****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I'm new to sausage stuffing, I tried to use the Kitchenaid attachment to the meat grinder. The grinder works great, but it not for stuffing. I found this one for 30-40 bucks, less than half of the 100.00 for the other style, Since I'm neww I didn't want to make a big investment yet. It works very well, the suction cup holds extremely well on formica laminate counter top, now I just have to get the twisting of the links down.inexpensive and make great sausage. love this item. period.It was good but I wish they made longer tubes. And the tube screws got stuck a lot.Good product good sellerUnusually, the item in hand looks better than the picture on the website. Given it is the most basic proper stuffer you can buy, it really works as well as you'd need for small quantity occasional sausage making. Actually rather fun to use. There is plenty of control with the handle on the screw, and no effort to turn it, even with a coarse grind. The worst bit is getting the casings on the nozzle, and you have to do that with any sausage stuffer.The main deficiency is lack of a washer sealing the piston-head. Expensive models have the piston head sealed with an O-ring, and also have a pressure-release valve. I improvised a washer by cutting a plastic disk out of a polypropylene food carton lid (recycle number 5 PP), very slightly larger than the piston head itself, and that did the job. Still ran very smooth, and no meat escaped behind the piston head.The barrel is nicely milled aluminium alloy of a good quality, and of sufficient gauge it should not too easily dent or become mishapen. But clearly it has no structural bracing and could be dented or misshapen with rough handling, and should be treated almost like glassware. The end caps are not quite as nice, being of rather basic zinc alloy. Those could be brittle, and should also be handled like glassware. The cap threads could easily be damaged by cross-threading, and I put a little oil on them for easier turning. The centre screw is zinc-plated steel. The piston-head is some cheap alloy, and is held on with a steel spring, which will easily go rusty so don't leave it soaking in water for too long. The stand is chrome plate.It says it holds 1kg, but I found 1kg of trimmed meat turned into sausage mix, with no rusk, filled it one and half times. It is a little tedious that you fill it from the nozzle end, so you have to be a little careful when refilling it part way through a stuff, but it was straightforward to achieve. That's one slight irritation you'll avoid with a better model. I was even able to push the last bit of meat left in the nozzle into the casing quite easily using the handle of a wooden spoon to push it down the detached nozzle.I have a smooth worktop and the suction pad held fine, and I didn't need any help from an assistant.It is perfectly possible to grind meat to sausage texture in a food processor, with a little care, if you find out about the role of salt and temperature in achieving that. So this is the only specialist piece of kit needed for small scale sausage making. I succeeded quite easily at the first attempt, with nothing like the panics and disasters of my early attempts of other kinds of "advanced" cookery.Bought this for home made sausage and boerewors. It works fantastically well. I recommend a good spice to accompany it.I recently bought a sausage maker thinking it was good value for money. I was badly mistaken. Cheap made. I can see the colour silver coating will come out later as it looks plastic. It broke after the first day use. The seller suggested I return the broken part to him and will claim from distributor/manufacturer so that it can be replaced. However this does not fill me with much confidence as the product appears to be poorly constructed from the outset. How could the piston arm (looks like it's going to rust later date) become detached from the plunger plate by just turning a handle? Furthermore the seller told me the manufacturer is very good and blamed me for not handling properly and told me to send back the broken part (cost me £11.- by post recorded delivery) when I do not consider the break is my responsibility. I did send photos to show and and asked what's a point to return the broken when your can see from photos sent. The enclosed photo show clearly where the sausage maker broke so I do not consider it necessary to return the broken part at my expense. It is the seller responsibility to sell products that are "fit for purpose". I do not consider this product "fit for purpose". If your company manufactures a higher quality product then I should have organised a replacement without cost for sending the broken item. .I wondered if this company has service recovery policy? If your one still working is great but wait until it's broken. I will need a new one and invest more money with much better design and quality.Brilliant. Easy. Cheap.I spent over £100 on my mincing and stuffing machine. The nozzle was too big for making chipolatas. This comes with 3 different sizes and is so much easier to use. The control of stuffing speed based on how quickly you turn the handle makes it easier to use than an electric machine. It doesn't waste much sausage mix and cleaning is fairly easy too. I haven't noticed significant metallic colouring in the mix as some others have said.For the price I think this is an ideal start to sausage making. Would I like a stainless steel version? Of course I would, but it won't be anywhere near as cheap. I'd recommend it and enjoy using it.My daughter loves it .
