# Snack Sticks and Bratwurst



## archerben (Sep 14, 2007)

Last year I was inspired by WyoGoob's thread on sausage making. I had made sausage in the past, but never really had the right equipment to do so. So I finally broke down and bought a 1 1/2 HP grinder, a meat mixer, and a sausage stuffer. Over the Thanksgiving weekend I got ambitious and decided to make 25 lb of snack sticks, 13 lb of bratwurst, and 13 lb of breakfast sausage. I started with the snack sticks, and as my awsome luck would have it, the gears in my sausage stuffer locked up on me within the first two pounds of snack sticks. If you've never stuffed sausage with a good stuffer before, then you simply can't even imagine how frustrated and angry I was. Eventually I decided to make the best of a bad situation by stuffing everything with the stuffer attachments on my grinder. That made for one seriously long and frustrating weekend.

Ultimately I ended with 12.5 lbs of BBQ snack sticks, 12.5 lbs of Peppered snack sticks, and 13 lbs braturst. By then I was just done and opted to wait on the breakfast sausage.

Here are the results:

Snack Sticks before smoke:
Seasoning: Excalibur BBQ and Excalibur Peppered (purchased from Tri B)










Snack Sticks after smoke:









Snack Sticks Packaged:









Bratwurst:









As you can see, I need some work on getting a more consistent link length.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Holy cow!!! That's cool, nice work.

I hate it when something like that happens to a stuffer. The meat is too hot to grind/stuff at the same time thru the grinder.

I cut my brat casings about 30" long, stuff and then twist them into 6 1/2" long sausages (bun size) and then tie a knot on each end.

Hey, is your 1 1/2 HP grinder a #32?


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## archerben (Sep 14, 2007)

Yes, it is a #32. It's the Cabelas 1 ½ HP commercial grinder. I was going to go with the 1 HP, but my cousin talked me into the 1 ½ HP, and I just thanked him for doing so the other day. I love it! I helped a friend grind 200 lbs of elk last winter, and it never missed a beat. Sold my old Cabelas Pro grinder to a buddy and haven't looked back.
Also, I picked up the Cabelas 11 lb stuffer on a deal for $220 a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to breaking it in.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

archerben said:


> Yes, it is a #32. It's the Cabelas 1 ½ HP commercial grinder. I was going to go with the 1 HP, but my cousin talked me into the 1 ½ HP, and I just thanked him for doing so the other day. I love it! I helped a friend grind 200 lbs of elk last winter, and it never missed a beat. Sold my old Cabelas Pro grinder to a buddy and haven't looked back.
> Also, I picked up the Cabelas 11 lb stuffer on a deal for $220 a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to breaking it in.


Cool, I use a homemade #32 grinder. The motor is off a pivot irrigator and the auger chute is as big as a grapefruit...uh....not real safe. I can gut a 1,000 lb steer, stick a hoof in the auger and grind the whole thing! jk 

My Cabela's 22lb stuffer leaves so much meat in the bottom I made a distance piece to take up the space and help push most of the meat out. Keep us posted on your new equipment.


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