Just bought my first LEM meat grinder

Ya buddy, Sheldon who’s Iowa Boy messaged me and let me know where this grinder was advertised at and I called the guy who was selling it, and I bought it later that day after work. Its a nice one with all the attachments and is all stainless and can hardly wait to make some brats, I mean good brats. My son and I are going to be black powder hunting here shortly and into the grinder the deer will go. I got a friend whos hunting second season and its at his house because he’ll probably get one or two before we do so hes going to use it first and put it through a test run. 3 stuffing spouts, a couple jerky tubes and maybe one or two more for different uses. I paid $200 for it because when I seen it and the shape it was in it looked like it was worth that much. The guy said it ran good and he looked like he was telling the truth and said he didn’t use it more the 10 hours of running. I think he bought it second hand but it has many hours of use left in it and its a nice machine. Thanks Sheldon! Anyone have any good brat and hotdog recipes and outlets for the spices?

Congrats on the buy!

Biggest thing with grinders is don’t force feed the meat into it. Slow steady pressure with sharp knives and dies and the thing should last a long time. I would be very careful loaning it out. People, even close friends will abuse it by being in a hurry and force feeding the meat into it.

I appreciate the input Dutch, Rons not new at grinding meat, he does his deer every year with a home made grinder he built and hes a fair mechanic so I feel safe saying he wont abuse it.

What model did you get, Mossy? When my old grinder was starting to struggle after more than 30 years I bought a big bite #8 LEM. Plenty big enough for my needs. And like Dutchy has mentioned, DON’T loan this out. People have used my equipment over the years and it comes back not working right or filthy. And I don’t do other people’s grinding of their supposedly “clean” trim either.

I retired my other grinder to kitchen us where it still does a great job just a bit slower. Man does it grind up those Wisconsin cranberries nice for relish.

Im not forsure Tom because It doesn’t say anything on the stainless house cover. On the auger housing it says 5 and on the grinding plate it says 5-A so Im not forsure. It didn’t have any of the paperwork that probably came with it so not there. We ran it a little but not long and it runs even and sounds like it has a lot of life left in it. Im assuming its a 5, are they any good? The cutting knife looks sharp and I ran my finger over the edge, the edges of the die holes aren’t rounded off, everything seems up to par.

Glad I could help Dan !
like others have said,take care of it !!
there is nothing wrong with a #5 size grinder,remember you are not doing tons of meat with it at once .
put the entire head assembly in the freezer for an hour and keep the meat chilled as well,makes life a bunch easier.

That’s for the info you sent me in message Sheldon, your very knowledgeable and I can refer back to it plus your phone number, The teacher has spoken Lol! Now if I can just find Toms spices address where he buys his at there in Wisc. Id be in good shape, especially for the brats and hotdogs.

If you are going to be stuffing into and casings I strongly recommend the foot switch. It will allow the one stuffing the meat to have control of the power and reduces the blow-outs.
Also, with a stuffing tube attached be aware that the smaller the tube the more back pressure there will be and the meat will get a finer grind. I generally use a larger plate for my stuff.

Tom had a great tip about removing the knife from stuffing, I may have to try that.

http://www.waltonsinc.com
http://www.sausagemaker.com

I get the bulk of my stuff from Waltons. I use Sausagemaker for casings primarily. After this year all of my seasonings will come from Waltons, I’m that happy and impressed with the finished products.

That’s a number 5 grinder and will work fine for you and the family. Blades and plates are available at Fleet Farms and Scheels, not certain the Cabelas replacements will transfer but I assume so.

You should have a plate with three large oval cut-outs in it. Instead of putting the knife behind that plate, place three 3/8″ stainless flat washers on the stud of the auger then that plate followed by the stuffing tube. Your meat will have been ground before-hand and omitting the knife allows free flowing of the meat into the tube without re-grinding it as it fills casings.

When you’re set to grind, have your meat [pork and venison I’d assume] cut into chunks about an inch squares, put into a meat lug and mix the meats, then add your cure and mix, your seasonings and water and mix, then grind [3/8″ plate] and re-grind [3 or 4 mm plate]. This blends everything together very well and allows you to go right to stuffing.

And speaking of stuffing, save your sheckels and buy a crank stuffer with a vertical can. 5 pound, 7 pound, 11 pound, whatever. These stuffers are the clear deal. I have a 5 pound and I never see a blow-out even with dinky casings. Most all of the issues with blow-outs while stuffing come from meat that’s too dry and it has to be forced thru the tubes and this happens most with stuffing off grinders. If you’re insistent on using the grinder to stuff get the foot switch as it will help some with controlling the flow of meat.

One thing you should pickup is a digital scale. They can be found right with the grinders/stuffers in most places and are usually good to 150 pounds accurately. The scale will set you back about 40 bucks. The scale is important unless you’re good with converting pounds of water to liquid measure, as in cups and fractions of cups. A 25 pound batch of bratwurst, ring bologna, summer sausage will call for about 3 pounds. Its way easier to weight the empty cup then fill it until you’re three pounds heavier than the cup weighed. And use BOTTLED water or spring water. Treated municipal water can discolor your meat.

