If you like beef and pork on your fork, you might want to buy a meat grinder. It’s a pretty cool tool to have, especially if you like to make burgers, sausages, and falafel. It can also be used to grind nuts, vegetables, herbs, cheese, and other things. If you think you might need a meat grinder in your kitchen, read our buying guide to find out everything you need to know before you buy one.
Best meat grinders & buying guide
How does a meat grinder work?
A meat grinder, also called a meat mincer, is a kitchen tool that may look complicated at first glance, but its only job is to grind meat. It’s pretty simple: the meat goes into a feed tube, which then pushes it through a screw conveyor and a cutting plate. The size of your meat cuts is determined by the size of the meat cuts. After the meat is ground, it is pushed out of the back of the grinder.
All meat grinders come with different plate attachments that let you make burger patties or meat balls with the meat. They can also be used to finely chop fish and vegetables, among other things.
Why do we need a meat grinder?
When you grind your own meat, you can keep more of the “meaty” tastes, and it’s also fresher than anything you’d find in a store. It also lets you choose the cuts of meat you want and decide how much fat you want to add or take away from the final product. Here are some more advantages:
The National Center for Biotechnology Information says that grinding meat at home can help lower the risk of E. coli and Salmonella contamination (NCBI). And you can be sure that the job will be done in a clean way. It’s also the best way to make sure your meat doesn’t have any additives or chemicals to make it last longer.
Most supermarkets charge more for minced meat, so buying large pieces and grinding them yourself should save you money in the long run.
Patty and sausage meat can be as lean or as chunky as you like by using different attachments to mince and grind different cuts of meat, etc. This is another benefit of grinding your own meat.
You get a better texture. Meat that sits in a package on a butcher’s or grocery store’s shelf for a long time can get compressed and turn brown. Freshly grinding meat can help keep it loose and improve both the amount of moisture in the meat and how it feels after it’s been cooked.
What can a meat grinder make?
Meat grinder types
Meat grinders only come in two types: manual and electric.
Manual meat grinders have been used for a very long time. It is the original way to chop up meat. These are made to be clamped to a counter or table, and you have to crank the handle by hand to grind the meat, which takes a bit of effort. Manual meat grinders usually have a funnel on top where the meat goes, a spiral auger attached to a handle, and cutting plates that rotate against a cutting knife to grind and slice meat. This can be a good and inexpensive way to grind meat if you only do it sometimes or in small amounts. If you are a beginner, this is not the best choice.
Most of the time, people use electric grinders. Instead of a spiral auger, they have an electric motor that turns the cutting blades to do the hard work for you. They also have different speed settings and programs for fine, medium, and coarse grinding, as well as for specific things like kebbe and sausages. Most of the time, they also have a tool for pushing that makes grinding easier. Electric grinders also have ways to turn the motor around if meat gets stuck in the tube where it grinds. This is the best choice if you grind a lot of meat or do it often.
How much does it cost to buy a meat grinder?
Manual meat grinders are cheaper. They can be bought online for as little as $30 on sites like eBay or Kogan, or for as much as $200 or more. If you want an electric grinder, you’ll have to pay a little more, somewhere between $100 and $500, for the ease of automation and extra features.
The best meat grinders on our list
If you’re looking for a good meat grinder at a good price, you might want to consider one of these:
Kmart Meat Grinder
The Anko retro-style meat grinder at Kmart is hard to beat if you want something cheap and stylish. It’s said that this model can cut and shred meat in seconds, and online reviews say it’s also easy to use and small enough to fit in small cabinets. The benchtop meat grinder from Kmart has one cutting blade, two stainless steel blade plates, one upgraded meat pusher, one metal tray, and one sausage attachment. It also has an on/off switch with an inversion feature.
Baccarat Prepare Meat Mincer
This manual meat grinder is easy to use and is great for making your own mince and sausages. It comes with a large 8mm cutting plate, a small 4mm cutting plate, a sausage attachment, a cutting blade, and a non-slip base that locks. This model can be bought at Robins Kitchen and on the internet.
