Meat grinders are increasingly popular with consumers because of the convenience it brings. Meat grinders help homemakers to process a variety of delicious and attractive dishes.
The working principle of the meat processing equipment is straightforward. If you know how a meat grinder works, its use for cooking can be more prosperous. So, how does a meat grinder work?
We will share with you valuable ideas related to how meat grinder works in this post. Let’s learn more!
The meat grinder is a favorite kitchen appliance
Table of Contents
How Does A Meat Grinder Work?
A meat grinder is a specialized machine used to mill all kinds of pork, chicken, shrimp, crab, fish with large capacity.
Homemakers also use the meat grinder to grind meat to make baby meals. It brings speed, convenience, and time-saving to users.
Step 1: Meat Preparation
Not many people think about the meat preparation step before proceeding to grind the meat. You shouldn’t put raw meat directly in the electric meat grinder, according to the experience of long-time homemakers.
First, you can remove the bones, skin, and silver skin from the big chunk. After that, sanitize the meat and cut them into small pieces.
You should keep the meat and stainless steel blade in the refrigerator for a while before grinding meat. Why?
Related: Is It cheaper to Grind Your Own Meat
The grinder heats up very quickly during operation. You can keep the meat and blade at a cold temperature. It results in a more excellent texture and less stickiness.
More importantly, grinding semi-frozen meat doesn’t burn the electric grinder.
Prepared meat
Step 2: Put The Prepared Meat In The Feeding Tube.
You now have some cold meat and blade. It is better to clean the meat grinder area before cooking. You need to put small portions of prepared meat into the feeding tube.
Do not put too much or too little meat in the feeding tube.
Step 3: Spin The Grinder Blade.
This step is the most important. The sharp stainless steel blades will cut and push the meat forward to the attached plates. When going through the attached plates, the ground meat will have the desired form.
Some people like to add water to the meat to make it smoother. Alternatively, you can use the included sausage stuffer to make sausage.
The attached plates will produce minced meat with the desired form
Step 4: Clean The Grinder
We have an entire article on cleaning meat grinders after grinding meat. The meat grinder is in direct contact with raw meat. Thus, cleaning needs to take place right after you mill the coarse meat.
You can use a few slices of old bread to wipe away meat residue left sticking on the blade and feeding tube. It is easier to clean manual grinders. You can comfortably soak and rinse all parts of the meat grinder under warm water. Fifteen minutes of soaking will remove excess meat from grinder parts.
Nevertheless, you want to be extra careful when cleaning an electric meat grinder. All live parts should never come into contact with water.
Check out the video below to better understand how a meat grinder works.
Advantages Of A Meat Grinder
The invention of the meat grinder has been helping a lot of homemakers. If you are wondering whether to buy a meat grinder, the answer is yes.
Meat grinder saves time in preparing food
Grind meat easily, save time.
A meat grinder helps you to cut food quickly and efficiently. It overcomes the limitation of time and energy compared to mincing meat with a traditional cutting knife.
You won’t need to mince the meat with a cutting knife and board, thanks to electric grinders. You also don’t have to worry about buying unhygienic pre-minced meat in the market.
Diversity Of Uses
A meat grinder can grind not only meat but also many other foods. Making sausages will become more accessible with a meat grinder.
It is essentially a multipurpose food processor. You can use it to grind many other foods such as fish, shrimp, vegetables, and tubers quickly.
Easy To Clean
Meat grinders bring many conveniences to users. Compact and simple design makes it easy to use and clean.
Type of Meat Grinders
We will mention two kinds of grinders: manual meat grinders and electric meat grinders. Each type will have a different way of working.
Manual Meat Grinder
Manual grinders are suitable for cutting meat at home and with occasional frequency. The way a manual grinder works is quite simple. However, you need to pay the strength of the elbow to make it work. Let’s immediately refer to the Best Manual Meat Grinder
Therefore, a manual meat grinder requires the user to put in a bit of effort and time. Thus, a hand crank meat grinder is not so easy for beginners or busy people.
Of course, chefs or homemakers with weak hands don’t like using manual meat grinders.
Manual meat grinder
However, a manual meat grinder is effective in places where there is no electricity. For example, a manual meat grinder is very convenient if you are in a cabin or camping. Also, manual grinders are super durable. You never have to worry about breaking manual grinders.
With all the above advantages and disadvantages, a manual meat grinder is suitable for patients and small batches.
Electric Meat Grinder
The electric meat grinders are one of the most loved kitchen appliances. They limit the disadvantages of manual meat grinders. You don’t need to waste any effort to grind a large amount of meat at the touch of a button.
Electric meat grinder
First, an electric meat grinder costs more than a manual grinder. However, the great thing is that it can grind large amounts of meat in a short time. Grinder plates are changeable. Thanks to that, you can optionally choose the ground meat textures you want.
Electric meat grinders are the most common among the three types of meat grinders on the market. You will want to buy an electric meat grinder for the large grind.
Commercial Meat Grinder
Commercial meat grinders are grinders with large capacities. Butchers or chefs will want to own commercial grinders because of their convenience and large capacity. A commercial meat grinder can grind a large amount of different meat on a single note.
Commercial grinder
In terms of price, commercial grinders are pretty expensive. However, investing in a commercial grinder brings many conveniences. It provides perfect speed and precision for meat grinding.
Besides the large capacity, it also comes with many setting options to get creative with new recipes. In general, you will need to pay quite a bit for a commercial grinder. But it’s worth it.
Main Components Of A Meat Grinder
Below are some of the important components of a meat grinder:
Extruder
Extruder plays a vital role in pushing the milled market out of the machine. It is usually “located” near the motor and the feeding tube.
Feeding Tube
The feeding tube is below the meat tray. It is the upper portion that connects the meat tray and motor.
Meat Tray
Meat trays are usually funnel-shaped. It is the top part of a meat grinder.
Cutting Blade
The cutting blade is one of the most important parts, whether a manual meat grinder or an electric meat grinder. The stainless steel plate is “located” at the end of the grinder extruder. A sharp cutting blade will mill the meat more perfectly.
Screw Ring
A screw ring is one of the small parts. It is outside portions of the feed tube.
Grinding Plate
The carbon steel grinder plate consists of some small hole that allows ground meat to come out of the tube. There are many sizes of grinding plates. The grinder plate provides different sizes of output ground meat.
Electrical Motor
The meat grinder motor is the most critical part of a meat grinder. It will decide if your meat grinder is robust and durable. Typically, the average power of an electrical motor is 300W-500W.
Sausage Stuffer
The sausage stuffer is an additional accessory. People attach sausage stuffer to the screw ring for making sausage.
Tips for Using a Meat Grinder
The following tips will help a lot when you use meat grinders.
Ground meat
Keep Your Hands Away From the Grinder Blade
Whether you use a manual or electric meat grinder, you need to pay close attention to this. Keep your hand away from the blade while it is working. When cleaning, you also need to be careful because it can melt your machine at any time.
Use A Spatula Handy
Never push the meat into the feeding tube with your hands. You can use a spatula handy instead. There are too many accidents involving meat grinder blades already. Hence, a handy spatula is essential for you to avoid unnecessary risks.
Keep Meat Grinder Dry
Whether it’s working or not, being dry is essential, especially with electrical equipment. In addition, experts recommend using a light film of the vegetable oil to prevent the grinder from rusting.
Final Words
How does a meat grinder work? Now you can grind your delicious batches of meat at home instead of buying ground meat from the store with the best grinder. Let’s get in your kitchen and be free to cook delicious food items with meat grinders!
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