Chef Eric, you're a true gentleman and scholar. I love all your videos and always learn from you. I'm neither a butcher nor a charcutier. I only make a few things like corned beef, cooked ham, beef jerky, basturma and biltong, but I still love watching ALL your videos. Your channel is the best charcuterie channel that I'm aware of. I also love the fact that your videos are family friendly. I can watch on TV in the living room with the kids around. Please keep up the good work ❤️👍👌🌹💐
Buongiorno chef Eric sono da Verona italia serve una aiuto per imparare come fanno würstel scritto e video e la cuantita di specie è aromi e come affumicato grazie mille
Nice video thank you. I've been messing around making sausage with my daughter for the last 3-4 years and definitely 100% agree with the dedicated stuffer. For the first year or so we struggled with the stuffer attachment and what a pain that was, it took too long and ended up messing with the texture and appearance of the sausage. I got a 7L vertical stuffer and we can now make one of our batches in a 1/4 of the time. The Sausage Maker is also indispensable for supplies (I've been eyeballing that #12 grinder for a bit now).
Excellent job. Hey, Eric, maybe after the celebrate sausage season you could do a video o how to prepare natural casings from cleaning to preserving. I coun'd find any good video on the internet about that yet.
I'm just starting to watch your vids, and they're very informative, so thanks for that. I'm starting to get more motivated to slaughter a hog or 2 of mine. American Guinea hogs, so essentially a lard hog, and since I let them pasture for the most part, they tend to be tougher than CAFO industrial chemical hogs.
VP215 brought tears to my eyes. I’d never go without one again. Everything in the freezer lasts for years instead of months. Great show my friend Thanks
I hardheartedly agree on all these but one that I'm not convinced on: A vacuum sealer. I have been processing wild game for almost 60 years now and in my experience, a tight, double-wrapped piece of meat done with wrapping paper, beats all. The kicker is the "tight and double wrapped," part. Improperly wrapped meat will freezer burn in a short amount of time. So perhaps the vacuum sealer is more dummy-proof, but not better in my experience. That said, and not to only disagree, I LOVE your videos and have learned so much from them! Please keep them going. On your recommendation, I have a Smoke-it 3.5 DW on order.
@ 2 guys & a cooler Could you do a video on how to select/what to look for in a 1) mixer for making sausage.? 2) food processor for making emulsified sausage.? And maybe some links to ones you would suggest.
If you go on Eric's recipe he's already got a built in calculator. All the weights for every ingredient are there according to how much meat you want to use. I barely deviate from the recipes. Salami turns out perfect.
I have been watching your videos for a few months now in preparation to start making sausage & salami. There are so many tools to purchase. I was thinking of skipping the grinder and using my Thermomix to grind (chop). Has anyone used the Thermomix to make sausage or salami?
Hi Eric. Great video (as always). I have to agree about using a sausage stuffer. I purchased a small 5 lb hand crank piston stuffer a few months ago. What a game changer!! Just crank with one hand and feed the casing with the other. Super smooth and super fast operation. Look forward to tomorrow’s video.
thermometer should have guessed but really ive made plenty with out one, vacc sealer...meh I can see that for storage, horn cleaner hmmm I made my own so yeah thats smart too.
Great job as usual Eric. I’ve been making sausage since I was 10 years old with my immigrant parents. I was the “motor” for my dad’s old number 12 hand crank grinder. Made a lot of sausage, sopressata and occasional coppa. Your videos are thorough and well edited. I don’t know why anybody would give your videos a thumbs down other than vegan trolls! Keep up the good work! Ciao
I really want to thank you for all the knowledge that you gave me ! In the past month I binged watched your videos non stop and I really need your help .I wanted to make a summer sausage without casing so I used chef john’s recipe . I did it once with baking paper and aluminum foil like he said and the texture turn out very good. but I cant recreate it like it was in the first time . All ready ruined 4 kilo of ground beef 😂. I don’t know what I did wrong in my other attempts . Can you make a summer sausage made out of beef but not in casing like usual . Maybe even using sous vide or other technic that doesn’t requires sausage casing .
