What am I doing wrong?

[Joe Christy]

My wife and I made 25 pounds of brats using a #22 grinder to stuff with and. 70/30 ratio. We found shortly after starting the meat started getting a pasty appearance and emulsion. We switched to our #12 grinder with a stuffing speed but was still having some emulsion though not as severe. I then speed up the speed of stuffing by not filling the casings as full with some improvement. We were thinking about a couple causes: meat to warm when stuffing, grinder too powerful, mixed too much causing some protein extraction? Really interested in hearing some opinions, taste is best I’ve made yet but thinking I need a stuffer to perfect the process. TIA.

[Tex_77]

I think your problem probably lies in that the meat was two warm, and you probably over mixed and got some protein extraction. I don’t think the grinder ever having to much power will ever be an issue.

[glen]

Stuffing with a grinder can overwork the meat as it is mixing and churning the mix as it tries to push it into the casing, causing protein extraction and loss of fat and meat definition.
A stuffer pushes the meat in with very little change in the mix

[Jonathon]

Joe Christy What were you using to hold the auger up off of the throat? Were you using a plate or a star stuffing adapter? I would imagine you had a combination of too much mixing, too warm and the grinder overworking the meat as it stuffed it. Luckily in a few short days (shameless plug) our Sausage Stuffers are going on sale!