Meat grinders sausage stuffers


 
Aaron Lucas

Aaron Lucas

TVWBB Member
I have a kitchenaid mixer and I’m looking at meat grinders.
As a person who doesn’t grind a lot of meats but would like to customize burgers and make sausages , so that I can eat tasty meats what are your meat grinder recommendations? Pros cons of different materials, durability, quality of use, experience.

or what kinda advice would you have given yourself when buying your first meat grinder?

. I probably won’t be doing bulk batches from hunting or anything. But I tend to get really into making something as well as I can on a smaller scale.
id say I appreciate buying a better product if it allows me to fine tune or increase the quality of what I’m making and gives me quantity options.

40$ option 1 the plastic body kitchenaid grinder

60ish$ option 2 the metal body grinder appears to be made of aluminum

139$ Option 3 smokehouse chef full stainless grinder

option 4 any alternative you can think of.

maybe an old school hand grinder? Or alt brand

Thanks for any input
 
The basic one from KitchenAid is a great way to see if you're even going to enjoy doing this. They tend to crack at the power hub section. However that is more because of over zealous tightening of the disc holder than to any fault of the grinder. If you're careful with them they do an excellent job. I have one of the old Hobart made versions (all cast metal). I use it very seldom finding instead a good food processor does the job very well and much faster. Also easier to clean. While as many know I repair, and deal KitchenAid mixers when it comes to their food processors.....................not a fan. Get the solid old style basic Cuisinart (the square one). You cannot find better. There is a reason you find them on the counters of pro chefs when they're spending their own $$$$$
 
I picked up the Kitchenaid $40 one and like it. The main difference I found between some of the others was dishwasher safe or not. Very important to me that after an afternoon of making ground up meat that I could just throw it in the dishwasher and be done.
 
DH has been getting a lot of use lately from our Kitchenaid grinder attachment. He says it is easy to clean and use and he is very happy with it. It has served us well for many many years.
 
Aaron, I agree with all of the above, and I started off with the same set up. If you treat the unit well, it will last just fine. Make sure to keep the meat really cold, and cut it to fit the grinder. If you think you want to try your hand at sausages, I would look to invest my money in a dedicated sausage stuffer. Anyone who has tried to use the KA grinder attachment as a stuffer has experienced the ultimate in frustration! A single speed vertical stuffer from Hakka Brothers is $125 at Amazon.

If/when you outgrow the KA grinder, I'm sure we can help you out with suggestions on a dedicated grinder. My progression has been: KA grinder (several years), small dedicated grinder (several years), larger (#12) dedicated grinder (just got it last year.) Haven't purchased any ground beef at the store in quite a few years......just too easy to grind my own, package and freeze. :)

R
 
I've been using a KA grinder attachment for years and I've been very happy with it. You're certainty not going to grind 5 lbs. a minuet but it will get the job done. As stated the sausage making attachment is a lesson in frustration, I wouldn't recommend it.
 
I have the $60 one and it works well for grinding the meat but you might as well forget using it as a stuffer. I may have been doing it wrong but it does not work well stuffing the casings. Also since it is aluminum coated it can't go in the dishwasher which I do find a bit annoying but it's not a huge deal just a little inconvenient. I do want to get an actual stuffer before I attempt making sausage again. A friend of mine has the $40 one and does a whole deer with it. Granted it does take a while but it gets the job done for him. Hope this helps
 
I have to wonder if having 2 people for a stuffing operation is a really good idea, one on the horn end with the casing, the other feeding the screw and controlling speed.
 
It would certainly be easier but I usually get it done with just me. Granted I'm not doing large amounts, maybe 5-6 lbs at a time. I stick the meat and the grinder in the freezer for a bit before grinding and have two bowls stacked at the receiving end. One bowl stacked in the other with ice in between to keep everything nice and cold.
 
I still use the kitchen aid attachment for grinding. I generally only do 5 lb batches of sausage. I started out using the grinder to stuff. It's possible to stuff sausage with it and I did a few batches this way but it's a bit of a pain. You'll want a stuffer like everyone else has said. I've just got a 5 lb LEM stuffer with a manual handle. It works great for what I do. There are occasions I wish I went bigger on the stuffer but the reality is that you just put more meat in there. It's not a big deal.
 
JKalchik said:
I have to wonder if having 2 people for a stuffing operation is a really good idea, one on the horn end with the casing, the other feeding the screw and controlling speed.
Click to expand...
I actually had my wife help feed the meat in and it still didn't work right unfortunately
 
For us the using the kitchenaid as a stuffer was a 2 person operation for whatever reason. I can do it myself with the dedicated stuffer.
 
For the meat grinder, I have been using the KA attachment for over 30 years. I am on my second one now but cannot complain at all about durability, ease of use or ease of cleaning. I use this for grinding up meatball mix and I do about 10lbs at a time. I prob do this 6x a year. If you are only doing small batches and only a few times a year you cannot go wrong with this.
 

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I too have the kitchen aid attachment. It does a fair job for small quantities.
Beats my hand grinder.....that's a fact.

Grinding deer the plate tends to plug with silver skin and need to be cleaned off occasionally. Lots of pressure needed to push meat down chute to keep it feeding. It grinds frozen meat fine though....plenty power.

Haven't killed any deer in a few years now, but last time I did....I was shopping for more of a commercial duty type grinder to make it easier to make sausage and grind faster. The KA is just too slow for more than a couple lbs.

It was good for quickly grinding half pound of frozen ish deer to mix with ground beef when making spaghetti, tacos, etc. My
family ate a whole deer once.....without knowing. That was the end of the "I don't like deer" from wife and daughter. I proved to them they couldn't tell.
 
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Like I said. The little KA grinder is ok. But honestly a really good food processor does a terrific job and more quickly. Don't use anything but the good old Cuisinart. There is none better
 
LMichaels said:
Like I said. The little KA grinder is ok. But honestly a really good food processor does a terrific job and more quickly. Don't use anything but the good old Cuisinart. There is none better
Click to expand...
Which model Cuisinart???? Inquiring minds need to know. Visiting Cuisinart's website, I don't see the "square" model that you mention.
 
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As to meat temperature, y'all want the meat frozen FIRM but not frozen SOLID. Upper case used for emphasis and I'm not shouting at anyone.
 
Aaron Lucas said:
I have a kitchenaid mixer and I’m looking at meat grinders.
As a person who doesn’t grind a lot of meats but would like to customize burgers and make sausages , so that I can eat tasty meats what are your meat grinder recommendations? Pros cons of different materials, durability, quality of use, experience.

or what kinda advice would you have given yourself when buying your first meat grinder?

. I probably won’t be doing bulk batches from hunting or anything. But I tend to get really into making something as well as I can on a smaller scale.
id say I appreciate buying a better product if it allows me to fine tune or increase the quality of what I’m making and gives me quantity options.

40$ option 1 the plastic body kitchenaid grinder

60ish$ option 2 the metal body grinder appears to be made of aluminum

139$ Option 3 smokehouse chef full stainless grinder

option 4 any alternative you can think of.

maybe an old school hand grinder? Or alt brand

Thanks for any input
Click to expand...
I own one of these, works great & for the price it can't be beat.

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