Great video.. something else and is inexpensive and needed, Is a good sausage pricker. I have handmade some but a function built one works much better.
Another great video, very helpful information. Been making sausage for years and have never seen the horn cleaner..I will be purchasing that set very soon! Thanks!
I would kill to have an all-stainless grinder attachment that fits my Cuisinart stand mixer, so I can run a leaner, less cluttered setup for the 2-3kg batches I like to do. But I think a #8 will suit me just fine. Right now, I have to borrow my dad's or my BiL's grinders.
Question: Hi Eric, new subscriber here! I have a question about the meat grinder.. I’m just getting into sausage making so I’m not trying to break the bank. Do you have a recommendation for a grinder under $400?
Hey Chris. Welcome to the craft!! I like The Sausage Maker's Products. Here's one for around that price: tinyurl.com/mskmj9x5 With that being said. Most grinders will do the job. The smaller grinders #8 and #12 will just take a bit longer to the task. #22 and #32 sizes work pretty fast. As you go up in size you generally increase the size of the motor, which makes the unit more efficient. I've used everything from the 99.00 dollar grinder up to the 999.00 grinder and the quality of my sausage did not improve with the bigger grinder (i was just able to finish faster, which for me is worth its weight in gold😉). Depending on how serious you are about this craft and the amount of sausage you plan on making at a time I would recommend a #12. That's about middle of the road and you can grind 20 pounds pretty easy. Be sure to go with one that has a solid construction and stainless blades and plates. My philosophy has always been to buy a little bigger than I originally wanted. This will keep you from having to upgrade in the future. It'll cost you a little more on the front end but well worth it in the long run. One final thought. A dedicated sausage stuffer will level up your sausage game immediately. Keep that in mind!!
Hi i am from egypt i like your videos I hope to make sausage at home I never buy it from market can you please do videos for home prouduction thank you
So far, a grinding disc set and a horn cleaning set bought just since I found your channel. But, that's peanuts compared to what they will save us in just months to come. Now, just got to start saving up for the bigger toys........ mixer, electric smoker, and a slicer. Time to get in good with Mrs Clause. Great content Eric, Just subbed, Mark and Rosa
If you have a a barbecue grill, you can smoke. It's not as accurate, but if you learn how to manage your fire, you'll get just as good of results (if not better) than an electric.
@@GrizzAxxemann You're absolutely correct. We have a old wood fired cook stove Upta Camp. First thing you have to learn is effective use of the draft and the damper....... or you don't eat. We are getting older and no dedicated Safe place to use it (our current smoker) in the winter, for extended periods of time, 6-8 hours We do have a covered, open air front porch. Just don't feel safe with "flames" on it for those long cooks. That's the Only reason we're looking at an electric one. Also, we do a lot of Summer Sausage, much easier to maintain temps as low as 100°-110°. If I were younger, I'd still be draggin' my smoker out into the drive way. 😎 Again, you are completely correct Grizz
hey Eric, thank you for sharing your tips and recipes with us. It's been very helpful. I do have a question for you. When I use my sausage stuffer, I have quite a bit of excess sausage left in the horn/base of the stuffer once my plunger reaches the bottom ( roughly 1/2 lb). Is there a way to get ALL of the meat out of that stuffer?
