Most of the customers are often used to buying store-bought sausages that it is more convenient and time-saving than homemade sausages. Making sausages at home will give you full control over what kind of meat, herbs, seasoning and spices that you want to use. Homemade sausages seem to waste so much time and take a massive effort but a kitchen tool is “invented” to make this difficult task simpler called “Commercial Sausage Stuffer”. So, what is a commercial sausage making machine and how to know to buy the best one? If you are curious, let’s roll down to the next part and the answers are ready.
You may like to read this first: Best Commercial Meat Slicer.
What is Commercial Manual Sausage Stuffers?
Sausage stuffers are the machines that allow you to fill meat in sausage casings without further chopping or smearing it. This kitchen tool will lead your sausage into a better texture and form. After the cylinder is filled with ground meat, a piston pushes the ground meat toward the bottom and then is extruded through the tube to the sausage casings.
Benefits of A Commercial Manual Sausage Stuffer?
There are many reasons that I can list why a commercial sausage making equipment is a great tool if you have one in your kitchen.
First, sausage stuffer will make your sausage healthier than what you buy from the stores. With a sausage stuffer, you are able to completely control the freshness of each ingredient you may add in your sausages from meat, seasonings, herbs to casings. Comparing to store-bought sausages, they always use some artificial flavors and preservatives, even casings which do definitely not guarantee food safety and maybe you could get food poisoning. Therefore, this commercial sausage stuffer produces sausages that taste more incredible and much better than any sealed packs of store-bought sausage.
Secondly, a sausage stuffer is like an intelligent investment than an expense because it is obviously more economical when making your own sausages than buying from the market. With the same amount of money to buy store-bought sausages, you can make a larger quantity of sausage from home and store them in the fridge or freezer for a very long time without heading to any grocery stores.
Thirdly, if you are an avid hunter or a meat supplier or you run a meat-focused restaurant, you can buy this commercial sausage stuffer to make your own sausages for sales or even serving your customers to extend their choices and give them a positive impression. So don’t hesitate to invest a stuffer for your business.
How Many Types of Commercial Manual Sausage Stuffers?
You are ready to put your ground meat in the sausage casings and now you can choose one of these following three types of sausage stuffers to get the final result:
#1 Horn Sausage Stuffers
This type of sausage stuffer is traditionally made from cast iron with chrome or tin and recently, some stainless steel models are also operated for use. Horn stuffers are often purchased by people who newly know to make their own homemade sausages and cannot make beyond 5 pounds of sausage at the same time because the horn sausage stuffer has the limitation of production from only three to five pounds.
#2 Horizontal Sausage Stuffers
This type of sausage stuffers has a piston-like cylinder that is mounted horizontally and also is the place holding the ground meat. The manual horizontal stuffer is designed with the hand crank that is longer than the cylinder so it might cause a minor inconvenience for users. Customers need to put this equipment on the edge of the table or counter because a full rotation requires an adequate clearance. With horizontal stuffer, it can help you make about five-to-twenty pound sausage.
#3 Vertical Sausage Stuffers
Vertical sausage stuffers use a large piston-like cylinder that holds the seasoned ground meat. They are different from the horn and horizontal ones in the stuffing cylinder which is mounted vertically and they are also more preferred than the two stuffers. Vertical stuffing machines can produce from a range of five to fifteen pounds.
What to Consider when Buying Commercial Manual Sausage Stuffer?
#1 Type of sausage stuffer
According to the previous part, you have three choices of sausage stuffers. Should you choose a horn, horizontal or a vertical one? It really depends on your own preference but here I can list some key points:
Horizontal models are placed on the kitchen counter and need more space whereas sausage stuffer that has a vertical cylinder often needs a clamp or to be bolted down its base for stability. The clamp will be included when you receive the box of the stuffer so if you actually don’t want to add an extra step with the clamp, you should ignore it and turn back to the other choices.
#2 Build quality
It is really important to purchase a machine that will be made of durable material and lasts for years, so do the commercial sausage stuffers. I highly recommend a stainless steel one that will hold all the meat and create nice-shaped sausages. Stainless steel is an ideal material that lessens the ability of stickiness from the ingredients on the stuffers’ surface. Besides, a sausage stuffer made of this material is also more durable, healthier and very easy to clean. If you are tempting to save a few bucks and opt for a plastic model, it could be broken in the short term and not last as long as the stainless steel one.
#3 A Good Air Release Valve
The function of an air release valve is to get rid of air trapped in your homemade sausage so it prevents the sausage casings from breaking apart. This valve supports you great and you don’t have to spend much time stuffing anymore. You may check whether the stuffer has a handy feature called an air release valve or not to purchase a stuffer with full helpful functions, not the high price but limited capacities.
#4 Speeds
For beginners who works on a large amount of seasoned ground meat, you might need a stuffer running at different speed levels. Because a machine with just only one speed is quite fast and as a result, it will mess you up and slow down the sausage-making process. For experts or professional home chef, you should go for sausage stuffers that have high-speed levels, Definitely, these multiple-level stuffers are suitable for both amateurs and professors.
