Meat Processing Equipment

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  Meat Processing Equipment 101 - Grinders
  • Jonathon  

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  @Jonathon Yes…My kitchenAid absolutely SCREAMS when using the grinder. It’s nothing short of ear piercing.
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  Meat Processing Equipment 102 - Sausage Stuffers
  • Jonathon  

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  @austin sounds good keep us posted if you do come up with one. The small 3/8 tubes are brutal to stuff through.
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  Meat Processing Equipment 103 - Meat Mixers
  • Jonathon  

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  Meat Processing Equipment 103 Meat Mixers Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! What Are The Main Functions? A Meat Mixers main function is to mix in seasoning, cure and other additives with your meat. It also plays a very important role in protein extraction when making a cured sausage product. How Do They Work? Most retail meat mixers, like the Weston 20 and 44 lb models work on an axle and paddle system, where you turn the axle with the hand crank and the paddles spin through the chamber. The meat is added first and sits on the bottom of the mixer, the paddles are angled which allows them to scoop the meat off the bottom, rotate it up and drop it back down to mix it. This way you are getting multiple impacts to help break up the proteins as the seasoning is mixed in. How Important Is It? Mixing seasoning, cure and other additives in with your meat can be achieved by hand fairly easily, so if you are making a lot of fresh sausages then a meat mixer offers a convenience but it is not necessary. However, if you are making cured sausages then you need to achieve high levels of protein extraction during the mixing process. Protein extraction is a very important part of making certain types of meat snacks, anything that is going to be smoked generally needs protein extraction to keep the meat, fat, water and seasoning all bound together. If you don’t have good protein extraction you run the risk of “fatting out” which is when your fat renders out of your product during the cooking process. This leaves you with an unappetizing fatty film on the outside and a dry product. Alternatives You can mix in seasoning, cures, and additives by hand or you can add them between the first and second grind on your products and let your Meat Grinder do some of the work for you. These methods are easier to do with uncured products but it can also work for cured products, it will just be more time consuming and you might end up with an inferior product. Should You Buy One If you are making cured products then I believe them to be absolutely necessary, right up there with Stuffers and Meat Grinders. Lack of proper protein extraction can lead to a host of problems during cooking and smoking products. If you are making only fresh products then it is not necessary but it can be convenient to have. Best Choice For Beginners The Weston 20 lb Meat Mixer is a nice size for making smaller batches, the scoop and drop action helps with protein extraction and it is fairly easy to break down and clean, all for right about $100. Other Information Be sure that you are spinning the crank an equal number of times in both directions, this will help disperse the seasonings and cures quicker and ensures an even distribution. Some mixers like the 44 lb Weston will hook up with Weston Butcher and Pro Series Grinders, size 22 and above and it will do the mixing for you. You also need to use a certain amount of the capacity for this type of mixer to be effective, trying to do a batch that is much below 1/2 of the capacity will give you issues. Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Mixers Shop waltonsinc.com for Summer Sausage Seasonings Shop waltonsinc.com for Snack Stick Seasonings
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  Meat Processing Equipment - 104 Smokers
  • Jonathon  

