Homemade Sausage Making

Okay, okay. Finally, I'm going to retire my meat grinder, a Universal #1 which my grandmother-in-law must have used, back in the 1920's, to grind rocks for the dust bowl. Meat is forced through holes in the end, and an externally-mounted cutter blade attempts to chop off the results. The cutter surface end is curved, so the cutter blades look like a spider's legs, rounded and impossible to lap or hone. Using it, I can convert enough Boston butt into mush to stuff about two pounds an hour with this thing. Due to the outside-mounted cutter blades, there's no way to fasten a stuffing tube onto it.

What a jewel (in the rough). ...any ideas as to what to do with this thing? We have considered bronzing it to go with my wife's baby shoes. It would make a good (albeit small) clamp-on flower vase. It's too light to be an effective boat anchor or door stop. Goodwill laughs and suggests going down the street to the Salvation Army, which laughs and suggests... Well, you get the idea.

Can this thing be rehabilitated in any possible way? For all its faults, it's a cute little guy, and has historical value. (Only a bazillion or so are still out there, indestructible as they are, free to a happy home.) Should I accept trade for it? ...something equally modern, such as a catapult or trebuchet for scaring away game.

But seriously, folks. (Yeah. Right.) Can this thing be used, or should it be consigned to the consignment store or scrap heap?

I have one and they are terrific ice crushers. Just put a plastic bag over the output end and feed it ice cubes. I bet you could lap the cutting edges in the same manner as seating valves in an engine. Place some grinding compound between the faces and crank away. Mine is called a food chopper not a meat grinder. It works well on cooked meat.

ssorllih wrote:I have one and they are terrific ice crushers. Just put a plastic bag over the output end and feed it ice cubes. I bet you could lap the cutting edges in the same manner as seating valves in an engine. Place some grinding compound between the faces and crank away. Mine is called a food chopper not a meat grinder. It works well on cooked meat.

Hey! ...two great ideas. Thanks. This could help chill down the grinder prior to running meat through it, plus prepare the ice for a cocktail or two for the sausage making session. One beef-based suggestion: http://communaltable.wordpress.com/2011 ... -cocktail/ (...anybody have a pork-based suggestion?)

Maybe try a bloody mary with smoke dried andouille sausage sticks in addition to the celery.

ssorllih wrote:Maybe try a bloody mary with smoke dried andouille sausage sticks in addition to the celery.

As ol' Justin Wilson should have said (but probably didn't), "Me, I lack diss, I gaw-ron-tee." Me, I gonna try dat, an' rat now. ...mebbe on a batch of boudin.

Well, maybe in a bit. I just ordered an electric grinder from Northern Tool & Eqpt. With a name like that, maybe it'll stay cold during grinding.

Fractured Engrish Department:
The instructions on the side of my new Kitchener electric grinder say, in part, "To avoid short circuit, please don't hit the 'off' switch twice at the same time."

...any ideas how I might go about doing that? Obviously, quantum mechanics and time travel are involved.