Top 5 Best Commercial Manual Sausage Stuffers 2022
#1 Hakka Sausage Stuffer (Vertical & Horizontal)
The sausage stuffers from Hakka Brother are equipped with two fill rates system and 2 speeds to adjust. The 2-speed mechanical operation is pretty smooth and also a nice option for “new bees”. This stuffer is recommended by many people even an admin of sausage making group of 40.000 members. It is light and easy to move and use for one person; however, you’d better work with another person to hold the cylinder and stuff the seasoned ground meat into the tube to reach the fastest speed. An additional reason why it is preferred is the material of the machine. It is heavy-duty, sturdy and well put together. The capacity of the Hakka sausage-making machine is up to 32 pounds but normally for home use, you just need 11-lb equipment.
However, the backlash on the gears seems to be very sloppy and also makes a loud noise that could be easy to break someday. It even leaves about 2 cups of sausage in the stuffing issue (more than that of some brands) so the capacity cannot reach the largest quantity as we imagined. One more thing, some records from customers pointed that the cylinder ears could be broken off ad so it came unclipped and air would be more easily to enter the sausage casings.
#2 Super Deal 7 Lb/ 3L Vertical Sausage Stuffer
The Super Deal sausage stuffer has a vertical stuffing cylinder and manual two speed for quick release and easy filling. When you receive the package, it is included a stuffer, a hand crank, a locking nut, 4 stuffing tubes and rubber feet and a user manual. The capacity of the Super Deal sausage stuffer is about 7 pounds, so it is perfect for home use, restaurants, grocery stores and even small commercial processors or test kitchens. Coming with nice polished stainless steel stuffing tubes, the Super Deal stuffer is quite easy to clean and load and cut the sausage-making process down about half of the time. With this machine, you can make your homemade sausages by yourself and don’t need anyone else for help. Many compliments for the pressure release valve of the Super Deal stuffer because it can control the flow of meat and help reduce the air inside the sausage casings that an ordinary meat grinder is harder to avoid.
#3 Weston Manual Vertical Sausage Stuffer
Weston is a US-based brand that has many experiences in making the best kitchen equipment, especially the sausage stuffer. It is designed with high-quality stainless steel on its whole frame. This frame is coated smoothly so it brings an aesthetically look for consumers. This product can produce a capacity of a seven-pound cylinder at one time. Thereby, with one person’s job, it can reduce the time spent for filling the cylinder. Apart from this, the cylinder can be tilted to fill and clean easier, remove leftover ground meat inside thoroughly. The Weston sausage stuffer also is equipped with an integrated air as known as a pressure release valve to avoid overheating and control the meat flow better than ever. The two-speed adjustment like Super Deal or Hakka Brother so you can choose what speed level you think it is suitable for you to make sausage, slower or faster.
The complaints of the Weston stuffer that I want to share with you are its height and small tubes. The product is quite tall and requires a lot of space in your kitchen. It is 20 inches tall and takes about 1 square foot and also weighs 24 pounds, so it is huge for some who do not have large enough kitchen. The solution is you can find smaller sausage stuffers instead of the Weston.
#4 Fantes Sausage Maker
In case you are looking for a portable, small and efficient sausage stuffer, the Fantes sausage making equipment is a product that you should purchase. The four heavy-duty sausage stuffers I review above are great and can produce a large number of sausages. But if you just want the stuffer to make small amounts, use simple and can bring anywhere, this product will do a good job. The Fantes stuffer has a horizontal cylinder and can hold up to 2.2 pounds of ground meat at a time. The stuffer is made of plastic and aluminum that can be easily cleaned by hand washing after use. It includes 3 nozzle sizes (15mm, 19mm and 22mm) to make thin, regular and plump sausage links). Moreover, for a stable working condition, the suction base at the bottom of this stuffer allows it to hold down firmly onto the surface of your kitchen counter.
However, there are some tiny disadvantages to this product. This compact machine has plastic and aluminum parts so it might not be as durable as stainless steel models. Besides, it just can produce 2.2 pounds of sausage so it is not suitable for heavy-duty purpose if sometimes you want to make more than that number for your neighbors or some parties.
#5 VIVO Sausage Stuffer (STUFR-V003)
Vivo sausage stuffer has its gears, base and the frame that make it quite heavy because they are also built from the durable metal with the stainless steel cylinders. Thus, this product guarantees durability and to withstand even prolonged usage with a long lifetime due to its rust-resistant factors. With a 7.9 inch wide opening, the cylinder can hold up to seven pounds so it is perfect for home use and saves a lot of time to fill up and clean after use. Another feature of this product is it has different parts that can be easily disassembled to give you thorough cleaning. This feature is an important function to ensure a high level of hygiene. Furthermore, the stuffer comes with four nozzles (10, 20, 30, 40 mm) made from plastic so they might not last as long as other durable materials. The Vivo stuffer has an air release valve like Hakka or Super Deal stuffer which avoids air bubbles breaking the form of sausages. It is also equipped with the base having the anti-slip/ untilted mechanism to provide more stability to this machine when placing on the countertop. A minus point of the Vivo stuffing machine is quite hard to move due to most parts made of heavy substances. But this disadvantage cannot beat a variety of benefits that the product brings to you.
Conclusion
Now, you got an in-depth idea about sausage stuffers and what should consider choosing the best commercial manual sausage stuffer that comes with your particular needs and preferences. Don’t forget to buy one matching perfectly your sausage making mission and your kitchen space to serve the most delicious sausages for family.