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  Meat Processing Equipment 104 Smokers Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Different Types of Injectors Automatic/Pump Syringe - These types of injectors have a draw tube that will go into a How Do They Work? Vertical Smokers - Vertical smokers have a heat source, usually, gas or electric, at the bottom of the smoker and the pellets or wood chips sit on top of the heat source causing them to smolder and smoke. There will be one or more dampers on the bottom of the smoker and one at the top to allow smoke come up from the bottom and out of the top, drawing the smoke up and over your product. The one disadvantage to these units is that they are not suitable for grilling, they really can only be used as a smoker. Offset / Barrel / Ceramic - If you like Charcoal and wood smoking then a Ceramic, Barrel or offset Smoker like the ABS Pit Boss might be the best way for you to go. These work great for smoking large amounts of meat at a time or large cuts of meat. The Pit Boss has a rotisserie inside it that keeps the meat moving to make sure everything gets the same amount of smoke and prevents you from having to worry about any cold spots in your smoker. These smokers can range anywhere from basic to very advanced with electronics monitoring the amount of air flow and rotisserie. These types of smokers provide the most classic smoke flavor as they use wood chunks and/or charcoal as both the smoke and heat source. In my opinion, the only disadvantage to these types of units is the cleanup and setup required. Pellet / Combo Smoker - A pellet combo smoker is a good choice for someone who will do some smoking but always wants to be able to easily grill on the same piece of equipment. These use wood pellets and can smoke at temperatures as low as 150° or grill up to 500° or more. They have a hopper with the pellets on one side, an auger that feeds those pellets down into a heat source than then burns the pellets to act as the heat and smoke source. A chimney will be set off to the opposite side from the hopper to draw the smoke out of the grill area. The advantage to these units is the ease of use, just hit a button and they are ready to go. The disadvantage would be that you are not going to pick up as much smoke as you would with a wood smoker and you generally won’t be able to start below 150° How Important Is It? Smokers are an essential part of the homemade sausage and meat snack making process. For commercial processing, a good smokehouse is where I would recommend you spend more money as you can make it back faster than on almost any other piece of equipment. For home processors, a quality smoker will give you a much better-finished product and make your entire process more enjoyable. Alternatives People without a way to smoke can absolutely still make Summer Sausage, Snack Sticks or really any other type of meat snack. You can cook all of these items in an oven and you can add smoke flavor by using Hickory Smoke Powder. Of course, a smoker is preferable as it will give you a more authentic taste. Should You Buy One Absolutely you should get a smoker. If you don’t think you will smoke enough to spend the money on a dedicated smoker you can get a pellet combo grill to replace your propane smoker! Meat that comes off of a pellet grill/smoker has a much different flavor than meat cooked on a propane grill. Best Choice For Beginners The Weston 30" Vertical Smoker is an inexpensive and easy to use vertical smoker that, with some practice, will let you smoke almost anything you can think of! Other Information Make sure that you are using the correct fuel source for you vertical smoker. Some, like the PK-100, need to use sawdust only and pellets can create issues. Shop waltonsinc.com for Vertical Smokers Shop waltonsinc.com for American BBQ Systems Smokers
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  Meat Processing Equipment 201 - Maintenance for Automatic Syringe Injectors
  • Jonathon  

