# Advice on clearing out sausage stuffer?



## junkpile (Nov 23, 2017)

So, I found a piece of advice suggesting that you run a few slices of bread through the grinder to clear out the meat, which worked very well, and additionally made clean-up a lot easier.  Any advice on getting the remnant of meat out of the stuffer?  First time using a stuffer, liked it much better than stuffing on the grinder.  Also first time with real casings, and didn't have too much trouble.  Only one or two blow-outs.  

But, is there a good way to get the remaining sausage out of the stuffer and the horn?  I had probably about 3/4 lb left in the canister and the horn that I'd like to have made into sticks.  Would also like to be able to run smaller batches without loss - my 6-year-old has been bothering me about making bockwurst ever since he found out about it, but I only want to do a 3 lb run, and don't want so much waste.


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## tropics (Nov 23, 2017)

I use bread in my stuffer.

you can see it in pic,use a wooden dowel to clear the tube


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## oberst (Nov 23, 2017)

I use a rod to get the sausage out of the stuffer tube, and my hand to clean out the main stuffer.  I'm like you, I didn't want all that sausage left in the stuffer, especially for smaller batches, I wanted it in the sausage casings.  So now after I take it out of the big stuffer I put it in one of the hand held jerky shooters with a round tube on the end.  






Got this one from Cabelas on a big discount.  After putting the extra sausage from the big stuffer in this one all I have left is enough for a small patty.  I take the casing off the big stuffer and put it over the end of this stuffer and serveral squeezes of the handle later I'm done.


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## tallbm (Nov 23, 2017)

I just fry up or grill the left over meat as part of my lunch or dinner.  It is part of my planning when I stuff :)

When making two kinds of sausage I just form all the extra sausage into MY stuffers final horn part and then throw all the new sausage on top.  I stuff what I can of the old sausage and then have like 1 foot of "hybrid" sausage as the other meat starts to come through hahaha.

You could also bag up the leftover for loose sausage or for making patties later.
Also I just blow through the tube to get that meat out lol.


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## wrwoelfel (Nov 24, 2017)

What brand stuffer do you have. I have a LEM 5 lber and only have a golf ball size left in the stuffer, if that much. But use a wooden dowel to get it out of the stuffing tube.


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## pmorton62 (Nov 24, 2017)

I wrap plastic wrap over the end of the next smaller horn and push it through the larger horn to clear it out.


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## mneeley490 (Nov 24, 2017)

I like the bread idea, hadn't thought of that.
BTW junkpile, bockwurst is one of my favorites!


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## actech (Nov 24, 2017)

tallbm said:


> I just fry up or grill the left over meat as part of my lunch or dinner.  It is part of my planning when I stuff :)
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yep what Tallbm said. Gotta sample it even if doing a tried and true. One of these days I'll get dowels to push it out but so far lungs work fine.


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## BGKYSmoker (Nov 25, 2017)

If you have a stuffer that has the elbow at the bottom just before going in the tube, your piston is all the way down, hard to get the rest out and into tube.

I have a LEM and have very little left over, i just toss it. Not enuff meat to bother me.
Get a wooden dowel just smaller than the ID of your tube, wrap a paper towel around it and push thru the tube to get the meat out.


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## junkpile (Nov 25, 2017)

wrwoelfel said:


> What brand stuffer do you have. I have a LEM 5 lber and only have a golf ball size left in the stuffer, if that much. But use a wooden dowel to get it out of the stuffing tube.



I'm borrowing a Gander Mountain stuffer.  Not sure who actually made it.  Their stuff looked fairly nice, but there are no markings on it, sure it's just generic China-made stuff.  Also using a GM grinder.  No markings on that one, either and some very bazaar labels that weren't translated to English very well.  The stuffer does have a small sump adjacent to the horn.  I may try the bread trick after this next run.  Going to stuff a few different things in series in an attempt to loose less.  Need to finish boning out my venison, first, though.  Got some pork shoulder on a meat sale yesterday, but planning to corn a roast today, and then on to boudin, bockwurst, and summer sausage.  Probably won't get it all done.


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## ronf (Nov 25, 2017)

I have heard, but have not tried, that crushed ice works well to push out most of the meat to the tube.


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## pops6927 (Nov 25, 2017)

I went to Home Depot and bought some dowels (I took my stuffing tubes with me) slightly smaller than my tubes.  Brought them home and cut off a little more than twice the length of the tubes and, once i've pushed as much of the meat out of the stuffer, I detach the tube and push the remainder out into the casing with the dowel.  You can see my dowels in my equipment picture, under the grinder:


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## bregent (Nov 28, 2017)

My stuffer has a high and low speed. To get the last bit out, I back out the piston and then tighten the air check valve, switch to high speed gear and then crank down fast. This compresses the air in the cylinder and forces most of the meat out.


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## tallbm (Nov 28, 2017)

bregent said:


> My stuffer has a high and low speed. To get the last bit out, I back out the piston and then tighten the air check valve, switch to high speed gear and then crank down fast. This compresses the air in the cylinder and forces most of the meat out.


Interesting idea!

I gotta check and see if mine can be tightened down like that.


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## ronf (Nov 28, 2017)

bregent said:


> My stuffer has a high and low speed. To get the last bit out, I back out the piston and then tighten the air check valve, switch to high speed gear and then crank down fast. This compresses the air in the cylinder and forces most of the meat out.



Great Idea. I'm going to have to try this. Thank you!


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## zippy12 (Dec 1, 2017)

I read someone used leftover rice.  I have a Lem 10lb and it leaves about 1.5 brats of meat behind when done.

I liked the air trick... will try it too...


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## doubles shooter (Dec 1, 2017)

It really does help. I tried it last night.


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## zippy12 (Dec 3, 2017)

doubles shooter said:


> It really does help. I tried it last night.



what helps?


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## doubles shooter (Dec 3, 2017)

zippy12 said:


> what helps?


.                  
See post13.


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## rfwoodvt (May 2, 2020)

I tried the rice thing today.  Got most of it but not all of it.  

Also tried mashed taters.  Worked but was a bit explosive and bypassed a lot of
the meat


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## smokininthegarden (May 2, 2020)

When it comes to cleaning the tubes about anything will work if it fits in the tube. Some have mentioned 
wooden dowels, I’ve done that before. I have also used aluminum dowels that are available at a hardware 
store then cut to length. Amazon has a cleaning kit available just for this process. Kinda spendy in my opinion 
but would be nice.

Cal


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