A few days ago I whipped up a sausage based red sauce for a pasta dinner. The “mild” Italian sausage – produced by a big brand – was purchased out of convenience, but it should suffice to say that it was less than satisfying. I mean, it was ok, but it wasn’t great.
And I always crave great.
The sausage texture subtly reminded me of cardboard and the flavor was a bit ‘meh’. While browning it I tried to recall the names of other producers that might be better, but I soon realized those options were not too great either. “Why don’t you get off your lazy ass and start making your own?” – I thought to myself.
I have attempted a few different sausage recipes in the past with varying degrees of success, and I enjoy the process but the pain-points for me are the time and equipment. Time I can find, especially if I am going to eat a little better, but if I am going to “make my own” I’ll have to up my equipment game. I’ll need a better meat grinder specifically.
Up until now I have been using the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. It works, but after several uses the plastic housing is beginning to crack and I am missing one of the metal discs as well. After looking everywhere for it (twice) I figured it was probably thrown out with unusable trim by accident. The damage is my fault however as I ran these parts through the dishwasher several times. The care instructions said: “The following parts should be hand-washed only, using warm, soapy water and drying thoroughly..”
Fuck! I hate… HATE stuff I can’t run through the dishwasher. I do own a few pieces of cookware that I choose to wash by hand, but gawddamnit it really fucking irritates me when I am forced to do so. I always think “Can you not design something better for fucks sakes?!”
</rant>
So, my search begins.
I am setting some requirements for my search, but nothing should be a deal breaker.
- Less than $500
- Durable
- Good Warranty
- Dishwasher Safe
Here is a starting list of brands I obtained from a few pertinent Facebook groups.
- LEM
- Cabelas
- Weston
- STX
- Omcan
Right out of the gate I can see that Omcan isn’t going to work. They are aimed at commercial processors which isn’t a deal breaker but they are out of the budget range. Many others seem to be aimed at outdoor/hunter types or pet food makers. LEM and Weston look interesting but at the time of this writing I am seeing a lot of “product unavailable.”
Patience is a virtue they say.
Updates to follow.
\m/