KitchenAid Metal Food Grinder Attachment
This KitchenAid meat mincer (5KSMMGAA) from Kogan is made of durable die-cast metal and comes with two sausage stuffer tubes, fine, medium, and coarse grinding plates, as well as a grinding blade, cleaning brush, and food pusher. Its best feature, though, is that it can be put in the fridge or freezer ahead of time to keep the meat you are grinding cold, which is important.
Luvele Ultimate Electric Meat Grinder
The best way to make sausage is with this electric Luvele heavy-duty meat grinder (LUMG700AUS). It has a pure copper 1800W motor, a die-cast aluminum body, and a stainless steel 16mm, 22mm, and extra-large 32mm nozzle for making sausages that are very thick. There are also 5mm and 8mm cutting plates in the box.
Tre Spade Mincer
This electric meat grinder from Tre Spade (07MO496) is made with parts made of stainless steel and a body made of cast iron. It has a strong motor that can grind nuts, seeds, and vegetables, as well as meats that are medium to hard. It also has a standard stainless-steel blade that sharpens itself and a large food plate that lets you prepare food so it’s ready to push and grind. Kitchen Warehouse has this model for sale.
The Kenwood Pro 2000 Food Mincer
This Kenwood Pro 2000 Excel food mincer is another heavy-duty machine that works well and is reliable. It comes with a 2000W motor that can chop up to 3 kg of meat per minute. It also has three XXL screens for fine, medium, and coarse grinding, as well as an attachment for making sausage. It can also be used to grind fish, nuts, tomatoes, and even bread. It has a body made of die-cast aluminum, so it should last for a long time. Appliances Online have this model for sale.
Can a meat grinder be used to make sausages?
Yes, you can. Most meat grinders come with a tube for stuffing so you can make sausages. Also, the process is pretty easy. Just grind the meat until it is the size you want, add fat, salt, and flavoring, and then use the stuffing tube to put the ground meat into the molds.
Can bones be ground up in a meat grinder?
Most electric grinders can only grind small animal bones and soft bones from chicken, duck, rabbit, and sometimes turkey. Hard bones are found in beef, pork, and lamb. If you want to grind bones, make sure they aren’t frozen and use a large or coarse grinding plate to do the job.
Meat grinder parts
All meat grinders have the same basic parts: a pusher and hopper to move the meat down the feed tube, and a turn screw to move the meat down the shaft and toward the blades. The grinding itself is done by the blades and plates. The blade is a small, crisscrossed piece with a sharp edge on each arm. It rotates against the plate, which looks like a flat piece of metal with holes in it. How fine and smooth the final grind depends on the size of the holes.
What to look for in a meat grinder
Attachments: Most meat grinders come with different grinding plates and attachments so you can cut your meat the way you want, with the right texture and consistency. If you are good in the kitchen or just like to try new things with food, look for a machine that comes with tubes for stuffing sausages and kebbe.
Materials: Meat grinders are heavy-duty tools, so it’s important to find one made of strong materials. Check that your appliance’s blades for grinding and cutting are made of stainless steel, which lasts longer than aluminum or carbon steel. Even better would be to find a meat grinder with a stainless steel body. Those with plastic bodies may be cheaper at first, but they will end up costing you more over time.
Grinding power: If you plan to grind a lot of meat on a regular basis, you should buy a high-power grinder. Watts are used to measure power, so the more watts an appliance has, the more power it has. Anything with a motor that is at least 1500W is pretty good.
Easy to clean: If you like to cook but don’t like to clean, look for a meat grinder that can go in the dishwasher and has parts that are easy to take apart and put back together.
Cleaning a meat grinder
Step 1: Turn off the power to your meat grinder.
Step 2: Take all of the parts off the body, including the feeding tube, plates, and hopper, and soak them in hot, soapy water to get rid of any meat oil.
Step 3: Wash each blade separately with a soft brush around the sharp edges and a few minutes of soaking in hot water.
Step 4: Clean the body and motor with a damp cloth and cleaning spray. Don’t put the motor in water, because that will hurt the circuits.
Step 5: Dry all steel parts, including the blades, with a towel first to stop corrosion. Once all parts are dry, put your appliance back together.
