KitchenAid Grinder = Awesome Sausage

[Grip_Maker's_Wife]

One year my mom gave me a KitchenAid mixer as a gift. She also gave me a meat grinder attachment, which at the time I thought I would never use. After sitting in a box for a few years, I gave it a go this week and was very pleasantly surprised. I love mild italian sausage and for some reason the ground kind can be hard to find around here and the link kind is high in fat. I bought a small lean pork loin and ground it. It amazed me how easy it was.

I added salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes, paprika, oregano, basil, fennel seeds, and a couple splashes of red wine. The latter is a must for anything italian, right? Didn't Julia Child say that you need to taste it along the way too?

I cooked that up and loved that it was so lean, but it was also so much better tasting than the store bought. I cooked some eggplant, onion, celery and yellow pepper and added that and most of the meat to pasta sauce and served over pasta. It was a big winner taste wise, and a healthy meal.

I like that I tried something new and it worked out. Thanking my mom above who always knew best. I will do it this way from now on even though there were more dishes to do. It was worth it!

I mean to add that with the hunters and other kitchen fanatics here, does anybody else make their own sausage?

 

[ordy]

Now, I'm hungry. It sounds delicious.

 

[STCM(SW)]

I have the same machine and attachment and make the Italian sausage also but use bear or venison with added pork fat.
Just remember to make your own tomato sauce, none of that jarred or caned stuff that's been sitting in storage for who knows how long.

 

[Rule3]

We have my Moms KA machine (so it's really old!) and have all the attachments. It is an amazing machine. I like grinding meat in it. You know what your sausage is made of

 

[ditrina]

Yup.. I've been known to make a " Couple 'O Pounds" or two.

 

[da gimp]

we don't have that attachment for ours... How hard is it to take apart, clean & re-assemble? We've found that after you use the good stainless steel Kitchen Aid pasta maker... it's best to get after it quick with hot soapy water soak... then hitting it hard with the sprayer.... then to do a thorough cleaning on it, in other words... it's fairly labor intensive.

We've got one of the old Keen Kutter kitchen grinders with 7 or 8 different blades & can make sausage with it too... it dis-assembles easily for cleaning... re-assembly is a breeze too... but it is one of the old hand cranked manual grinders.

 

[Grip_Maker's_Wife]

we don't have that attachment for ours... How hard is it to take apart, clean & re-assemble? We've found that after you use the good stainless steel Kitchen Aid pasta maker... it's best to get after it quick with hot soapy water soak... then hitting it hard with the sprayer.... then to do a thorough cleaning on it, in other words... it's fairly labor intensive.

We've got one of the old Keen Kutter kitchen grinders with 7 or 8 different blades & can make sausage with it too... it dis-assembles easily for cleaning... re-assembly is a breeze too... but it is one of the old hand cranked manual grinders.

Da gimp, it is really easy to put together, use, take apart and clean. I was really amazed by it. There is an attachment too this that stuffs sausage casings, which makes that part easy too. I don't have the pasta maker but perhaps that is harder to clean because dough is sticky?

They have it here on amazon if you want to check it out.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-FGA-Grinder-Attachment-Mixers/dp/B00004SGFH"]Amazon.com: KitchenAid FGA Food Grinder Attachment for Stand Mixers: Electric Stand Mixers: Kitchen & Dining@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31Hjd8zvzLL.@@AMEPARAM@@31Hjd8zvzLL[/ame]

 

[da gimp]

thank you GM's wife...it's intriguing... back when I hunted big game this would have been very handy to have.

 

[Hillbilly77]

Every year we make a bunch of venison sausage. Last year we raised two pigs, so now we have our own pork to mix in.

We were also given a friend's secret recipe for venison summer sausage.....
It doesn't get any better than that stuff.