Which meat grinder?

[Elizabeth2]

We have quite a bit of wild pig in the freezer, and a likelihood of getting more soon. I have experimented with making homemade sausage and it is the best we've ever eaten! But the grinder we have is a hand grinder of poor quality. We would like peoples opinions and experience with electric grinders. I have looked at Amazon and have found many around $100, several with 4-star ratings from customer reviews. This is the one I've picked out preliminarily: http://www.amazon.com/Waring-Pro-MG1...0553459&sr=1-1
I sure don't want to pay $2-300 if one of these cheaper ones will do well, but I also don't want to try to be too frugal and end up paying many times over in frustration and time.
So, having said all that, those of you who grind quite a bit of meat, what do you use, and are you happy with it?

Thanks,
Elizabeth

[Amylb999]

we got this one from Northern Tool: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...70_36989_36989
it has a 1000 watt motor,,this thing works great. We make a lot of sausage and we've been really happy with it.

[agmantoo]

You will want a grinder with a # 12 hub/head or larger if you are going to continue to grind more than a few pounds. The #12 hub is used on most smaller horsepower commercial machines. Here is a link of a manual grinder that can be motorized. This is an inexpensive means to get a motorized unit that can handle a quantity of meat at an affordable price.
http://www.bizrate.com/meatgrinders/...start--20.html
This is a #32 hub and you would need to use a pusher for safety reasons and it would need a large low rpm motor. It will do a lot of grinding and fast.

[stanb999]

I'll tell you what, Like the DW mentioned. The grinder from Northern tool is no joke. It will process meat as fast as you can stuff it in. At 175 pounds and hour it's way faster than we need. Also it never jams on the grizzle. It just powers through. If you get this machine you wont believe how big it is for the money. The one you mentioned was 150 Watts this one is 1000 watts. Almost 7 times more powerful. But the price is only slightly more.


Also, For making sausage you should really get a stuffer. It will greatly improve the texture and juiciness. Believe me it's worth the money. They have them at northern tool also. Check them out.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...ry_6970_763591

[Ed Norman]

We had 300 pounds of pork to grind once, more than we wanted to do at home. I called the local grocery and they would grind it for $1/lb. I called the grocery in the town 60 miles away and he said bring it in, I'll do it. We carted it back to the meat dept and he ground it for nothing, but I slipped him a nice tip.

[Stephen in SOKY]

I use the one Agmantoo references above with a farm duty 1 hp motor. Does a great job.

[tamsam]

We have that exact grinder from northern and have used it for about 6 years now. We use it to grind deer and it has never plugged up and I have fed it really fast. Good luck with the pigs. Sam

[hotzcatz]

We found an old Kitchen Aid mixer at a garage sale for $5 awhile back - it had paint "issues" and didn't look pretty anymore and for our $5 investment it even came with a Kitchen Aid meat grinder. A bit of paint and the mixer was installed in the kitchen. Since then we've run a dozen pigs through that meat grinder! Best garage sale find of the year. Making bread is a LOT easier with a Kitchen Aid and now sausage is easily doable, too!

Usually, when we get a feral pig, I'll put them in freezer camp in quarters. Then later, I'll pull a frozen quarter out of the freezer and process it into whatever is happening at the time. This method of processing lets me do it in smaller easier batches instead of huge all day events. I end up making five or ten pounds of sausage at a time which works real well for that size of meat grinder. For making larger batches, though, you'd probably want a mixer larger than the little K45 Kitchen Aid one like I have. The larger mixers have bigger motors and the meat grinder is powered by the PTO on the front of the mixer.

[LFmenagerie]

We have the same one as Stan and Amy and Tamsam and would recommend it as well, for the same reasons. If you're not in a big hurry, they usually have them on sale for $10 - $20 less once or twice a year. We also bought the grinder attachment for our Kitchen-Aid mixer and it works well for small amounts, but it gets pretty hot if you try to grind more than a few pounds of tougher meat.
Tom

[texican]

I've got the Northern Tool grinder too. I've had 700$ commercial ones in the past, and this one grinds just as fast as I can stuff it in. And it only cost ~100$ with shipping.

My only negative with the grinder is you Must use hearing protection. Of course, if you can't hear already, I reckon you wouldn't need to wear ear plugs...

I'd 'prefer' a cadillac grinder, but if a 'yugo' grinder'll get er done, why waste the extra hundreds. I've had mine for four years, and process around 4 or 500 pounds of meat a year.

[highlands]

This is the one I want:

http://www.kochequipment.com/site/eq...d_category=159

with the optional stuffer:

http://www.kochequipment.com/site/eq...id_category=18

Unfortunately I don't have 3-phase power.
But, I can drool over the catalog pages...

[Riverdale]

We got our grinder and stuffer from

PHP Code:

http://www.sausagemaker.com/ 


We're happy with them

[texican]

Originally Posted by highlands

This is the one I want:

http://www.kochequipment.com/site/eq...d_category=159

with the optional stuffer:

http://www.kochequipment.com/site/eq...id_category=18

Unfortunately I don't have 3-phase power.
But, I can drool over the catalog pages...

I'm always fearful when a price isn't mentioned...

Like the land developer that moved in next to my place... I asked him how much he wanted for one of his 'lots', and the guy born with a silver spoon in his mouth actually told me, if you have to ask, you can't afford one.

I hear you on the three phase power... I'm very thankful to have single phase... I loved being off grid, but it's nice being able to have grid power, and have the ability to plug in the meat grinder without worrying about destroying an inverter.

[RiverPines]

Look at the hp. The wattage is just how much electric it uses. The power is in the hp rating. You need torque, not watts.
How many pounds per hour will it do?

I had a small one once, a typical kitchen grinder. You had to cut the pieces very small and it took forever. I went through several of these kitchen grinders that were all under 100 bucks and I finally decided to invest in a real grinder.

Now we have a big one. Its 1.5 hp

I dont have to cut the meat in small pieces. I dont have to cut off all the tough tendons.
I just take a 2 pound hunk and drop it in and in seconds its hamburger!

We also grind a lot since we process all our own meats quite often.

If you grind a lot go with some commercial, large, heavy duty grinder. Its worth it when you grind often.

[livinzoo]

I use the northern tool to grind cat food. They get chicken leg quarters bones and all. I have to cut the drumsticks off and trim a chuck out of the thigh to get it to fit down the hole, but It grinds right through the bones.

[Elizabeth2]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I ordered the Northern Toll electric grinder that several of you recommended. It should arrive the middle of this week
Thanks again, and I'll give a report when we've used it a bit!
Elizabeth

[BamaSpek]

Originally Posted by texican

I'm always fearful when a price isn't mentioned...

.

Thats what I was thinking....and also there are two...count em two...sales reps in suits and ties on that page

[highlands]

Originally Posted by texican

I'm always fearful when a price isn't mentioned...

Aye, but I can drool...

[poorboy]

I went through two of those kitch aids trying to hurry them up they will grind a small amount if you dont Crowd them..:-(