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  Meat Processing Equipment 201 - Automatic Syringe Injector Maintenance. Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Types of Injectors Automatic/Pump Syringe - These types of injectors have a draw tube that will go into a bowl or other container that has the solution already mixed in it. The action of the injector will draw the solution up into a chamber, or canister on the injector and then out through the needle and into the meat. These type of injectors can have either artery needles or, more commonly, spray needles that have 4 or more holes that the solution will come out. Marinade Injector - On these types of injectors the needle acts as both the draw and injector. When you want to fill the injectors chamber you need to pull back on the trigger and draw it into the chamber, to inject you press down on the trigger. The drawback of these styles is that all the holes on the injector needle need to be covered or you will draw air into the chamber. Maintenance for Automatic Injector First, we are going to go over simply breaking it down and how to put it back together as you should be breaking it all the way down before your first use to clean off the oils. The first thing you will want to do is to remove the needle to get it out of the way. Run hot water through this to clean it. Now unscrew the locking ring that connects the manifold to the cannister. Once this is done set the manifold aside and remove the canister from the base. If you cannot just pull it out press the trigger and stick your finger behind the cannister to slide it out. Now remove the O-ring from the front of the canister and set both of these aside. Next take the draw nozzle, which is the piece that connects to the manifold that draws the solution up into the canister and twists it until it comes off, be careful not to lose the spring in there. This spring is the same side on both sides, this is important to note for reassembly. Now remove the plunger from the draw nozzle, note that the plunger faces down. The plunger and spring allow the solution to come up the tube but block it when you want to inject your solution. Also, remove the o-ring that sits below the threads of the draw nozzle. Thoroughly clean the spring, plunger, and assembly in warm soapy water. If you don’t properly clean this the plunger will get clogged and you won’t be able to suck up the solution into your injector. Next, remove the needle holder base by twisting it. Note that this spring is wider on one end, this is the end that you want to position closest to the base so the narrow end is facing towards your needle. There is another plunger in there that goes into the hole on the manifold side. This allows the solution to travel towards the needle but blocks it when you are refilling the cannister so no air or solution can make it back from the needle. Also, remove the o-ring around the manifold and remove the needle base protector. I like to soak all these parts in warm soapy water for 10 minutes and then spray them with water and remove any noticeable build up to form the solution. Pay special attention to the plungers during this process as if these are not cleaned well the injector will not work. Make sure everything is clean and dry before reassembling it. Now that everything is cleaned you can put it back together. First, insert the canister back into the base, the easiest way to do this is to press the trigger and then push it in. Next put the o-ring back into position and set this aside. Now put your locking ring over the manifold and screw that onto the base of the unit. Replace the O-ring that you removed earlier over the threads of the nozzle. Now place your plunger back into the draw nozzle with it pointed downwards and put the spring that is the same size on both ends over the plunger and screw this back into the manifold. Now place the o-ring back around the manifold opening and replace the plunger so that it is pointing back towards the cannister. Now take the spring that is thicker at one end and place it over the plunger and screw the needle base back into the manifold. Now reattach the needle base protector and screw on your needle. Maintenance for Marinade Injector These are far simpler to clean. Simply take remove the plunger from the chamber and clean the inside of the chamber and the O-ring around the plunger. Then run hot water through the needle and the chamber and let everything soak in hot water. Once everything is dried simply reassemble it. Should You Buy One If you do a lot of whole muscle smoking or curing then one of these styles is essential. The ability to get the seasoning, cure and other additives deep into the meat quickly is a large advantage over having to rely on osmosis. Best Choice For Beginners It will depend on the style you want and how often it will be used. If you will rarely use it and just want a simple injector then Walton’s 4 oz Marinade Injector would be the one I would go with. If you are going to be using it often and want something more convenient to use and don’t mind the increased complexity then the Walton’s Automatic Syringe Injector would be my recommendation. Other Information There are also Brine Pumps that are more useful in commercial applications and Multi-needle Injectors that would be used in larger plants. Shop waltonsinc.com for Injectors Shop waltonsinc.com for American BBQ Systems Smokers
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  Meat Processing Equipment: 202 Grinder Maintenance
  • Jonathon  

