Favorite Meat Grinder or Sausage maker

Discussion in 'Back to Basics' started by Ganado, Jul 10, 2015.


  1. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

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  2. stg58

    stg58 Monkey+++ Founding Member

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  3. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    What do you mean?

    People call them different things. Sometimes meat grinder for ground burgers or for sausage.
     
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  4. MountainMariner

    MountainMariner Clearly Ambiguous

    I need a very nice hand crank grinder. Any suggestions? LEM brand?
     
  5. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    I have one of these-
    grinder.

    I have not processed meat with it but I have sent some apples thru it and it really grinds things up nicely. This can also be used as a weapon because they are heavy and solid.
     
  6. psychotic1

    psychotic1 Monkey+

    I bought the same size unit from Northern Tool many years ago. Quick search shows it's $20 less. I will say, you will never be sorry you spent the money for the big unit. I used to grind up 50# of deer meat at a time, and it was an absolute joy to not have to crank that handle. I could slice the meat into strips that were 2 inches square, and as long as the chunk of meat I was working with, and the machine never even slowed down. Buy it... You'll like it.
     
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  7. TXKajun

    TXKajun Monkey+++

    I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. ~$200 plus another $40 for the FGA food grinder. I've been using that to make my Cajun pork sausage for a few years now and am very happy with it. Not to mention that you also get one heck of a mixer in the stand mixer.

    I use the smaller LEM sausage hand crank stuffer and am really happy with that, also.

    A pic of the results:
    [​IMG]

    Kajun
     
  8. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    I have that one as well and it's great but I'm thinking electric cuz I'm lazy and I like to do projects quickly

    Txs psychotic1 good to know it's a good unit
     
  9. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    No reason why you can't add a motor to a hand crank meat grinder.
     
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  10. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    I have no idea how to do that. I'm all thumbs for anything that isn't simple when it comes to mechanical
     
  11. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned



    Easy peasy.
     
  12. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    My drill won't fit on that easy lol
     
  13. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

     
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  14. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    I have dozens of motors laying around. There is no way I'd hand crank if I didn't need to. Pulley could even be made from wood.
     
  15. pearlselby

    pearlselby Monkey++

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  16. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    G,
    You need to think about how much meat you really need to grind at a time. We have the Lem #8 which has been plenty for us. We'll purchase a couple 15-20 pound Boston butts (it's a large shoulder roast cut and why they call it a butt who knows) on sale periodically. We cut the meat into strips roughly 1x1x6 inch. It then takes maybe 10 minutes to feed 25 pounds through the number 8. We will do the same finding really cheap and kinda crappy steaks on sale and grind our own hamburger for less than ground chuck at the store. Again we'll do 15-20 pounds and set-up/clean-up takes longer than the grinding.

    When the whole family gets together and butchers 6-8 hogs, we'll have two of these running and they get the job done. The 1 HP unit would probably be good in that situation to reduce grinding time an hour or two and be able to fit larger chunks of meat into grinder reducing cutting time. In the several years we've had the number 8 we haven't wished for a larger unit. I selected the 8 as it was big enough to accommodate most of the assessories like the tenderizer. But if you plan to grind a lot more than 20-30 pounds at a time then the big guy may be appropriate.

    Have you looked at them in person or just on-line? Go to a Cabela's, Bass Pro or similar and see them for real. The 22 is huge.

    AT
     
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  17. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    Thanks AT I will go look I really appreciate your thoughts and suggestions
     
  18. azrancher

    azrancher Monkey +++

    Yep, my Mom made meat loaf with that kind all the time, I have 2 out in my BOG (Garage). She would grind up the weekly roast add some saltines & bread from time to time, and finish cleaning it out with saltines. I don't think I've had better meat loaf since then.

    Rancher
     
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  19. duane

    duane Monkey+++

    Have the small hand cranked unit and it can not be beat as a kitchen tool. I love hash and the leftover roast, ground with carrots, onions and a little garlic, it is almost better than the roast. I do not have a large grinder, dad and grand dad always had the large commercial ones, and while they are great for large amounts of meat for making sausage etc, they do not work well for a couple of pounds in the kitchen. I keep seeing the small hand cranked ones at flea markets and yard sales for a buck or two and hate to pass them up. Be sure that they are complete and hopefully have more than one size of the "plate ?" that goes over the end and controls how course the grind is and those with the stuffing attachments are not common. Mom and gram used them more like a blender than a meat grinder and ground turnips, meat, potatoes, and a lot of other things. Dad and grand dad, when making sausage, would first grind meat course, mix the spices and the different meats and fats into it , grind it again to blend it and cut it finer and then use the stuffer with no plates to make the cased sausage. They usually made a few hundred pounds and smoked them. If you are butchering you almost have to have the big ones and it would be a real pain without power. The grinders were large,heavy, awkward to handle, dangerous, hard to clean and did a beautiful job . I joined the USAF in 1956, left home and have not spent a total of 3 months back there since. I remember what it was like, but when I go back for a visit it is all gone. When the generations that had lived through the depression died, it seems like it all vanished except in the antique shops and on display in a cabinet or on a wall. Even here where we are interested in how to simplify things, a lot of useful tools that our grand parents, had to have to live comfortably, show up in the "Can you identify this?" post. Our present society truly wants to reinvent the wheel and the new and more complex "improved wheel" can not be made without a high technology base, costs a fortune, and requires a concrete road to work on. No one in the 1890's had solar power or generators for electric lights, but many lived a very comfortable life. My grand ma was born in 1874 and died in 1974. My grand dad died young, at 87, but they both agreed that best times of their lives and best living conditions were from about 1895 to 1910. After that there were wars, depressions, new jobs and new things and the whole world seemed to be on a treadmill and the devil catch the hindmost. I t seems to me that it maybe lasted a little longer in the rural south, in the more rural areas of the mountain states and the southwest,but it is gone now.
     
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