cal516

I took my first shot at making venison brats. The end product is good. It has good flavor but the texture of the meat seemed a little "blended". It looked "mashed" and did not have larger chunks like I see in regular sausage or brats I have had processed. Here was my recipe:

Garlic and Onion Seasoning (Cabelas)
9.3 lbs Venison
2.7 pounds pork butt
10 Jalepenos chopped
1 pound cheddar cheese chopped

I used the course grinding plate on an electric grinder for the pork and for the venison. I ran both through once separately and then mixed them together by hand with the seasoning.

I ran through grinder again with just the stuffer tube. No cutting blade or grinding plate. I just had the plate with the 3 oval holes.

Any suggestions or recommendations.

jerseyhunter

Try grinding both together with the spices once. I have a vertical stuffer so there is no plate. Try running it through with out the 3 hole plate, I think that's your problem.

cal516

Thanks for the suggestion. I ran into a similar suggestion while scouring the internet. The post said mix the seasoning into the meat while its in one inch chunks. Then to alternate venison and fat/pork piece through either a course plate or 3 hole plate. I noticed while I was mixing in the seasonings the texture of the meat had already started to become "blended".

SwissHillsFerments

Another possible issue is the temperature you worked at. If the meat and fat are warm when they are ground and mixed, they can smear together. Another thing we have found is that if the blades are not sharp, it can cause the grinder to have to force the meat through the plate, leading to a mushy texture. I don't know if that's part of your issue or not, but we have found that we have needed to sharpen our blades at least once.

jerseyhunter

Your not supposed to flip your plates and blades. They should be used the same way all the time and be married together , so to speak. I took a file and marked all my plates on one side before I ever used them, the blade only goes in one way. Never sharpened anything in 15 years, seems like they just stay in shape as long as you tighten them up against each other. Might take a wood mallet or letting the throat warm up before removing, then you know your doing it right. Flip them and you'll cause an opposite effect Ie: if one way their slightly concave then by flipping it you'll have one concave surface against a convex surface screwing everything up. Try it you'll like it.

SwissHillsFerments

We've always kept our plate and blade together, but it never occurred to me that the direction of the plate might make a difference. Thanks for that tip, that makes perfect sense!