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  Meat Processing Equipment: 202 Grinder Maintenance Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Plates and Knives Lubricate your plates and knives with white oil before your turn on your grinder. If you do not do this then you are going to cause friction and heat with your plate and knife and will end up with a mushy product. For a more complete list of tips for plates and knives check out this post on extending the life of your plates and knives Also, you should marry plates and knives, meaning if you have two different plates you should have two different knives and you only use them with each other. Locking Ring Do not use a wrench to tighten the locking nut on your grinder head! Some models of grinders come with a wrench that is specifically designed to loosen your grinders locking nut. They are NOT designed to tighten them down, you want to tighten it down with your hands or you are going to create too much pressure between the plate and knives which will lead to a host of problems! Augers Check your auger stud and replace if necessary. This the part of the Auger that the plate and knife sit on and they are replaceable in many models. A worn down stud is going to allow everything to start bouncing and will eventually ruin your auger which is a lot more expensive to replace than your stud. Stuffing With a Grinder If you are using your grinder to stuff product into a casing make sure you are using a star stuffing adapter! If you do not then your auger is going to ride on the bottom of the throat of your grinder and you will be lucky if you don’t ruin both your auger AND your head. Run Time Check your manufacturers operating time instructions and abide by them. Some grinders are not designed to be run for 20 minutes at a time, the motors are just not powerful enough and some of them have plastic gears. If you have to do 4 5 minute stretches that is a lot better then ending up with a blown motor! Grinders like the Weston Pro and Butcher Series. Cleaning Your Grinder Parts Also check the manufacturers operating manual for cleaning instructions, not all grinders are made the exact same way so some of them require different parts to be cleaned than others. Some have parts that are dishwasher safe and some don’t, my suggestion is to hand wash everything. We like using Neutra Sol General Cleaner but you can also use Dawn or other dish soaps on most parts, again check your manual. If you miss something and some meat residue makes it’s way deep into the throat you are going to have a nasty surprise the next time you grind something! After you have cleaned everything I like to spray it with Sanitizing rinse as well. Cleaning it with soap gets the fat, meat and dirt off of it but sanitizing it will make sure anything living on it will be killed. Getting a grinder head cleaning brush can make cleaning the throat of your grinder a lot easier on you. It can be hard to get anything down the throat the grooves and just running water down there is not going to work! Clearing Jams If your grinder has a reverse function and you have a jam you can run reverse for a second or two and see if that clears it. If it does not you need to turn off your grinder, unplug it and then break it down and clean the throat, plate, knife, and auger. Stomper Before you turn your grinder on check to make sure there is nothing like a knife hanging down from the pan into the throat. This seems unlikely but I wouldn’t be telling you to check if it hadn’t happened! This is also where you should check the length of your stomper, some of the westons come with this white covering that is placed over the top of your tray, without this the stomper could easily hit the auger as you are pushing the meat down, this could damage your auger and could shave pieces of plastic off of your stomper and then that is going to be in your food! Shop waltonsinc.com for Grinder Shop waltonsinc.com for Cleaning Supplies
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  Meat Processing Equipment: 203 Mixer Maintenance
  • Jonathon  

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  @Jonathon Yep. Just looked and tried it there. Perfect fit. Thanks.
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  Meat Processing Equipment: 204 Bag & Casing Clipper
  • Jonathon  

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  @Giuseppe-Córdova-Alessandria What are the casings/bags made of? Is it a natural casing or a netting or bag? I do not beleive that 1/10th of an inch will be a problem as the clip closes all the way so it needs very little material to grab onto. The only possible issue is that the clip might slide a little. If you’re local or want to send me a bag I will test it out for you?
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  Meat Processing Equipment: 205 Maintenance for Sausage Stuffer
  • Jonathon  

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  This is great information. Having been involved in setting up and implementing PM schedules for a couple of places I’ve worked at over the years I can’t emphasize enough the importance of this. Doesn’t matter if it’s a fishing reel, automobile or a conveyor system. You don’t want breakdowns. Couple of questions on this one. Does the manufacturer recommend greasing after a certain amount of use? Aside from the food grade grease or white oil can a food grade silicon spray be used? A food grade grease could potentially last for years with the limited amount of movement on these gears. May be the best option. I currently use the spray on my grinder plates and knives. Works well.
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  Meat Processing Equipment: 206 Advanced Sausage Stuffers
  • Jonathon  

