What meat grinder do you recommend?

[KI Jim]

Last night, I made up 2 small batches of deer sausage (breakfast & italian) from some meat I had left over from last year-turned out great;) ! Anyway, I borrowed a meat grinder from a buddy of mine-it was a Porkert manual Cabellas $39.99 job. It worked okay-not great-just okay. I don't think I would buy one.

Anyway, what do you guys use? Are there any manuals ones you would recommend? How about an inexpensive electric?

By the way, the recepies I used, I picked up off of Eldons Sausage supply website-they were really good.

KI Jim

[el Cazador]

I just use the grinder attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer...made a batch of sausage this weekend and it worked great.

[POLARBEAR]

probably cheaper yet is "the deluxe food grinder from maverick" i bought it at meijers for about $80. i really like this thing. works well for me.

[Bow Hunter Brandon]

I just use the grinder attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer...made a batch of sausage this weekend and it worked great.


Yep I bought the wife a mixer a few years back because she bakes all the time. This year I got tired of the hand crank grinder and went out and got the one that attaches to the mixer it worked great. I used a cleaver to cut the meat into good size chunks and ground it all up.

[skulldugary]

We bought an electric Oster brand for around 89 bucks and it works great...

[wild bill]

this is what i been using the past 5 years. works good for doing 1 or 2 deer a year.

grinder (http://amos.shop.com/amos/cc/pcd/8770564/prd/13086927/ccsyn/260)

[schaaed1]

Bought my wife a KitchenAide mixer a couple years back for Christmas. The next year I bought her the grinder attachment (that went over well ... not). It does an OK job. I just wish they had better plates and knives, like a small commercial or the hand grinders. It does however take a while to grind, but it sure beats crankin!!

[PITBULL]

I have a rival 2300, Ive done about 50 deer with it and it is still going strong.
It has the steel body for the hopper I looked at some rivals that they make now and the hopper appears to be made of plastic. I would look at models with a metal hopper. Or that might be the way they are made now?
http://www.rivalcompany.com/support_files/product_grinders.aspx

[bluegoose]

i bought the electric one from cabelas it was 99.00 works pretty good

[THETOOLMAN]

I bought 1 from northern supply.com it cost $99.00 2 seasons and 10 deer ago. this year I see it is $129.00 works like a dream!! grinds deer up with 0 effort!! :)

[Raf]

i bought the smallest commercial grade grinder cabelas has its 1/2 hp stainless steel and it works awesome. it will grind up however much meat i put in there.

[Frantz]

Those ones that go on the Kitchen Aid, they looked like cheap plastic, you guys relly like them though? I have been holding off on one but it only makes sense to get one I guess, grind, mix and stuff all in one unit. What ar they like $70?

[alex-v]

The saying "You get what you pay for." really applies to meat grinders, both electric and manual. IOW, spend your money wisely.

I use a very old manual. With it we can grind meat faster than with most of the electrics I have tried. But, it does have a long handle and a larger sized hopper.

Plus, to speed things up it sometimes will be worthwhile to grind twice. The first time with a plate with large holes. Then, the second grinding with the plate with the holes to produce the size of ground meat that you want.

[SteeliePollock]

i have a hand crank one that i made a fixture to hold my 1/2 inch electric drill. so i don't do any cranking at all just turn on the drill on slow and grind away.

[BarryPatch]

I used the mixmaster grinder until the mixer burned up last year. It lasted almost 50 years (was my parents wedding gift). I still have the grinder which is all metal and high quality, I'd have bought a new mixmaster but I never used it for anything else.

I bought a 1hp grinder from Gander for $60. The working parts are crudely cast but it ground up two deer just fine. I can't see spending several hundred dollars on a grinder for 2-3 deer per year.

[chuckinduck]

I have the 1hp Commercial grade grinder from Cabelas. Its heavy duty and well built and ways 58 lbs Its also $399 so its not cheap, but if you want something that will last, I think this is a good route.

[huxIIIhammer]

i have a hand crank one that i made a fixture to hold my 1/2 inch electric drill. so i don't do any cranking at all just turn on the drill on slow and grind away.
Thats funny I was just reading these posts and I thought of the same thing right before I read your post. Excellent idea. I bought one from meijers this year for like 89 bux works great so far. I think as long as the motor holds up the other key thing is the sharpness of the cutting blade. We used one that attached to my wifes mixer for a few years but it started to get clogged up really easy far too often. I cut my burger pretty lean and I add about 1/5 ground beef to give it some fat. I suppose I could've bought another blade for our old one but with the way my wifes mood was doing the first deer :rant: 89 bux was money well spent for the next deer we proscesed:D.

[alex-v]

The parts for most hand grinders and many electrics are standardized. Check out Butcher and Packer Supply (http://www.butcher-packer.com/) in Detroit for parts. They were able to replace the knife (cutting blade) on my 50 year old or older hand grinder. They did have to replace the stud that it centers on but that was just a couple of extra dollars.

Great bunch of people to have to deal with. Lots of parts--getting grinding plates for all sizes of ground meat plus spices and spice mixes.

[kroppe]

I've used both a manual grinder from Cabela's, and the attachment for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. They both work well. I like the larger plate size of the Cabela's unit for bratwurst stuffing.