Hand Crank Meat Grinders

[bbq engineer]

Warden,

I believe that is one of the best discussions and reviews that I have seen on a discussion bulletin board. It was very thorough, and professional with excellent photos. The you tube video was enlightening also. Very nicely recorded and produced. If I could give you more than one reputation point, I would.

I am wanting to get an entry level hand crank grinder to get my feet wet, and now think I am armed with enough info to make a good decision.

Thank you.

 

[nstrand]

I agree, this is an incredible review of meat grinders and food choppers, thanks for the info Hog Warden. I recently purchased a Universal #2 Food Grinder on eBay for around $14 with shipping. It's in excellent condition, the previous owner was a collector and kept it clean and lubricated with vegetable oil. I'm really excited to get started with all sorts of grinding activity. As a beginner I do have a few questions though...

- Do you have any good tips in terms of cleaning/care? Wash with warm soapy water, dry thoroughly and lightly coat the moving parts in oil sound about right?

- I cannot wait to start making some lean chicken and pork sausages and burgers. Any good recipes or sausage stuffing methods?

- My first grind after the first cleaning was peanuts but they came out a little black so I cleaned it really well and will try again tomorrow. The result, other than being a little bit black, was not quite peanut butter, more of a peanut paste. Do you know anything about making peanut butter on these devices? Which ones work best for nut butter making? My guess is that higher-fat and oil-roasted nuts work best.

 

[morkdach]

Warden,

I believe that is one of the best discussions and reviews that I have seen on a discussion bulletin board. It was very thorough, and professional with excellent photos. The you tube video was enlightening also. Very nicely recorded and produced. If I could give you more than one reputation point, I would.

what bbqeng.said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^i agree and thanks ya got mt points to

 

[hog warden]

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.

 

[hog warden]

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)

 

[nstrand]

I ground up some peanuts again today. This time I tightened the wing nut onto the blade and it turned out much better. I used cocktail peanuts because they're roasted in peanut oil and I figured would help out. It did. The result was more like peanut paste flakes but then once you mash it together it's very close to peanut butter. During the grinding you could see the oil coming out of the wing nut and would probably have been perfect to mix into the end product for perfect peanut butter except that it was dark grey/black in color because the wingnut/screw was oiled by the previous owner, I suppose I need to clean that better....

I then took a few handfuls of honey roasted peanuts and made a honey roasted peanut butter...amazing! a little more like regular peanut butter than the first one but a few drops of oil work really well!

I can see . Great pork recipes, can't wait to get started. Cleanup is a pain for a small amount of grinding so I can really see how large batches make much more sense! Thanks for the help/info Warden. I can take some good action shots of the peanut butter making process with my Universal #2 if any are interested.

 

[pops6927]

Northern Tool offers a well-rounded line of hand-crank plus one V-belt pulley grinders at reasonable prices.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w..._763591+769446

Pops §§

 

[hog warden]

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.

 

[hog warden]

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

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:B:SS:US:1123

and

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:B:SS:US:1123

 

[smokestars]

Absolutely Stunning Series!

Thanks very much,

Don

 

[hog warden]

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.

 

[hog warden]

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.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:B:SS:US:1123

 

[smokestars]

Thanks!!

As of this moment 1408 hrs... I am the high bidder..

Don

 

[solaryellow]

Great thread! I am about to take the leap into making my own sausage and plan to start with a manual grinder. Would pre-lubing the plate and blade with cooking oil or PAM help make that first grind easier until the meat begins to lubricate it or would that taint the meat?

 

[plj]

Excellent thread HogWarden,

Your comment about cleaning up the meat as much as possible and cleaning out the grinder plate/blade is dead on, I consider that to be the most important advice to give to anybody who uses a grinder. Other than "dont stick your fingers in there knucklehead!" of course.

PS, love your sig line. :)

 

[hog warden]

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.

 

[hog warden]

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)

 

[lazantje]

I realize this is an old post, but I need help. I have a lady hibbard h101e grinder in good shape but seems like it needs a new grinding plate. It does not have a blade. My question is, can this plate be sharpened or do I need to purchase a new one? If I need a new one, where can I purchase?

 

[diggingdogfarm]

You won't find a new one, those type grinders went out of production a long time ago.
They're not easy to sharpen, but it can be done. Use a stone.
Whatever you do, don't alter or attempt to sharpen the side of the blade/plate that seats against the grinder body,


~Martin

 

[lazantje]

Thanks for the advise. I hope my local sharpener guy can to it