KitchenAid SSA Sausage Stuffer Kit Attachment for Food Grinder
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid SSA Sausage Stuffer Kit Attachment for Food Grinder
Customer Review: Okay for price, but terrible on absolute scale
Summary: 2 Stars
If one wants to do a very little amount of sausage or maybe just want to "do" it once or twice just for the fun of it (and already have the grinder) then this attachment is a cost effective thing to use. But not otherwise. My recommendation is to not buy the grinder and stuffer together for the purpose of making sausage regularly.
This sausage stuffer is an accessory's accessory. The KA's grinder accessory that the stuffer is used with, is itself pretty good excepting for one thing that affects stuffer use.
I recall that in the "olden days" when I had a much older version of the grinder, the push-tube was tubular and fit the grinder fairly tightly, and if you have one of those, it may work better for the stuffer than the newer cost-reduced version where the grinder's "intake" pusher is a plastic handle that's attached to a plastic disk. Problem is that the disk is too small in diameter and when already ground meat is pushed into the grinder (to stuff sausage) a LOT of the ground meat goes by the pusher's disk, and it's very slow going and somewhat messy.
With the several year old KA grinder that I have (with the pusher described above), I'd give this stuffer kit one star, but for those who may have the older (?) better grinder pushrod, I'll give a second star.
Thing is, if one wants to do any non-trivial amount of sausage and/or make it more than a few times, just a 5-lb (meaning it does that much in one-batch) vertical stuffer can be had currently directly from Grizzly for about $80 including shipping. One of those is a thousand times easier/faster than this KA attachment. Not even close. (Still okay to use the KA meat grinder though!). Search the internet about the Grizzly sausage stuffer and see what a great cost-efficient and well working thing it is (or its Northern Industrial twin). Amazon currently sells the larger 15-lb Grizzly vertical stuffer.
Customer Review: Poor excuse for a sausage stuffer
Summary: 1 Stars
KitchenAid typically makes great attachments. I love the food grinder but this add-on is virtually worthless. It relies on the auger to pull the ground, seasoned meat from the small, shallow upper holding tray out into casings. There is way too much resistance in the meat path for this design to be effective. You can press firmly and get the meat to move a little. I think I would actually be more successful pushing the meat past the auger than relying on it to move anything itself. I might try it again with the auger removed and the motor of my KitchenAid off and see how I do! It works just OK when you are working with freshly seasoned, coarsley ground sausage and are using the larger bore stuffing tube. That is its only, marginal application. It is completely useless if you want to make finely ground sausage, emulsified sausage (like hot dogs), or if you make salami where the meat turns much stickier. Oh, and the small bore tube should just be thrown away on arrival. The auger simply cannot and does not pull many types of sausage through this attachment. Or if it does it is very inefficient. I have the old style wooden plunger and the meat still comes right up the sides of the feed tube as you apply pressure. Then, when you pull out the plunger, meat comes up with it and then when you press down again huge air bubbles surge into your casings. You end up with a mess, a tension headache, and casings stuffed with air. It is a bad design that is really only offered to make the grinder attachment marketable as a sausage making system. It is...kinda, I guess. If you are serious about making anything other than sausage patties then skip this and buy a vertical sausage stuffer which uses a piston to press the prepared sausage out into casings. Sausage making should be fun and it simply isn't with this.Customer Review: A good sausage stuffer
Summary: 4 Stars
I followed the directions to a T. After making one batch-I added my own directions-#1-I placed a serving platter on a box to catch the sausage as it filled. #2-I greased not only the outside of the tube but also the inside as well as the auger. #3-I used speed no. 6 on the mixer instead of #4.
I also removed the blade and plate as per the instructions included in the stuffer box. I do not like the plunger at all either, but using the higher speed on the machine, it appeared to work better. A dowel type pusher should be included with the stuffer kit.
I double ground the turkey-first grind on coarse. then added spices etc and some chicken stock, then I reground the seasoned meat with the fine plate. Then I proceeded to use the stuffer. I only had to pierce the casings twice. I am only 5'3 and weigh 115 lbs and was able to handle the process by myself without having to take pain killers afterward (as some previous reviewers claimed they needed) it took me about 30 minutes to do 5lbs, I'm sure the next time it won't take as long. I don't know what some of the other reviewers were doing, but the only annoying issue was with the plunger-which next time I will grease also. Its not a great product by far-but what do you expect for $10.00??? I made great fresh turkey sausage, and they were worth the effort.
UPDATE: I just finished a batch of pork sausage, and after spraying PAM on the auger & inside the main unit, the stuffing tube inside and out, and the plunger- and putting the mixer on speed 6, I finished making the sausage in record time. No vacumn bubbles, no problem with plunger at all and barely any waste. I also added some wine to the ground pork mixture. All my issues solved and made the sausage making a pleasure.
Customer Review: Does NOT work with plastic pusher
Summary: 3 Stars
As someone earlier has said, the plastic pusher does not work. It does not seal well around the feeder tube and the meat squishes around the sides. Called Kitchenaid whose rep said they have done away with the wood pushers due to sanitary reasons. I explained what has happening and asked if they had a solid plastic one what the food would not squish around. Was told no, they didn't and suggested I put the meat the freezer before trying to stuff.
I ended up using just the large tube to hold the casing. Cut a hole in a ziptop bag and used it as an impromptu pastry bag with the casing/tube slid thought the hole at the bottom. This worked well and was much faster than the machine (Duh, didn't work right? Well, it was faster even than a dedicated sausage stuffer I was able to borrow). I was able to get through 20 lbs of sausage fairly easily and quickly. I had someone hold the casing on to adjust the tension while I squeezed the bag. I tore holes in 2 bags but that was due to my exuberance.
Bottom line... unless you have the wooden pusher, or something that fits tightly around the feeder tube, do not buy this. If you just want to use the casing holders and do what I did, that'll work, but you sort of need a partner. If you do decide you want this, AND have a pusher that seals tightly, then you may as well get the larger tray to go with it. The one that comes with the grinder is too small for stuffing sausage.
I gave this product 3 stars only because the pusher and the casing holders work as advertised. If the pusher worked as it should, than i would have gone to 5
Customer Review: especially useful for very large quantities
Summary: 5 Stars
In combination with the food grinding attachment, this accessory for the Kitchen Aid mixer makes short work of any sausage making task you set before it. I've helped friends cook feasts for 200+ people with this attachment and everyone eating was stunned at the short amount of time it took us to make their fresh, homemade sausage. This attachment beats a hand-crank grinder and extruder easily. And because it attaches to the mixer itself, I've found it far more stable and easy to access than the grinder-extruder combinations that mount to the countertop. With precious little in terms of countertop space, the mixer takes up more room, but the ease of use more than makes up for that. In combination with the food grinder, I can process an entire deer's worth of meat in an evening with this attachment.
Meat sausage isn't the only thing you can process with this fine attachment. Fruit sausages work equally well and the opening in the extruder is wide enough even for larger items. For the more creative among us, you can use the extruder to fill things like balloons and other awkward items much more easily than with a funnel and an extra pair of hands. You'd be surprised at exactly how many things you'll find you can use this attachment for.
The cleanup of this attachment is a breeze. Nothing sticks to the plastic and soapy hot water makes short work of a dishwashing task that would otherwise be onerous on the hand-crank machines. Better yet, throw it in the dishwasher. For the work I've put mine through, this attachment paid for itself based on ease of use alone before I was done with my first batch of sausage.