Hi Eric, I've binge watched many of your videos, and this one is true form...just excellent! All your videos are both informative and entertaining. In short a pleasure to watch! I'm just beginning my journey into what I'll describe as the disciplined and scientific way of making sausage and dry curing meats. In the past, I've made both sausage and dry cured whole muscle (i.e. prosciutto) according to recipes and methods passed down from family in Italy. "Add a couple of handfuls of salt, a pinch of that...etc., hang them up and wait." Needless to say, for me, the results were not consistent. With that said, I want to improve my process and am currently at the stage of acquiring the needed equipment. I appreciate your list of recommended equipment that you provided with this video. I have a few questions on scales and pH meters. SCALES - In researching scales I’ve found that there is plethora of choices. So many that I’ve become somewhat stalled in my selection. I am hoping that you might be able to help with some insight and guidance. My SCALE needs. Depending on whether I’m making sausage/salami or cured whole muscle: • the batch size will generally range from 20 to 60lbs ~ (10 to 30kg) with an occasional smaller (10lb (5kg)) or very infrequent larger (80lb (40kg)) batch. • The associated curing/spice ingredients would then range from; assuming 0.25% to 3.0% of the meat weight, in a range of: for 0.25%:250g-750g; and for 3.0%:300g-900g. • As a result, I’m looking for the ability to measure in the range of 250g to 30,000g. This would require at least 2 scales. A small scale for the curing/spice ingredients and a large scale for the meat measurements. • Therefore, the range of the scale I’ve been searching for is: o Small scale - 0 to 2000g to the nearest 0.1g (should it be to the nearest 0.01g??). o Large scale - 0 to 30,000g to the nearest 1.0g (should it be to the nearest 0.1g??) ♣ (for the Large scale, when it comes to doing sausage and small cured muscle meat, I could break up my meat measurements into smaller weights and do multiple measurements.) ♣ Perhaps the Large scale could be sized in the range of: 0 to 10,000g ?? SCALE questions: • To what degree of accuracy should the meats and the curing/spices be measured to? The nearest 1.0gram, 1/10th (0.1g), or 1/100th(0.01g)? • How often should the scales be recalibrated? Do you use your own calibration weights? • Your recommendations for scales in the “Comments” section of this video are a number of years old. Since this video was produced I’ve noticed prior to and in subsequent videos that you’ve used a multitude of different scales from inexpensive ones to pricier ones (Mettler-Toledo). What is your current recommendation for both a larger and smaller scale? PH METER questions. • I’ve seen in some of your videos that you’ve used different pH meters. You’ve previously used the HANNA and I believe that you’re currently using the Apera. o What are your reasons for selecting one versus the other? o Can the working (business) end of the Apera probe be replaced if necessary or would the whole unit need to be discarded? o Can either of these units also be used to measure the pH of liquids, for example in wine making? o Do you have any experience with Milwaukee pH meters and what are your thoughts about them? Acquiring all the equipment for beginning this journey can be very costly and selecting the right equipment while balancing quality versus cost, value and affordability becomes critical. Your expertise will be invaluable in helping me to make the best equipment acquisition decisions.. Thank you so much for reading my long winded post!!! And thank you also for any insight and/or guidance that you might provide. Keep up the great work!! Bob
Can you comment, at your leisure, about the difference between a 2 blade, 3 blade, or 4 blade grinder knife, and their particular uses in making sausage/breadcrumbs/cheese/etc?
Hello this is a Feta question from a previous video but an 8% salt to brine mix for 64oz of whey or water is 5.12oz? Seems like a lot of salt but maybe I’m not figuring correctly because one is a liquid and one is dry….please help!
Hey Eric, starting my charcuterie journey, I'm a butcher and a fan. Is there a book you would recommend for salami's and cured meats. Im mainly after the "how to" and understanding germ , humidity and temp. I know this is something you go into great detail but is there a book which you started with.
What a great video! I recently found your channel, and I am so glad I did! I've been watching your videos and buying equipment. I can't wait to get started. Thank you very much, you are awesome Sir!
Thanks Eric I was just talking to my wife two days ago about the different equipment that we may need besides that small meat grinder we already have .
Great info as usual, Keep em coming! If it's too hot, stay out of the kitchen. 89 dungarees though... The price you pay for not worrying about freezing to death in a power outage. Where is this second guy you keep talking about anyway?