I’ll also mention cure here. If you are making fresh hotdogs and brats….those that go straight into the package and freezer without smoking of heating….cure is not needed. IF you plan to smoke or heat the meat in even the slightest degree, you need to have the pink cure in your meat before stuffing. The LEM seasoning kits found in FleetFarms and Scheels and similar locations will have the cure with them IF the finished product will require cure. All of Waltons seasonings will include the appropriate amount of cure based on batch size if the seasonings dictate a need for the cure. And product to make “fresh” sausages will likely not have the cure packets. If you see the cure packet in the spice blend, USE it. LEM also offers cure in 4 ounce packets where their seasoning kits are sold if you want to wing it with your own seasoning blend. The rule is though: if you’re going to heat it, cure it. The cure you’ll be using in any smoked meat [Prague powder #1] will be pink in color, that’s universal so it isn’t confused with the other cure, Prague powder #2, which is for use with dried sausages and is a world apart from what you’ll be doing. I’ve never seen Prague powder #2 sold on open shelves though.

Feel free to pm me if you want more detailed stuff Mossy.

Thanks Tom, between you and Sheldons wealth of knowledge I should be ok. I’ll visit Waltons and see what they have, I can get the sheep casings here locally, thanks again for all the info,,,Dan

Forgot to mention That I have a baby scale, one of those that’s got the troughed saddle that the baby lays on and It weighs out pretty true, that’s why all my bluegills weigh 7lbs each, but it is accurate. I made summer sausage and brats about 15 years ago and the summer sausage was some of the best Ive ever eaten, I added 20 Lbs of sharp cheddar too 100 lbs of venison and pork trimmings, I think that was 15% on the pork side. There used to be a grocery store just up the road from me and I bought all the seasonings and casings, pork trimmings etc for the summer sausage and it came out close to a buck a pound. This store made their own summer sausage there in the store and they smoked it right there in the butcher shop. What they used for a smoker was a hospital warming cart that holds meals and it keeps them warm until they give them to the patients, I don’t know how they put the electric element in it unless it already had one in it. So when they wheeled the cart down the hallways they just unplugged it from the wall in the kitchen and away they would go, he showed it to me and it was pretty slick and their summer sausage was great. He asked me how many pounds of venison I was going to use and he weighed out the stores recipe in spices, sold me the casings and gave me the mixing directions, it came out just like thiers, good sausage. Brats cam out ok for my first time but more practice would make them perfect, so im going at it again. Anyway thanks for everyones help and I wish I could find a warming cart now, I think he said he could smoke 100 lbs of meat at a time.

It’s called a Queen Mary cart I believe. You can check with your local used restaurant equipment dealers and also hospitals and schools. Might take a little digging but you can find them.

Thanks Dutch, if I run into one i’ll get it, hard to passup a smoker body like that.

One thing I have found to be a major ingredient is the addition of powdered milk. I add one cup of powdered milk per 5 lbs of sausage. It adds no flavor to the product, but it retains moisture and makes for a juicy sausage when cooked. A retired butcher friend of mine made that recommendation to me yrs ago, and I have been doing it ever since. It makes a significant difference in the finished product. We make about 200-250 lbs annually and the powdered milk gets added to all….

If you’re making summer sausage and want the old time tang that it used to have add powdered buttermilk instead of powdered milk. I added a 12 ounce box of powdered buttermilk to my 25 batch summer sausage this year instead of the encapsulated citric acid and between the Waltons seasonings and the buttermilk its the best I have ever made and I’ve been doing this since the early 1970’s.

The hot dogs and bologna can handle some powdered milk but not a ton of it. I added 8 ounces of powdered milk to my ring bologna in addition to the soy binder and had to play with the water a bit but it wasn’t a big deal. I’ll be doing hot dogs in about a week and plan to add the milk.

Here’s another good source for sausage supplies. Huge selection with good prices, they ship quickly, and they are extremely helpful with questions. Have fun with your new toy!

http://www.butcher-packer.com/

Thanks Everybody!, Got a call from a friend two days ago whos got a nursery and he wants me to come help him out with his deer, their damaging his plants and needs help. The second season starts Saturday so my boy and I are going to buy our tags and help him fill two farm tags that’s he bought that hes giving us, so If we fill all 4 tags we’ll have enough to grind quite a bit. Not going to grind the loins and make tenderloins out of them for sandwiches, the rest is going into the grinder, unless the boy wants a roast or something..

Mossy, take the lean roasts, rub with a cure and smoke for dried venison. This is some very good eating!!

We are grinding for summer sausage Thursday late afternoon, stuff Friday morning, and into smoker Friday late afternoon, this year it will be 200# of summer sausage.

10 pork bellies get dry cure Thursday as well, and will go to the smoker next weekend. Lots of fun coming the next 2 weeks. Shawn

Ya River, my boys excited because he wants pepper sticks, landyaugers and some jerky, I’m sure he’ll take some summer sausage and some of everything else we make. I’ll remember the lean roast thing, is it any good for slicing for lunch meat sandwiches? I’ve got a meat slicer, which brings the question what cut of meat and how do you make meat for lunch meat sandwiches, that would be good for freezing and eating later on, maybe the direction of roast beef process.