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  Meat Processing Equipment: 206 Advanced Sausage Stuffers Attend this Intermediate level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Style of Stuffers Walton’s has 3 styles of Sausage Stuffers, the 7 lb single speed which operates on a horizontal gear with a threaded rack that is raised or lowered by turning the handle that is attached to the gear. The Electric Stuffer that has a 26 lb capacity. And we have 4 different sizes of dual speed stuffers. We have the 7 and 11 lb for smaller batches and then the 26 and 33 lb stuffers for larger batch processing. The only difference in the dual speed stuffers, apart from the size is that the 26 and 33 lb stuffers have a handle on the front of the cylinder to help with loading and moving the cylinder. Walton’s dual speed sausage stuffers have stainless steel frames, cylinder and stuffing tubes which are 3 main portions of the stuffer. The cylinder locks into the frames in 4 places which keeps it securely in place during the stuffing process. The stuffing tubes are easy to switch out, simply unscrew the trefoil nut, place a stuffing tube up against the machine and screw the nut back on. Gears Walton’s stuffers have 2 gears on the side that you can hook the handle up to for moving the piston. The top one is a high speed gear and should only be used when backing the piston out of the cylinder. The bottom gear is the one you should be using to stuff sausage off of. The gear box is aluminum with zinc plated gear steel gears and when you turn the crank it moves the gear and pushes the rack down through the cannister. Piston & Gasket Now, the rack lines up with the gears in the box so it moves up and down as you turn the crank, at the bottom of the rack it has a screw that allows you to attach the piston, The piston is aluminum with a durable plastic gasket that goes around the outside to prevent meat from escaping back up into the cylinder, it also has an adjustable air release valve to allow air to escape the cylinder and not be pushed down into the sausage. As the piston goes down it will push your meat through the opening at the bottom and into the stuffing tube and into your casing. There was a change at some point in how you orientate the gasket so now instead of the outer most part going at the bottom of the piston it goes at the top like this. I have done a lot of testing and if you put the gasket in upside down it will still work you just might get a little more of the meat escaping around the edges of the piston. Tube Sizes The Walton’s Dual Speed Sausage Stuffers come with 4 sizes of stuffing tubes, a 12mm for snack sticks and breakfast sausage, a 16mm for hot dog sized sausage, a 22mm for bratwurst and smoked sausage and a 38 for large summer sausage and for stuffing into bulk bags. Tips A few tips on using a sausage stuffer. A wood clamp like this one can be a huge help, especially when processing alone as it can prevent the stuffer from rocking back and forth during cranking. You could also remove the frame from the base and screw it into a table, if you have a spare table that you can easily sanitize. While we are talking about cranking, if you are cranking and handle is having a really hard time moving you need to back it out and make some adjustments to your batch. The first thing I would do is adjust the air release valve, if that doesn’t do it then I would put the entire canister in the freezer and cool it down for a while, meat that is very cold will stuff much easier as the fat will be less sticky. Finally if those don’t work you might need to add some water to your batch. If you try to keep cranking you could be building up pressure and when you let go of the handle it might spin rapidly in the opposite direction and could injure someone. If you are trying to determine which size will work best for you you should take a few things into account. The first is obviously batch size, if you are making mostly 5-10 batches than the 7-11 lb stuffers would be a better option, if you make large batches than the 26 or 33 lb stuffers will end up saving you a lot of time. Another thing to take into account is strength and effort. The piston on a 26 and 33 lb stuffer is far bigger than the 7 and 11 lb models, this means that they will require more effort to turn the crank as there is more surface area and more meat to be pushed down through the cylinder. Electric Stuffer Finally you might also want to look at the 26 lb electric sausage stuffer. This stuffer takes almost all of the effort out of stuffing sausage. It has a speed dial on the side so you can set how quickly you want to stuff and a foot pedal so you can start and stop the piston from going up or down simply by pushing down with your foot or taking the pressure off. This stuffer might not help you stuff much faster than a hand crank but it will be much easier. This would be a good stuffer for someone who does a lot of stuffing by themselves or for someone looking to make the process of sausage stuffing easier. One note on this stuffer is that it will not currently work for smaller diameter snack stick sized products, it should only be used for bratwurst and larger sized sausages. Shop waltonsinc.com for Stuffers Shop waltonsinc.com for Stuffing Tubes
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  Meat Processing Equipment: 207 Advanced Grinding
  • Jonathon  

