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What to look for and what to avoid.
sory, I can only start the topic, I am not astute on the subject and I am in the market for to get one.
so guys lay it on me, It will be used at home for, Elk, deer, moose "i wish" turkey, chicken,
I would like to hear any sausage recipies if ya got them.
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I have used an inexepensive department/ kitchen supply store grinder for a while without problems on beef (for making humburger patties) and
ground venison for years.
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I had one of them do it all utencils "mixer-grinder" {Kitchen Aid} about a $300.oo machine, I found it in a garage sale, wouldnt mind having another one, but I am not doing any baking these days other than a pumpkin or apple pie.
It worked well, meaning I could cut my deer in to steaks and stew cubes if I wanted a bruger I could grind a steak or package of cubes any time.
unfortunatly it was destroid in a house fire 8 years ago,
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My first grinder was one of those old manual crank jobbies. It worked great for several years until my needs changed. Once i started grinding large amounts of meat I found that it was a huge job and took a ton of time. I decided to purchase a relatively inexpensive electric model for which I paid about $50. I really liked not having to turn the handle and stuff the meat at the same time, not to mention i was getting somewhere between 2-4lbs per minute. The motor wasn't very big so I'd have to shut it down every 15-20 mins to keep it from overheating. It was still better than the old manual hand crank model. However, after a few years I realized how slow my production was. Last year I bought one of cabela's commercial units. WOW, what a difference. I can turn out 6-10 lbs of meat a minute with this baby. It also came with the entire set-up of stuffing tubes etc. If given a choice, I don't believe I'd ever go back.
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I too had one of those small crank jobs, the larger ones are much better,
I thought doing a bird was torcherous enough, the prospects of doing an entire deer I shuttered the thought.
I was wondering what makes or modles are liked or should I stay away from.
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The $50 electric I had was purchased at Harbor Freight and I believe it was an "American Harvest" brand. The trouble was that most of the grinder and neck were plastic and couldn't handle much of a constant work load. The cabela's model is completely stainless steel and weighs about 30lbs. It really turns out the meat though. I did an entire deer in 40 mins, which included running the meat through twice. If you start processing serious quantities of meat without "shuttering" you'll find it's well worth the extra $$. I think I paid about $275 for mine, however, they did have one a few slightly cheaper models that were all stainless as well. Only difference was a little less horse power.
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did they have them on the shelf or did you have to order it from a catalog?
that sounds like it may be what I am looking for, i too am not real fond of plastic.
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I was at a resturant convention this week, I found one that ran for 700.oo, it was a lot smaller than I would have expected for that price. I found one twice the size at gander mountain for almost half the price, it was on clearence. All the guys got together and and ponyied up and bought it, now I have to grind a few deer this year. LOL,
What I got is a LEM, it grinds from 650 to 700 pounds per hour, that is roughly 3-4 deer an hour, thats not counting the skinning or boneing time... I gave it a pratice run on a turkey to make sure all the bugs was worked out and there was no metal shavings or burs to contend with. and besides, I didnt want to wait till I had 5 deer on my table to find out it didnt work....
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