Small meat grinder?

[Traxion]

Can anyone give me a recommendation on a small meat grinder? I can borrow my father in laws monster #32, but for small batches it overkill. Looking for something that can reasonably grind 5-15# in not too long. Weston has a heavy duty #8 on sale for $300 but I think that’s overkill. They have a well rated #12 that may work too. Any help is appreciated.

 

[muzzyhunter]

Lem has a #8 counter top that runs around 125$.I use a #5 countertop when I have only one deer to grind,does'nt take long and fast cleanup,if we do a few then the lem 22 comes out,big bulky,wieghs like 35# takes alot of space,much perfer the counter top for one.

 

[KDM]

Plus one on the Lem. I've used most of their grinders at one point or another and have no issues with them. One recommendation I have would be to see if the one you get can share parts with some of their larger models. Like the blades, plates, auger and the like. Life changes and you may find out you need a big grinder at some point down the road. Have fun.

 

[SLE]

If you have a kitchenaid Mixer they have a meat grinder attachment that works pretty good. I just made 20lbs of bird burger (pheasant mixed with bacon) on Monday with ours. It works decent for what it is.

 

[guywhofishes]

I like LEM too.

 

[Lycanthrope]

agree with the kitchenaid grinder, mine works decent. I bought a better blade for mine than the standard one from ebay and thats a nice improvement. Or you might be able to sharpen the factory one also. Ive got that and a 1hp cabelas that I bought a long time ago that works good also, I dont drag the big one out unless ive got a bit of grinding to do.

 

[luvcatchingbass]

No such thing as too much grinder. Not sure what size LEM I got but I could have gone bigger and I normally do one deer at a crack, I think it is a #8 size beings I was probably on a tighter budget at the time. Ran the cheap ones and a Kitchen Aid plenty in the past and a good quality grinder is hands down better. Keep everything cold/par frozen (meat and grinding equip) and you will get a hands down better product especially when you are not smearing the fat constantly. For initial clean up at the end I run 2-3 pieces of bread through, thank me later on this little tip.

 

[Prairie Doggin']

Kitchen aid works ok for cubed meat. Kind of sucks for feeding ground meat into for second grind or to stuff sausage.

 

[SLE]

We have a 1hp Cabella's Grinder with the foot switch and stuffing attachments along with a LEM 25lb Mixer and a LEM 25lb Dual Gear Stuffer but I'm not getting that stuff out and and dealing with cleaning it for anything less than 50 lbs. When it comes to making sausage, we're usually making 200-400 lbs at a crack so hence the the bigger equipment. Frankly the only bigger item we use a regular basis is the LEM Max Vac 1000, That get's used all the time but there's virtually no cleaning and minimal setup to use it. The kitchenaid works good for small batches of stuff and is way more convenient since it's sitting on the kitchen counter already and is something a lot of people already have. Took maybe 15 minutes to grind 12 lbs of pheasant and 8 lbs of bacon and that inclulded me cutting the meat into chunks.

Probably wouldn't disagree with the ground meat comment, the push handle for pushing meat down the throat of the grinder has some gap around the sides and could certainly fit tighter for pushing ground meat through. Frankly, I don't like double grinding through the big grinder either, it's a much slower process than the initial grind to get the meat fead through.

 

[LBrandt]

I have a smaller Lem and it will grind up a deer in under 15 min. LB

 

[NodakBob]

LEM #8 big bite grinder works good for a one deer batch, and sits on a counter nice… more than that I would rather have a bigger one.

 

[johnr]

If you have a kitchenaid Mixer they have a meat grinder attachment that works pretty good. I just made 20lbs of bird burger (pheasant mixed with bacon) on Monday with ours. It works decent for what it is.

Same, works pretty good, and the attachment if I remember was in the $100 range, maybe a bit less.

 

[Traxion]

If you have a kitchenaid Mixer they have a meat grinder attachment that works pretty good. I just made 20lbs of bird burger (pheasant mixed with bacon) on Monday with ours. It works decent for what it is.

I do have one with the grinder. It’s the plastic one. I was hoping for something a touch better….seems like I run it hard. May give it one more try though.

The countertop LEM can be had pretty cheap right now. But it’s another item to store too! Thanks for the input!

 

[tikkalover]

Who's Hank??

 

[Davey Crockett]

Gene Gene made a machine
Hank hank gave it a crank.
Joe Joe made it go
Art Art ...........

My ol man and uncles used to line us kids up in a row and get a contest going, who could crank the meat grinder the fastest and longest.

 

[guywhofishes]

anybody try the dual grind attachment on a #8 yet?

https://www.lemproducts.com/product/dual-grind-adapters/all-grinders

 

[Traxion]

Who's Hank??

Fixed it!

 

[Allen]

I have a smaller LEM that must be nearly 20 years old. I can't even imagine how many deer it has ground over the years.

 

[LBrandt]

Takes me longer to clean and store my small Lem than is does to grind up a deer. Clean storage is a must. LB

 

[wslayer]

I do have one with the grinder. It’s the plastic one. I was hoping for something a touch better….seems like I run it hard. May give it one more try though.

The countertop LEM can be had pretty cheap right now. But it’s another item to store too! Thanks for the input!

The stainless steel grinder is much better, have used for 10# batches.
Lem #8 would be your huckleberry, unless you think you will get into it more I would go up one size at least.