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  Meat Processing Equipment: 207 Advanced Grinding Attend this Intermediate level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Overview Grinding meat is one of the most common things that most home processors do, it doesn’t matter what sausage you are making or if you are just making a bulk ground product to add to products later, it all has to go through a grinder and getting it ground as quickly and cleanly as possible is going to help you make the best product you can. So we wanted to show you two huge factors in what effects the length of time it takes you to grind your meat. Remember, the longer it is out of the cooler the more chance it is going to have to grow microorganisms and the warmer the meat is the harder it will be to grind and the more likely the fat is to smear. Importance of Cold Meat We are using our Weston Pro Series #22 and we will grind 2 separate batches to show you the difference cold meat can have on the speed of a grind. One was straight from the cooler and the other was sitting in our blast freezer for about 20 minutes. The first grind through a 3/8" on the meat from the cooler took us 3 minutes and the one from the freezer took us 2 minutes 35 second. So that is a small amount difference, certainly nothing to get excited about. However, the real benefit is on the second grind which will always take longer. The 2nd grind, through a 1/8 inch plate took 14 minutes and the one from the freezer took 12 minutes 15 second. That is significant savings in time and also keeps your meat safer through this process. If you really want your grind to go fast you can also put your head assembly, including plates, knives, and auger into the freezer for you grind. ProCut #22 Grinder The other thing that can really affect the speed and quality of your grind is, of course, your grinder. Obviously, size matters here but that’s not the only thing that matters. We repeated the test we did on the Weston pro #22 with our Pro -Cut #22 grinder. We used the same plates and knives so there was no difference with that. We also repeated the cooler vs freezer experiment here. The first grind through a 3/8" on the meat from the cooler took us 2 minutes on both the batches. Honestly, the thing slowing this process down the most was probably my ability to keep pushing the meat down the throat of the grinder. The 2nd grind, through a 1/8 inch plate took 5 minutes 30 seconds, compare that to 14 minutes on the Weston Pro #22 and the one from the freezer took 3 minutes 50 seconds instead of the 12 minutes it took with the other one. So clearly the grinder you are using matters as does the temperature of the meat you are trying to grind. Now, obviously the pro-cut #22 is significantly more expensive than the Weston pro #22 but this is a good example of the advantages that commercial processors have over what you are trying to do at home. So, if you are trying to make a product at home that is as good as what you can get in the store you need to take every advantage of every little trick that you can! Tips If you really want your grind to go fast you can also put your head assembly, including plates, knives, and auger into the freezer for you grind. Shop waltonsinc.com for Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for Grinder Parts
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  Meat Processing Equipment: 208 Low Temp Oven
  • Jonathon  

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  Meat Processing Equipment: 208 Using Oven at Low Temperatures Attend this Intermediate level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Starting Low For almost any type of cured sausage one of the best things you can do is to start the temperature of your smoker or oven at no more than 20° higher than the body temperature of the animal was. This prevents the proteins in the meat from suffering too much heat shock damage. The problem is that most home smokers or ovens won’t go that low. One of the ways people combat this is by propping the lid of their smoker or oven open to let some of the heat “bleed” out. To do this you will need a probe thermometer that has the ability to act as an ambient temp thermometer so you know what the actual temperature of the oven is. We began by setting the oven to 175° which was the lowest that our oven will go and propping the door open a good amount to let the heat escape. We quickly found out that this was too much propping and that only a very small opening was necessary. Cooking Temperature We were able to stabilize our top rack at exactly 120° but our bottom rack continued to change dramatically so we gave up and moved everything to one rack. We are also lucky enough to have a convection oven option in this oven so for the first hour I turned that on to keep the air moving, this mimicked the are flow of a smoker with dampers wide open so it worked well for our initial drying phase. After they had cooked for an hour at 120° we began to experiment with moving it higher and higher. We were able to get the top rack to reach 130° by closing the door even more and then 150° by opening the door more and raising the temperature and finally 180 by simply closing the door and setting it to 175°. Finish Sous Vide Style We also decided to pull these and finish them up sous vide style. We moved some into a sous vide cooker 100°, some at 120 and some at 135 and we moved one of the 120° pepperonis to a pot of water that we had set to 170° on the stove to prove that even if you don’t have a sous vide cooker you can still get a sous vide style finished product as long as you are patient and carful. We have done this before and we again found that you should wait until your product is around 120-135° before moving it. The pepperoni we moved at 100° did not have as good of a texture as the ones that had dried longer in the oven/smoker. Tips Shop waltonsinc.com for GrillEye PRO Plus Shop waltonsinc.com for Sous Vide Immersion Circulator Shop waltonsinc.com for Fibrous Sausage Casings