Meat Grinders

buying A Grinder, here is my 2 cents.
I started out with those 500 watt electric grinders. the one you can find at princes auto combodian tire and a few other places. they are all pretty much the same with different housing.
they are cheap and mostly plastic. they are a small step up from the kitchen aid grinder attachment.
these grinders are good for really small stuff and are very finicky. they bog down if you feed it slightly to fast and it makes for a tough learning curve. cuts have to be small to fit the throat and auger.
after 3 years a broke down and purchased a decant grinder.
if your planning on grinding about up to 4 lb of meat at a time than the small electric grinder may work well for your needs. i think they are listed as a 500 watt grinder on most websites.
if you plan on grinding larger batches of about 10-15 lb and up and want the grinder to eat up what you feed it I would suggest going with a grinder of a minimum 3/4 HP.
something to consider is the throat opening size.
LEM makes the new grinders with a feature called "big bite" auger that can accept larger cuts of meat.
the auger is not evenly spaced on purpose, starts off large and goes to small spacing towards the plate.
this saves me on not having to worry about cutting the meat to large and prevents bogging down.
something else to consider is the material the grinder is made of.
is it easy to clean? dishwasher safe? I learned that hard way. the parts on my small electric grinder are not dishwasher safe. go with stainless parts if you can for easy cleanup. have a look at the gears, are they metal or plastic? is there a safety overload switch that turns the grinder off if it bogs down. this should help in prevent stripping the cogs? are parts like blades and other size grind plates for the grinder readily available?
so these are a few things i was looking at to help me determine what i was looking for in a grinder.
your needs may be different.
once you start grinding your own meat its a whole lotta fun and you won't want to buy ground meat at the store anymore.
i would also suggest picking up a sausage making book called : charcuterie and you're on your way to the races.
have fun and play safe, watch those e fingers....
 
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If you are just doing a deer or so a year a good manual grinder will do the job easily but it has to be a good one like a PORKERT. When I was a kid I ground hundreds of pounds of meat with one and tons of cucumbers, onions and peppers to make relish. They are easy to clean and not a hassle to use. Mom used to get me to grind up cold roast beef and a little bit of onion and she would mix it with ketchup to spread on toast.
 
Another thing to consider when using a home grinder is that meat grinds a lot better if the silver gristle is removed and the meat is very cold or even slightly frozen when ground. Warm meat and gristle will clog the blade at the plate.
 
Like a lot of meat eaters on here I have the Cabela's 1 HP, great unit...Makes short work of an elk or moose..We call it the meat gun...I also have a smaller LEM grinder for on the kitchen counter for the smaller quick grind jobs.
 
We have (technically it's my friends) one of the kitchener ones from PA. 1/2 hp. It does an ok job, but can bog down pretty easy especially if you put too much fat or things aren't cold.

Considering my budget, I'd probably buy another one if we didn't have this. Once we start getting more successful (and I'm done school and working) I'll probably want to upgrade, but for right now it does the trick.
 
Dogleg said:
Anyone use the Cabela's jerky slicer attachment?
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Didn't know they had one. We bought a meat slicer for all the other stuff that we make, bacon, Pastrami, Montreal Smoked Meat... , I use it to slice meat for jerky. Use semi frozen meat, dial it in to about 1/4" thick, works like a charm.

We do have the burger press, meat mixer and juicer attachments. The burger press work pretty good as does the mixer (though not as good on small batches like 10 lbs.), haven't used the juicer.
 
billdick said:
Mine is a hobart and it was $18000. I works great every day and has never given any trouble. The hopper holds around 350 lbs and I also have a electric over ride foot pedal for bagging.
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Lol, i used to have about a doz of them from 10L to 120L. Kinda spoils you to household units.
 
I've been using a Kitchenner for years. I rigged a half horse motor on it. (easy as it came with a pulley) As long as I do my part timing and have cold meat, it puts out burger very quickly.
Bear grinds much easier than deer.
 
I started out with a cheapo Walmart grinder. Still works and we ground a pile of venison with it but had to cut pieces very small and took forever and a day.After 2 seasons of that I decided to build one using my old #32 hand grinder. 3/4 HP motor with 1 1/2" pulley and a 16" pulley on the grinder. It'll chew up meat no matter how fast you feed it.
 
Cold meat into the grinder is a very good idea.

I have not found it worth the effort to pick over all my grind meat. Some guys like spending the time at it, but it seems to me to largely be a lot of time spent for little return. I figure it is pretty much going to be chewed up anyways by the grinder. If it isn't getting cut cleanly, cool the meat right down, and see to it that the grinder knife and plate are both dead sharp. Use a wrench to tighten the plate to the knife. It has to cut, not mash the meat through the plate.

Cheers
Trev
 
trevj said:
Cold meat into the grinder is a very good idea.

I have not found it worth the effort to pick over all my grind meat. Some guys like spending the time at it, but it seems to me to largely be a lot of time spent for little return. I figure it is pretty much going to be chewed up anyways by the grinder. If it isn't getting cut cleanly, cool the meat right down, and see to it that the grinder knife and plate are both dead sharp. Use a wrench to tighten the plate to the knife. It has to cut, not mash the meat through the plate.

Cheers
Trev
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Very good point regarding sharp parts. They will cut so much better and gristle or silver skin will not cause problems on the plate.
 
RielM said:
What are guys using for grinders? I have the feeling l should be looking somewhere else other than Cabelas? I tried a grinder attachment for an old bread maker last year that essentially didn't work.
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Has anyone checked out Craig'slist for a Good Used Commercial meat grinder?
If someone is going to spend upwards of & 300.00 on a meat grinder from a Box Store, why not invest Ina good commercial one.
It ma take a serious look at some that have been used, but being of commercial grade it should do the guy who gets his Moose or Elk every year, no?
Rob
 
FLHTCUI said:
Has anyone checked out Craig'slist for a Good Used Commercial meat grinder?
If someone is going to spend upwards of & 300.00 on a meat grinder from a Box Store, why not invest Ina good commercial one.
It ma take a serious look at some that have been used, but being of commercial grade it should do the guy who gets his Moose or Elk every year, no?
Rob
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Good used commercial grinders don't show up very often. I looked for quite a while, both craigslist and kijiji, throughout BC and Alberta.
The very few that I saw come up were priced higher than retail.

Sometimes guys get lucky, though.

Hard to rely on pure luck.

Cheers
Trev
 
...bought a grinder from poland when we were living in se asia before the berlin wall fell...crank on it is 1.5' long...probably in prep for grinding up canadians if they were to invade the FORMER USSR...sharp...smooth...and $50 at the time...brought her home...guess it's a souvenir from cold war meat grinding course 101?
 
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