LEM stuffer arrives tomorrow. Will be picking up some boneless butts and making some sausage. Andouille of course and haven't decided on what else.:yum:
 
Thanks Andy. The KA was just so time consuming, we limited sausage making to a few times a year. These will allow us to make some more often and to expand the types of sausage we make. I realize, after doing some rereading, we still need the KA for emulsified sausages.
 
I'm surprised it took this long. I use a meat grinder to make sausage...the attachments for the KA just don't float my boat...too wimpy. I am jealous re: the sausage stuffer...I use my meat grinder for that. BTW, does anyone know where I can get vegetarian sausage links (to stuff) in Ontario?
 
From sausage making duty, that is. I picked up an LEM, "Big Bite" meat grinder yesterday. The 5# LEM stuffer arrives tomorrow. Will be picking up some boneless butts and making some sausage. Andouille of course and haven't decided on what else.:yum:

Your going to love it.The LEM has been one of the best buys we've come across in a long time.Congratulations!
 
Your going to love it.The LEM has been one of the best buys we've come across in a long time.Congratulations!

Went out yesterday and picked up a few pork butts and a large top round roast. The beef will be ground and put away in food saver bags in the deep freezer. The pork will be split between andouille and Italian sausage. The andouille has to sit for 24 hrs in the spices.
 
We now have a freezer full of ground top round, a couple of almost 1 lb packages of ground pork, 5+ pounds of Andouille, and 2.5 pounds of Italian sausage (a new recipe we wanted to try). All vacu-bagged up.

And, we pulled out the package of duck breasts we had in the freezer. Surprise, surprise, instead of the 2 we thought were in there, there were 4. So, used 2 to make duck pastrami using Emeril's recipe, brined over weekend, crusted and baked last night, and wrapped to finish curing in fridge for a week. And, the other 2 will hopefully be duck prosciutto using a combo of Rhulman's Charcuterie recipe and another recipe I found that looked interesting (had some other spices added besides S and P like Rhulman's called for). They were salt cured since late Saturday evening, washed off, dried, wrapped in cheesecloth and hung in the little fridge last night for curing. Supposedly will take about a week, need to lose 30% of their weight.

And I made the sugar syrup and bottled up a batch of limoncello that has been in the works for a while.

Busy, busy yesterday.

The grinder and stuffer made things so much easier and faster. The stuffing almost got away from me though at first because it was so much faster than the KA (Craig cranked and I guided the casing). No more ground beef from store unless it's a last minute thing.
 
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We now have a freezer full of ground top round, a couple of almost 1 lb packages of ground pork, 5+ pounds of Andouille, and 2.5 pounds of Italian sausage (a new recipe we wanted to try). All vacu-bagged up.

And, we pulled out the package of duck breasts we had in the freezer. Surprise, surprise, instead of the 2 we thought were in there, there were 4. So, used 2 to make duck pastrami using Emeril's recipe, brined over weekend, crusted and baked last night, and wrapped to finish curing in fridge for a week. And, the other 2 will hopefully be duck prosciutto using a combo of Rhulman's Charcuterie recipe and another recipe I found that looked interesting (had some other spices added besides S and P like Rhulman's called for). They were salt cured since late Saturday evening, washed off, dried, wrapped in cheesecloth and hung in the little fridge last night for curing. Supposedly will take about a week, need to lose 30% of their weight.

And I made the sugar syrup and bottled up a batch of limoncello that has been in the works for a while.

Busy, busy yesterday.

The grinder and stuffer made things so much easier and faster. The stuffing almost got away from me though at first because it was so much faster than the KA (Craig cranked and I guided the casing). No more ground beef from store unless it's a last minute thing.

WOW!
You certainly did have a busy day.Bet you had a good time.:D

Were holding out for Deer season to be over with to buy the tenderizer attachment for it.Noticed it's been selling for twice the normal cost lately.It will happen some day.

You know while I'm thinking of it.Grinding up beef later today.
The last time we did that freezer space was an issue.What we did was before the final vacume seal in 1lb packages.I rolled it out into thin squares.Pushing out the excess air that the sealer sometimes misses.Not only did it seal much better.We had 30lbs of nicely packaged/stacked in rows g/b that needed less time to defrost then it normally would have taken the old way.

Have fun.Can't wait to see your pics.:yum:
 
The last time we did that freezer space was an issue.What we did was before the final vacume seal in 1lb packages.I rolled it out into thin squares.Pushing out the excess air that the sealer sometimes misses.Not only did it seal much better.We had 30lbs of nicely packaged/stacked in rows g/b that needed less time to defrost then it normally would have taken the old way.

We had an issue with freezer space too. While I didn't roll them out, it did finally dawn on me after about the 2nd package that they would stack better and take up less room if I flattened them out so that's what I did with the rest of the packages. Unfortunately, the sausage can't be flattened but I tried to fit the pieces together as best as possible so as to take up less room.

Fun but tiring.
 
I try to wrap anything for the freezer in a single layer. Steaks are wrapped side by side rather than one on top of the other. Ground beef is wrapped in half-pound packages and pressed flat on a half sheet pan for freezing.

Wherever it makes a difference, Individual packages are frozen flat on a half sheet pan so they have flat surfaces. While this does facilitate stacking in the freezer, I do it so they will defrost quicker. Flat packages present more surface area to the counter top which is a great defrosting aid.
 
Congrat's on the new LEM.

I've had mine for years and a dedicated grinder is much easier then the expanded use mixer.

LEM. is a good company and has reasonable customer service should the need arise.

I see lot's of tasty ground treats in your future.

If you're into ground Turkey now is a great time of year to pick it up cheap.

Now if you'll excuse me it's time for me to break out my LEM and go to work on the 20lbs. of chuck I just picked up for $3.99 a lb. ;)
 
Nice purchase for sure, lets see a picture of that baby in action...

I use the #12 hub on my stand mixer for a grinder, it works well, sausage, even a make shift past extruder {not great for italian pasta but some noodles do will with the 1/8" grinder and no blade...
 
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