My Grinder Sucks - Grinder reviews

[gburk]

Hey you just gave away my secret of how I get my equipment!!! Restaurant closing auctions or restaurant remodel auctions are fabulous for getting used equipment for dirt cheap. I got my vollrath 1.
5hp with 22# head on an auction of a butcher shop that went out of business for 250 bucks.

Yeah I used to be a complete auction junky but messed up this particular one! You mind shooting me some pictures of what that head should look like? At one point I think I had figured out what I needed but that was awhile ago.

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Very interesting take on Grinders, but no mention of Knife and Plate sharpening. If you are used to your Grinder but you think it just is not doing it's job the way it should, you may have Dull knife and Plates. These are the most common things that effect a Grinder. Take a looks at this handy Kit from the Sausage Maker. John

#22 Meat Grinder Knife & Plate Sharpening System, FINE

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[Carl 9.3x62]

I mean it's not the shiniest thing, but it works great. Only thing I'd change is the oak handle. I prefer walnut.

 

[wolfpup]

What do you have that sucks, wllm?

I’m running this guy:

https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/cabelas-deluxe-meat-grinder

I mean, it works, I don’t feel like it’s hindering me necessarily. Could a bigger one do more faster, yeah, but I’m happy with it. That said, I’ve only put like 4 deer and two pronghorn through it. So never more than like 20 or 25 pounds of grinding in one session.
Because of it’s price, it’s inconveniences compared to nicer ones don’t really seem like inconveniences.

Someday I’ll be trying to put an elk through it and will probably realize i need go ahead and buy one with a little more oomph

Overall I feel like the cabelas meat grinders are just fine. This one has never not worked while grinding up the grind pile from an animal, and so far i can't see myself asking for much else.

I am using the same cabelas one. Been using for 4 years or so and but only grind 2 ish critters a year. My only gripe is its noisy and I am usually grinding at night after the kids are asleep. Works great for me! Only time I will upgrade would be if this one dies.

 

[rjthehunter]

My Fiancés dad has a old commercial one. Big honker, but even being old it grinds better than anything else I've ever used!

 

[klampson]

Used the grinder attachment on my Kitchenaid for years. Then graduated to a LEM Big Bite. That grinder is a beast! Makes grinding enjoyable, plus easy to clean.

 

[Tomahawk]

Any pics? The struggle is real with ours.

My ‘temporary’ fix was to tape a cherry jar lid on. A few extra wraps of tape gave it a nice seal in the hopper. Now six years later it’s battered but still functional. I’m sure there’s a better way though, hopefully the new Carnivore models have this oversight fixed.

 

[Gerald Martin]

What's your bagging setup?

Put a Cabelas 1 hp grinder in this pic instead of the LEM and this is what I use.

Total investment into butchering equipment was @ $500.
Spread that out over the past 15 years and it’s cheap considering the cost of commercial butchering.

I used to have a local meat shop grind my trim before I bought a grinder. He charged me $.25 per pound 15 years ago. At one elk and 3-4 deer our family took per year it didn’t take long to pay for a grinder.

 

[Redside]

Another one with the LEM #12 3/4hp. Usually grinds faster than I can feed it. I have the foot pedal, nice attachment.

Don't pay full price, sign up for emails they're always going on sale.

It can get hot. Put all the metal parts in the freezer before grinding, that helps a lot. I usually do one fine plate grind, but it does do a little better if you do coarse then fine grind. They do have an attachment now that does a double grind first time through. I may have to get one.

Get as much HP as you can pay for.

I also have a 5lb Cabelas sausage stuffer. Worth it as well. Grinding into burger bags is fine, grinding into smaller casing sucks. The stuffer was a great addition, again puts it out faster than you can handle it.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

He charged me $.25 per pound

 

[TOGIE]

My ‘temporary’ fix was to tape a cherry jar lid on. A few extra wraps of tape gave it a nice seal in the hopper. Now six years later it’s battered but still functional. I’m sure there’s a better way though, hopefully the new Carnivore models have this oversight fixed.

View attachment 203981

well yeesh, i see the problem.

this should fix it.

you'll thank me later



.

 

[SaskHunter]

Edit: Oh, this isn't about Grindr the App?!?!?

I switched to the Cabela's 3/4 HP grinder this year. Works great so far.

 

[Pucky Freak]

What's your bagging setup?

I think for hunters two realities are true.
1. You're mostly doing infrequent but big grind jobs, i.e. grinding all your deer and/or elk at once.
2. You're not grinding tenderloin. or even brisket. The stuff going in there is the shanks, silver skin, etc.

