Are you looking to start at-home meat processing, but don't know where to start? Or do you know somebody who wants to start but doesn't know what equipment to buy? Or are you somebody who has been home processing for years, and it's time to upgrade your equipment? If you answered yes to any of these questions, keep reading because this blog is for you!

Are you looking to start at-home meat processing, but don't know where to start? Or do you know somebody who wants to start but doesn't know what equipment to buy? If you answered yes to either of these questions, keep reading because this blog is for you!

Are you looking to start at-home meat processing, but don't know where to start? Or do you know somebody who wants to start but doesn't know what equipment to buy? If you answered yes to either of these questions, keep reading because this blog is for you!

In this post, we will list all the necessary equipment to get started as an at-home meat processor. Some of these products are a part of our Christmas sale, so read carefully as you don't want to miss out on saving big.

The first thing that should be on your list is a Sausage Stuffer. We recommend the Walton's 7 or 11lb dual-speed stuffer. The 7lb stuffer (dual and single speed) is currently a part of our Christmas sale, so if you want to save a few dollars, shop now.

Why buy a Walton's Sausage Stuffer? Walton's has years of use and real-world experience not only selling but using our hand crank sausage stuffers. At this point, Walton's Sausage Stuffers are simply the best available on the market. Whether it's reliability, durability, clean stainless steel look and constuction, ease of use, or the one-year warranty backed by Walton's, there is nothing that our customers do not love about our sausage stuffers.

The next thing on your Christmas list should be Walton's 20lb Meat Mixer. The Walton's 20lb meat mixer makes getting the correct level of protein extraction when making snack sticks, summer sausage, or any cured sausage much easier than trying to do it by hand! The paddle system works the meat with mechanical energy, breaking down the proteins and allows the meat fat, water, seasoning, and additives to all bind together. This is important because, without protein extraction, your fat will render out of the meat during the smoking process, leaving you with a mess in your smoker and a dry, tastless sausage! The mixing shaft is removable for easy cleaning.

A Walton's meat grinder is another very important tool for an at-home meat processor. It's essential for making any type of sausage; your grinder needs to be reliable, robust, and versatile. Walton's all new line of Meat Grinders has been manufactured to our high standards; we took what we liked from several models and made a few adjustments to help make grinders that are going to help make better sausage. We used 304 stainless steel for the auger, housing and locking ring, and we gave it a powerful commercial-grade motor to give you the best grind possible from a home grinder. Walton's #12 Grinder is a medium-sized robust grinder and is perfect for the serious home processor or hunter that does a few deer a year and medium-sized batched. The 7lb a minute grinding speed is conservative and can easily be exceeded at home under the right conditions.

Walton's 10" Meat Slicer is what any serious home processor needs! The extra-large carriage and blade mean you can put significant cuts like hams and even bacon on here for slicing. Despite being a new, lightwieght design, its sturdy construction will make sure you are getting perfect slices everytime. You can easily adjust the thickness from 0-15mm with the simple turn of a dial, and the carriage support on the back means that it is going to stay right where you set it, no more starting at 3mm and ending at a 5mm, this is staying right where you set it. The blade sharpener can quickly sharpen your blade with just the push of two buttons!

One thing we recommend all home processors have is a 6" Boning Knife. The 6" curved boning knives from Walton's are for both at-home and commercial processors. These knives are designed to be a good fit for commercial processor with access to quality sharpening systems and who will replace knives as they wear.

To learn more about knife sharpening, see our Meatgistics post on the "Types of Knife Sharpeners."

If you are anything like me, the next thing you will need after the Walton's Boning Knifes are the Hexarmor NXT Gloves. The design of these gloves is based on Hex Armor, which conducted research on accidents in processing plants and found the vast majority occur on the first three fingers. This means that they put extra protection on those three fingers, so they are not only cut-resistant but poke-resistant as well so that not even a hypodermic needle could get through! The rest of the glove is also cut-resistant to a lesser degree for maximun decterity and convenience, and the cut resistance rating exceeds ISEA/CA Level 5! These are perfect for use when and wherever a knife is involved!

The next thing on your list should be our Smoked Collagen Casings. These casings are great for making snacks sticks and other meat snacks. They are edible casings that are consistent and uniform in size. These casings are a Processed Stix variant. Processed Stix are primarily a smaller caliber casing specifically designed for dry or semi-dry snack sticks. They only come in smoke color and range in size from 15mm to 23mm, and our most popular size would be 19mm. Processed Stix has the heaviest wall weight of all of our edible collagen casings, which allows them to be hung from smoke sticks during the drying or thermal processing. There is also a very nice snap in the bite to these casings, which is great for many types of small-diameter meat snacks, like everything from a traditional snack stick, or fermented snack stick, or even another dry and semi-dry sausages like a small-diameter pepperoni or salami.

The final thing for your processing Christmas list should be Walton’s 19mm Fresh Collagen Casings. Our fresh collagen casings are edible, consistent, and uniform in size. These casings are a fresh collagen casings variant. Fresh casings, as the name implies, are for fresh or unsmoked sausages. All our fresh casings are clear in appearance ranging in sizes from 19 mm to 32 mm. Fresh casings are not designed to be used or hung on smoke sticks for smoking in a smokehouse. They simply do not have the strength to support the hanging weight of the product.

Everything on this list is something you would find in an at-home meat processor’s kitchen. Check out Walton’s 12 Days of Christmas Sale as many of these items will be, or are already on sale. This year, once something goes on sale, it stays on sale until the final day (Dec 19th), or whenever supplies run out!

Also, make sure you join us for our livestream on December 19th!

Merry Christmas!