My uncle had a sausage pusher he called it his thumb. Talk about homemade sausages lol. Soak your casings in cold water then add cold water inside the casing before you slide it onto the cone. That will make the casings soft and easy to work with. There will always be friction though so you still need to hand jerk the casings as the meat is being forced into the casing. I'm a retired butcher and for years we made all our own sausages. We used to get creative too. The butchers used to cut the 70 lb. wheel of romano cheese for the cheese dept using the band saw. We lined the inside of the saw with butcher paper to catch all the cheese dust. {the saw was clean when we cut the cheese] we took the cheese dust added fresh chopped garlic and some salt and made the best garlic and cheese sausage you'll ever eat. The funny thing is the fresh garlic would turn the meat green overnight which made it undesirable to sell and we all bought it at a markdown. We also made beef with pepper and onions.
It depends on what I'm sealing. We just started freeze drying (lots of vids on that soon) so i've been using mylar. For my sausages and prep meals I try to use minimum of 4mil vac bags, but 3mil work as well. Sausage maker has good bags for their machine, but truth be told I usually use a chamber vac and those bags are a little different.
When I first decided I wanted to start making my own sausage I decided I didn't need a stuffer, and I would just stuff the sausage using my grinder. As soon as I got done with my very first run I bought a dedicated stuffer.
He certainly has because so have I. I followed the recipe and ended up with these delicious sausages that got used to produce amazing gumbo and jambalaya. Just search it... 😋
I very much enjoy your videos and find them educational. But I'm beginning to wonder do you work for the sausage maker? I have the sausage Maker book and have learned a lot from it.
LOL. No I don't work for them. I've been a customer of theirs for over 10 years and I literally get 95% of the stuff that I use from them so I happily endorse the things I like.
I have a question, maybe other people have answers to also. My stuffer has a 90⁰ elbow at the bottom. How do you get that meat into a casing? I do 5-10 pounds at a time and the amount of meat in the elbow and the tube is about a pound.
@@2guysandacooler I have a 7# stuffer from Walton's, where there is an elbow at the bottom of the stuffer. I often wonder if I should have purchased one which the stuffing tube just straight out of the side, instead of the elbow. I tried adding bread on the top of the elbow, inside of hte stuffer, and that didnt really yield much additional meat out of the tube, just made it really hard to push. :D
As a channel no. But if you were to watch episode one of this series you will hear me say that The Sausage Maker Sponsored the entire series and at minute 13:37 i acknowledge that again. With that being said the products that I recommend are not influenced by that😉.
@@2guysandacooler Not a huge big hairy deal, but I do think it’s a good practice to be transparent. Many cooking channels that I watch precede the video with a caption that says, “Contains paid promotional content”. In the description they will say, “Thanks to my sponsor…”. Does your sponsorship by The Sausage Company influence what you present. Of course it does! I’ve just started watching your channel and I can’t say that you feature products from a variety of manufacturers. The viewer doesn’t hear pros and cons of these products. If I watched a TV show sponsored by Chevrolet I wouldn’t expect to see many Fords or hear the presenter do a critique of the Chevys. No harm in that - when it is obvious who the sponsor is. Off my soapbox…
Like you said "No Big Deal" we all do things differently. Out of curiosity, did you happen to check the description box before you got on your soapbox? There's an entire section regarding sponsors for this series (we had lots of sponsors for this show). Here's what makes my channel different than others. I've actually been using these products since before I was sponsored or had a you tube channel, so anyone who follows my channel knows that I will only recommend products that I use and trust. Just like one of the vacuum sealers in this video. I recommend a chamber vac from vac master. They don't sponsor this channel but they have a good product that I think others will benefit from. People come here to hear me share my experience and tutorial entertainment. The products I use are secondary and help me off set the costs of making these free informative videos.
@@GrizzAxxemann Hands work fine for small batches.. I mostly make large batches. I like to save my workouts for the gym. Also the consistency is a better for me. And Hands dont frreze. I use a round ice chest and a Mud Mixer on a HD Drill. Mix 50 lbs fast..
@@2guysandacooler Interesting to hear that you live in Panama. I am living in the "big city" of Chitre. I have the freight forwarder part figured out. Have you ever had problems in getting items through customs? Specifically, cultures and starters.
@@masyapanama1298 No. The items I bring in are flown in by my freight forwarder so I get them faster. Never a problem with customs. I normally get my products within a week of ordering them.. It's very fast.
