Now I'm curious about all the plates you're talking about. I think we're talking about spinning knives that scrape against a plate with holes in them, right? How come I need more than just what comes with the machine?
Correct. You can get different size plates for different grinds (eg. fine, medium, coarse), depending on what you're doing with it. In one of our sausages we do the meat with a 6mm plate and the fat with a 3mm plate to get a finer grind on the fat.
A lot of it comes down to personal preference. Some people prefer a double grind, others like a coarser sausage. Some comes down to type of meat, style of sausage, etc.
One thing to be aware of is if you buy another plate, buy another knife (blade) to go with it and store them together. The knives will wear with the plate. If you get an uneven wear it can cause issues with space between the two, mostly mushing instead of grinding, smearing of fat, etc.
Also, I was under the impression that the grinder can also stuff some sausages. Am I mistaken or should I also be looking for a dedicated stuffer?
If you're getting serious about it, look for dedicated units. The KitchenAid attachment for example, does both. The problem is, to stuff you need to run the meat through the auger again, which causes issues with fat heating up, textural issues, and so on. Not a knock on it, it definitely has it's place, but if you're looking at doing more than a pound or two at a time, I'd look at dedicated units.
As an aside, the cable guy said he has a friend that works at the local supermarket who told him to beware the ground meat and sausages at the market. He says I'd be buying soon-to-expire meats, stuff that fell on the floor, and trimmings that I would rather not have. You get the drift.
Yup. With centralized processing, you're also getting it from a massive number of sources, so one pack of ground beef could be from dozens of cattle, part of why recalls/outbreaks can hit so many products. Lol although I work with offal so where the trim comes from doesn't really bug me.
If you get a grinder you're better off buying a couple chucks, grind, and keep some on hand in the freezer. Then at least you know it's only coming from one animal, and tastes better to boot.
I'm with you and nlife, I'll pay for a quality, heavier duty product (providing my needs warrant it). When I first got into sausage making, I had 50# of moose trim in my freezer we had planned on doing. I looked at a small Kitchner model (which was a fine model, but would have struggled with what we've been doing). Fortunately the store steered me towards a #12 Tre Spade and I couldn't be happier. We've done 80# in a day and its ground in about 45 minutes, and needs a very minimal break between the game and pork to cool off. So trying to figure out quantity, frequency, and type of meat (as honestly as you can) you'll be grinding is a big step into steering what you buy and where you may want to upgrade, and where you can save.
