Problems grinding fat today...

[SherryT]

I've been using my grinder for a couple of years now and have never had this issue before...

I cut my pork fat into strips and placed in the freezer until stiff (but not frozen). When ready, I used my biggest plate (I know it's in mm, but about 1/4" holes) and started feeding it through my grinder. In less than a minute or so, the auger stopped turning, but the machine itself didn't seem to be bogging down. I hit the reverse button, auger started turning again, so I thought I was OK...flipped the reverse switch back to normal and it ground what I'd already fed into it, but when I fed it again, same thing happened, so I stopped, removed the ring, checked to make sure the knife was on correctly (it was), then removed the auger and didn't see any obvious issues.

I put the fat back into the freezer while I cleaned up and re-set and started again...same thing.

So...

I cleaned up again, got out the SHOULDER I'd already prepped, popped it into the freezer, used the same plate...ground it up perfectly with no problems at all.

Anyone have any ideas what might have happened? Why the problem with ONLY the fat? I've ground fat through this same grinder quite a few times and NEVER had this problem.

My grinder is an STX Turboforce and I haven't used it to grind anything other than pork, beef, and chicken.

 

[tbern]

No help for you, but will give this a bump back to the top.

 

[SherryT]

No help for you, but will give this a bump back to the top.

Thanks tbern.

 

[DougE]

In the absence of any connective tissue, I'd expect the straight fat to run through the grinder easier than the meat, provided it's partially frozen.

 

[tallbm]

I've been using my grinder for a couple of years now and have never had this issue before...

I cut my pork fat into strips and placed in the freezer until stiff (but not frozen). When ready, I used my biggest plate (I know it's in mm, but about 1/4" holes) and started feeding it through my grinder. In less than a minute or so, the auger stopped turning, but the machine itself didn't seem to be bogging down. I hit the reverse button, auger started turning again, so I thought I was OK...flipped the reverse switch back to normal and it ground what I'd already fed into it, but when I fed it again, same thing happened, so I stopped, removed the ring, checked to make sure the knife was on correctly (it was), then removed the auger and didn't see any obvious issues.

I put the fat back into the freezer while I cleaned up and re-set and started again...same thing.

So...

I cleaned up again, got out the SHOULDER I'd already prepped, popped it into the freezer, used the same plate...ground it up perfectly with no problems at all.

Anyone have any ideas what might have happened? Why the problem with ONLY the fat? I've ground fat through this same grinder quite a few times and NEVER had this problem.

My grinder is an STX Turboforce and I haven't used it to grind anything other than pork, beef, and chicken.

Any chance the grinder is heating up the fat and it is simply turning slimy and not being caught by the auger?
If you grind your fat with your meat then that should be a work around if it's all prepped. I do it all the time like this and it all grinds well with the fat and meat weighed out and eyeballing when to add fat while grinding the meat :)

 

[Fueling Around]

The feed auger stops but the motor continues running?
A slip clutch problem?

 

[DougE]

The feed auger stops but the motor continues running?
A slip clutch problem?

Kind of what I was thinking, but still, if it is that, you'd think it would slip when running meat through, too.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I’m thinking the fat is more frozen than par frozen. Fat has less than 10% water where meat has 75% water. You want the fat hard but soft on the inside kinda like the meat, which is different, hard on the outside but soft on the inside.

 

[SherryT]

I’m thinking the fat is more frozen than par frozen. Fat has less than 10% water where meat has 75% water. You want the fat hard but soft on the inside kinda like the meat, which is different, hard on the outside but soft on the inside.

I guess it's possible it was closer to frozen that I thought it was...it was quite stiff, but I "could" bend it.

IDK...it was weird and it hasn't happened before.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

How you get it figured out. I had trouble for the first few days ago also. First ground went fine but the second would not come out. Just kept clogging.

 

[daveomak]

Sharpen the cutter and flatten the grinding plate...

 

[daveomak]

 

[cutplug]

Maybe cut into cubes instead of strips.

 

[SherryT]

How you get it figured out. I had trouble for the first few days ago also. First ground went fine but the second would not come out. Just kept clogging.

Concerning the fat, I managed to get it ground up (forward/reverse, forward/reverse) before I posted my question.

As it's only me now, I make sausage in 1 - 2lb batches. What I've started doing is bulk grinding the lean and fat, portion separately into 1lb lean and 4oz fat, vac seal, and pop them in the freezer, so I managed to get a couple of batches-worth of lean/fat ground yesterday (1lb is also a good size for test batches, IMO).

I "think" the fat might have been frozen too much as was suggested above...will know more the next time.

 

[Winterrider]

Thanks for that daveomak

 

[Dave in AZ]

Sherry, saw this same exact thing asked about on another forum this week. Solution was to not feed fat as strips, but cut strips to smaller chunks that can all fit around auger.

I do like you and grind fat and meat separately, an often in strips. And all mostly frozen. The fat exerts way more friction than the meat in long frozen strips, strangely, not lubricating when very cold until smear melting.

Just cut the fat to cubes, should work even with a good almost frozen state, which as you know gives best fat grind.

Of course other advice on sharpening above is always helpful and way easier than folks fear!
Good luck!

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Alway cube.
Strips just wrap around the auger.

I drink whiskey and I know things

 

[cutplug]

Alway cube.
Strips just wrap around the auger.

I drink whiskey and I know things

LOL.

 

[SherryT]

Sherry, saw this same exact thing asked about on another forum this week. Solution was to not feed fat as strips, but cut strips to smaller chunks that can all fit around auger.

I do like you and grind fat and meat separately, an often in strips. And all mostly frozen. The fat exerts way more friction than the meat in long frozen strips, strangely, not lubricating when very cold until smear melting.

Just cut the fat to cubes, should work even with a good almost frozen state, which as you know gives best fat grind.

Of course other advice on sharpening above is always helpful and way easier than folks fear!
Good luck!

You may very-well be right!

When I removed the auger to see what was going on, the strips that hadn't made it through the knife were, in fact, wrapped around the auger.

Did occur to me to cube the rest of it up and try again...noooooooo.

Gonna pull some fat out of the freezer (I have it all separated in 5lb bags), thaw/cube and give it another go.

Will report back after...thanks Dave!

 

[Dave in AZ]

SherryT good luck! It isn't intuitively obvious, I think most of us just assume the fat won't bind and will just lubricate. I have a 1hp #22 Meat! Grinder, and even that binds up on strips of fat. I still do meat strips, but do a few more slices for fat ;)