Looking for a good meat grinder

[sleek]

I bought one for a buddy of mine that hooks to his Kitchen Aid. It seems to work great on store bought steaks. I'm not certain how it would handle deer with all the silver meat. So I'm looking for something that won't big down/clog up. Also, in an ideal world, it would be electric with a manual function incase power goes out. Is there such a creature out there?

[TimBo]

I have one of the Kitchen Aid ones, and it works pretty well on venison.  I trim as much as possible, and it does clog after a while (easy to fix though, just unscrew it, scrape or use kitchen sink sprayer), but overall it works way better than the hand grinder I had.  When that one got clogged, the end would actually pop off the threads.  Apparently Pro-Cut is good, but that is many, many more bits of green paper.

[bjrogg]

I’m very fortunate to have known the man I inherited my 3/4 hp no.12 cabela’s grinder. It’s a hog. Two people dropping chunks of venison at a comfortable pace. I have no idea how much it costs him but it’s ground literally tons of meat.

I’m sure it’s serious $$. If you invest that much you want to get serious about making a lot of meat besides just some venison burgers. It’s a lot of work to but it is very rewarding and I enjoy it.

Bjrogg

Ps I think the bearded butchers promote a grinder that is very similar to mine. Also their mixer and stuffer. Look nearly identical and operate the same.

[chamookman]

LEM, makes great stuff. From beginners to Commercial stuff. All the different Seasonings and casings too. Bob

[Eric Krewson]

The key is H/P, most of the power is listed in watts, you can do a conversion to see how that stacks up in H/P.

I bought a used cheap Chinese grinder off eBay to see what it would do before I invested more money in a better grinder, no one bid on it so I got it for $19 shipped. The dang thing will grind meat as fast as I throw it in, it is loud but surprised me how well it worked with a sharp blade and the right plate. For my needs it does just fine, if I start cutting up a bunch of deer again, I will need a better one.

 

[Pappy]

I have a big one from Cabela's 1 1/2 horse and it will grind anything you put in it, just depends on what a man wants to spend, I usually go over kill on most anything I buy,more horse power is always better. I do a lot of deer so its is really nice,If you are only doing 1 or 2 deer a year the smaller ones should do just fine, as far as silver meat no matter what you get you will have to clean it out pretty regular,I always clean my meat well and get most of the silver[sinew] out before grinding so I don't have to clean mine out even when doing 3 or 4 deer at a time, also makes better burger, never seen one with the option to use by hand, may be one out there but I have never seen one.
 Pappy

[WhistlingBadger]

I got one of the stainless KitchenAid ones for Christmas, but no opportunity to try it out as I got skunked this year.      I've used an old grinder that I inherited from my parents a hundred years ago.  I don't remember the brand; it's made of plastic with blades and plates that rust if they are in the same room as water.  It gets the job done as long as I keep the blade sharp.  It sure is a pain to keep it clean though.  Little nooks and crannies everywhere; it takes a lot of time and care to keep it from becoming a germ factory.  And tends to REALLY jam up with gristle to the point that it's hard to take it apart.  Looking forward to using a more modern design.

I don't grind a whole lot of silver meat anymore.  It's too much work for a less-than-great product.  These days I make all those shanks and necks into delicious pot roast, and save the big shoulder cuts, brisket, and rib meat for burger and sausage.

[bjrogg]

One other tip no matter what grinder you use. Cold meat almost partially frozen grinds much nicer than totally thawed meat.

Cleaning up is the biggest job of processing. Before and after.

I usually end up with several deer to grind. I don’t grind them individually. I cut up my grind meat into small enough chunks to go through the grinder. Then I vacuum pack them in big vacuum bags and freeze them until season is over.

Then I grind them up all at once. As soon as they thaw enough to break the chunks apart. Sometimes I even add ice cubes.

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

Back when I was a young man, I ground deer with a #10 hand grinder, that took a while to run a deer through, later I got a #32 hand grinder that was better but finally wised up and bought a grinder with a motor.

[JW_Halverson]

Along with the tips that you should remove all sinew and connective tissue, as well as the one about semi frozen meat, here's a tip from a professional at Hobart: ONE plate = ONE knife, and only ONE side! if you use one knife on more than one plate then things begin to wear unevenly and you get small gaps between the plate and knife. It is precisely these gaps that cause the system to gum up with sinew material and clog.

I have some of those tiny Crown Royal velvet bags and I always put the matched sets together. When I install knife and plate, I make sure that the worn side of the plate goes against the knife. That way they have worn together and match perfectly. I've been using the same sets in my 3/4 horsepower Cabelas grinder for 12 years now and I never have to worry about it clogging.

In fact, I recently ran a batch of sinew scrap through the grinder before cooking it down to make hide glue. Ten lbs of elk, deer, and bison backstrap scraps in one end and out the other in under a minute!

[sleek]

Thanks for the pointers fellas. I got the all metal grinder for my Kitchen Aid. I am not disappointed. It went through my cuts just fine without issue. I had to bog it down on purpose but throwing large cuts with sinew and fat to see what it would take.  After grinding up my good cuts, I picked through my fat and sinew trimmings to see what could be salvaged. It ate through that just fine as well, although a touch slower. I'm a BIG fan.


JW, I didn't know about the knife to die match-up, I'll keep them straight. Thanks for the advide!

[WhistlingBadger]

Thanks for the pointers fellas. I got the all metal grinder for my Kitchen Aid. I am not disappointed. It went through my cuts just fine without issue. I had to bog it down on purpose but throwing large cuts with sinew and fat to see what it would take.  After grinding up my good cuts, I picked through my fat and sinew trimmings to see what could be salvaged. It ate through that just fine as well, although a touch slower. I'm a BIG fan.


JW, I didn't know about the knife to die match-up, I'll keep them straight. Thanks for the advide!

Good to know.  Glad it's working great.  I'm sure looking forward to trying mine.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I’m looking into a new grinder myself for next year. After some reading I’ve settled on getting a Lem bolt down grinder. A buddy here has one and loves it.he got the aluminum bodied one and has no issues with it grinding a deer in a few minutes. I specially if he does a quick honing in the blade before assembling. I’ve been using an old Universal 1food processor and it works fine and is easy to remove the blade to clean the gunk out. But it’s slow if doing more than one deer. It takes about 30 minutes of grinding for a deer. Just put on some music and grind away.


That’s awesome advice on the plate and blade. I’ll have to keep that in mind. When. I get my grinder I’ll probably etch a small arrow into the side to keep the direction straight

Kyle

[Stoker]

I have a 1hp grinder, big is good when you got elk or moose.
I also do as JW says. Was told that by a butcher years ago.