Hand Crank Meat Grinders - Page 2

On cleaning, the "Universal" way of doing it, as per the Universal instructions, is to run a wad of fresh bread through it when you are finished grinding. Then rinse with warm water. That's all the instructions say.....but I'd think that if you broke it down to wash and dry it, you should be fine. I'm using the food grade silicone spray on mine. Oils can go rancid over time. If it's dry, there shouldn't be too much to rust, so dry might even be better than oiled. The bread....slice of plain white or better yet, piece of Texas toast (fresh) could also be used at the beginning to get some of the black out.

My Universal #2 didn't come with any nut butter plates. The OVB and KK did:



Cutters on top are from the Universal. Nut Butter plate is from the OVB. Other plate is from the KK, but is exactly the same. When I tried the nut butter plates, the openings in the cast body clogged and the crank was incredibly had to turn. I almost lifted the grinder off the board it was clamped to. Maybe you have to dribble them in vs. filling the hopper? And what came out was more like paste or meal than butter. But just plain nuts ground to butter don't look like peanut butter in the store anyway. It quickly separates into solids and liquids (oils).

I was able to use the butter plates for coarse cracking black pepper (leave them loose), as did the choppers on the Universal. The small cutters gave me a fine grind (not dust, but fine), while the middle gave me mix of coarse and fine. With the middle cutter, some whole corns came through. Again, hard to turn with those.

On the other meats and vegetables, this is what they look like from a food chopper:



This was through the OVB. The vegetables were mostly course chopped 1/2" chunks, and look more flailed than clean cut like you would get with a sharp kitchen knife. Ground leftover turkey on the left came through the round hole plate (pellets). Ground leftover turkey in the middle came through the finger cutters and looks shredded. Not the most appealing in appearance, but for this stuff, it's incredibly fast. There is probably no faster way to chop/mince a couple of onions (after you cube them up so they will drop into the screw slots).

If you are going to chop pork butt or other red meat with sinew and fat, you are supposed to tighten the nut down to the point the handle is hard to turn. Those cutters have to shear the sinew, which ain't easy. Partially frozen helps. Meat will "bloom" or "explode" out past the cutters. Not the best long term solution, but no reason you can't give it a try.

On what to do with fresh ground pork? To get started...... to see if this is for you, try doing these as bulk. After it's all mixed, up, wet your hands under cold water, grab a wad and form into a patty to fry up:


Recipe for 3 pounds (basic breakfast sausage)

3# Ground Pork
3 tsp coarse (kosher) salt
3/4 tsp white pepper (finely ground)
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 1/2 tsp ground dried sage
3/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

Just mix it well by hand, press it into patties and fry it up!
You can split these up into small plastic tubs of about 1 pound each if you can't eat it that fast and freeze. (Fatty optional)

Option 2: (Italian Sausage)

5 Pounds Ground Pork
5 tsp coarse salt
3 tsp fresh black, coarsely ground black pepper
2 cloves minced garlic
2 1/2 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp anise
1 tsp crushed red pepper

Same thing. Just mix in the spices, save it in tub in bulk and work from there. The tubs will keep in the fridge about a week. (Fatty Optional)

Northern Tool and a lot of other retailers still sell a variety of hand crank grinders (not to mention Ebay, which is flooded with them). I did some checking and found that most of them sold today are made in China (imagine that?). The Porkert brand is supposedly made in Europe, but I doubt even that. Those are probably China too. In any case, what matters is the quality of the blade, the plates and how well they all fit together.

Going back to this photo



If you notice that thin little shiny strip on the edge of the blade, when these are assembled for operation, and you have the ring cranked down tight, so tight you can hardly turn it, friction on those four thin edges is all that's preventing the handle from turning. Actually, it's friction on those blades and on the backside of the screw (all held in compression). Long term, that has to hold up. New units use nylon bushings on the handle side, but the plate and blade still have to "take it". It all depends on what they are made of. Real steel or something that looks like it.

I don't have any experience with the new units, but that's what I'd be looking for. Finding I could get a good #10 or 12 Enterprise or Chop Rite on ebay for under $30 shipped, I didn't bother with the new units.

For what it's worth, Chop Rite still sells these units new, but they are several hundred dollars (I can't imagine who would buy one at those prices). These have a non-stick coating similar to teflon, vs. tinning. Chop Rite told me they could not legally make a "tinned" grinder in the US. They will sand blast and non-stick my old unit for around $90, plus shipping. As it's still working, I'm using it as is.

To anyone interested.........

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and

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Another observation.....probably relevant to all grinders and not just hand cranks......

Yesterday I did 15 pounds of butts into breakfast sausage and brats. Ground all of the cubed meat through a 1/2" plate, then divided into portions, mixed in the spices for each, and ground again through the 3/16" plate. This was using the #22 grinder. Actually took far longer to measure and mix the spices than to grind twice.........but I digress.

When cubing meat for a grind, I try to retain globs of fat, but get rid of blood clots, sinew, bone scraps, etc. Somehow I managed to miss some serious connective tissue. Souped up gristle....or ligaments. Grinders work by taking meat into the screws slots, which progress from wide open (coarse) to narrow (fine threads.....a type of gearing) and when meat hits the end of the screw, is pressed hard against the plates. The meat product bulges into the plate hole, and is lopped off each time the blade passes by. With four blades turning, that's pretty often. Interesting that the gristle would pass into the 1/2" hole and be cut off, but 1/2" sized pellets of gristle would not pass into the 3/16" holes. So what they did was accumulate in front of the blades. Floating barriers. It was still grinding, but was turning harder and was running slower. Meat was getting emulsified vs. ground. When I pulled the plate at the end of the grind, I found upwards of 10 to 15 of those gristle pellets had accumulated and were blocking the flow. The other thing that accumulates is sinew in the form of long strands of connective tissue which wraps around the hub of the blade....eventually blocking the blades from cutting. On the latter, the tighter the ring is, the less likely this is to happen.

For an electric grinder, it would mean the motor is having to work harder than it should. For a hand grinder, you are too. Point being to keep an eye on things. When it slows down and starts turning harder (you will notice by your own effort or the "hum" of the grinder motor), best to stop, clean out and start again if you are doing any type of quantity. Not only will it be faster and easier, but you get a better quality product.

This will be the last one of these I post.....just wanted to mention this one for those who want to give it a try. The #10 is a big, sturdy clamp on, but should work fine.

Not only is it in good shape, it has two extra grinding plates, plus the stuffing tube.

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The plate and blade lube up pretty fast, but there is friction on the other end too where the screw passes through the body (handle end). That is also held in compression. They make a food grade grease, but a dab of lard or Crisco would also work. When these are ready to go to work, I don't put much of anything on them I wouldn't poke in my mouth. Not sure I would do that with the lubricants, even if they are food grade. But that's me.

I've become a whole lot more selective in what I trim out and what I send through the grinder. Can't get all the sinew etc. out, but as much as you can helps.

Also helps if you can find fresh butts, vs. those cryo packed in liquid. Those seem to stay "squishy" coming through the grinder unless they are nearly frozen. Fresh firms up and grinds a lot better and has a better texture and color to it. Not only that, but with cryo's you are buying a lot of water at 99 cents plus a pound. I don't object for smoked butts, but for grinding, I prefer fresh.

The sig line dates back to 1972 and the back seat of a 1966 Chevy at a drive in theater. OJT at it's finest! (and oh what an idiot)