A lot of the grinders out there seem to be for folks who want to spend $60 on some wagyu and then make a couple of burgers.

I know for a fact you're not that guy, so honest review, f one buys a 10lbs of pork butt and grinds 90lbs of elk is he or she going to be sitting there for 12 hours, fighting the damn thing as the silver skin goes through.

Re: #1 I grind 3-4 times per year. Frozen burger cut with tallow stays freshest for about 3 months. Whole muscle ground is best for about 6 months. In order to have fresh ground throughout the year I freeze large packages (4 lb cuts up to whole quarters minus the hock), then thaw and grind when I run out of my ground supply. In the initial grind, grind up the small scraps because they don’t store well for grinding later.

Re: #2 I remove about 85% of the silver before grinding. After some practice this can be done quickly. The other time-saver trick is don’t grind the hocks; it takes forever to skin the silver and you lose a lot of meat. Braise or BBQ whole hocks, or do osso bucco.

I don’t fight silver AT ALL when grinding. There’s not enough of it to cause a problem even on a .350 HP grinder with a sharp plate and blade. The 15% of silver that I do put through the grinder is either very thin or small pieces. About every 12-15 lbs of grind I’ll remove whatever silver and cervid tallow has built up around the plate by removing the plate guard. This takes about 2 mins.

It’s been mentioned by others, but cutting your grind pieces into approx. 1”x1”x5” partially frozen shapes makes grinding a breeze. You don’t even need the plunger until the very last piece.

 

[Caseknife]

Boy oh boy, I've been doing this the wrong way for many, many years! My grind has never been frozen or cut into cubes. As long as the pieces will go down the tube, we're good. Get the majority of the fat and silver skin off and cut it into chunks and put it into the burger bin. After all the meat has been deboned and separated by muscle groups, cut out round(steak), roast, and loin and tender loin, the rest is thrown into the burger bin. Last couple years I've been cutting the shanks with a sawzall into 2-3" pieces and using for oso buco, saves a lot of time. Got a bin of loin/tender loin, roast, and round. Grind the burger, it is probably still below room temp, cuz my fingers get cold when I put it in the grinder, definitely not frozen. When the burger is ground, I then wrap the individual cuts in saran wrap and freezer paper, tried vacuum sealing and it was too slow. Put about a 1lb of burger, pint freezer container works great, in a quart zip lock freezer bag and squeeze out all the air and then wrap that in freezer paper also. Label everything with a sharpie, Elk Loin 21, Elk T Loin 21, EB 21, etc, and throw it in the freezer.

 

[44hunter45]

THe budget was tapped out in 2020 when I saw a 3-phase commercial grinder used on CL. I wish I had gotten that one. Stick the tail in and hit the button.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

We just replaced our 1/3 hp cabelas grinder last year with their 3/4 hp carnivore grinder. We e had great luck with their grinders. I wanted the 1 hp but it was always out of stock last year. All of the grinding we do is in 20-50# batches, so 3/4 is plenty. It’s a good grinder. The only negative to me is that it has a cold pack you keep in the freezer and wrap around part of the grinder to keep it from overheating during grinding. It’s only a slight annoyance to have to use and works as it’s supposed to.

I have the carnivore too, but the 1HP version. I also don’t really use the ice pack, I prefer to put the grinder attachment and plates etc. in the freezer.

Why does it suck? Well it sucks in the sense that a vacuum sucks - it sucks meat in and grind out. Never really had any issues. I will say it is HEAVY and not very easy to move around, I really wish they would come in a hard plastic case similar to some tools, or at least something besides the thin cardboard box. If I ever get the cabinets in our laundry room it will have its own place to live. If you are wanting to do an elk solo I think 1HP cabelas or LEM would be what I would look at. All of my meat processing was a gift, if I were to start over I’d prly go with all LEM just because I haven’t been impressed with the direction Cabelas is heading.

 

[gburk]

THe budget was tapped out in 2020 when I saw a 3-phase commercial grinder used on CL. I wish I had gotten that one. Stick the tail in and hit the button.

Next time post it up here, mkay?

Nice imagery btw

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Next time post it up here, mkay?

Nice imagery btw

 

[Bambistew]

Seems like grinder preference is like what a guy looks for in women. Some like em big, small or in the middle. I have 3. Haha I like my 3/4 hp Lem, works well for my grinding of 2-300lbs a year. Use the kitchenaid for small batches. Might be able to rent them as well and rind what you like.

 

[Nick87]

Might be able to rent them as well and rind what you like

Are you referring to grinders or?