$50 VS $100 VS $400 Meat Grinder

If you smoke meat for long, eventually you'll want to get into making your own sausage or custom grinds for your next burger night. I wanted to test a wide range of home meat grinders ranging from entry-level to prosumer quality to see what the differences are.

Definition:

Mid-Tier: This grinder is around $100 and has it's own motor. I used a Cabelas brand meat grinder.

Prosumer: These grinders start at $300 and go much higher. They are higher power and commercial or near commercial level quality and durability. I used the 3/4 HP grinder from MEAT!:

Equipment I use to make the videos:

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[michaelpawelski]

Just a tip from a old cook. when your planning on grinding meat, the night before leave out some bread to get hard preferably french bread. When your done grinding the meat put it aside and run the bread through the grinder, it makes clean up easy. Enjoyed the clip.

[TheOriginalRick]

We use our Kitchen Aid every few months or so to make up about five to six pounds of basic sausages. It's just the two of us at home now, and we don't need to feed a family anymore. It's never let us down and the sausage is always good. For occasional, small batches we recommend it. The grinder is tucked into a drawer, out of the way and taking up minimal space.

[USA__]

I started out with a Waring Pro grinder. For $ 80 or so it was pretty nice. But the grind rate was slow and always felt like one day it would die in the middle of grinding a brisket.
I grind beef for hamburgers, pork for sausage / boudin, and pork for breakfast sausage so i do use it a few times a month. I finally decided to go with a bigger and better grinder and bought a Western Pro I got on sale for $ 400. At 3/4 HP it doesn't even break a sweat. It was well worth it not only for the speed but also knowing that it wasn't going to crap out on me in the middle of a grind.
I have one tip for buying a commercial grinder. Go with at least a #12. There is a better assortment of grinding plates for #12 and larger grinders and they usually can be used for other attachments.

[sheldoncaldwell]

I’ve been using that mid range one now for a few years, about 30 deer have gone through it and it was purchased for 80 dollars at a yard sale. This year I will replace it but it takes me about 2 hours total to get through around 30 pounds of whitetail semi frozen . Twice through the number 10 and once through the 7 . It takes patience and I’ve finally run out lol but all the same it was a great learning tool that was cheap. I could still sell it for 80 bucks too I’m sure but I’ll keep it for those weekends when beef goes on sale at Costco . Awesome video, great comparisons . Straight and to the point .

[christopherhumphrey]

Very nice video. Clear and concise.
I remember doing 20 pounds of pork sausage through a hand crank tabletop grinder some 30+ years ago. Damn that was rough.

[MiniDevilDF]

I think you're spot on with this. Right now I use the kitchenaid brand all metal grinder attachment, and it works well. For years, I worked processing meat, grinding burger, and making sausage. I don't notice too much of a loss of grind quality on the kitchenaid versus one of the large hobart commercial grinders I used previously. The throughput, as you mentioned, is a huge difference though. The throat is usable but it definitely likes to be chopped up finely to get things down better. I do miss the days of the commercial hopper style grinder where you open the top, dump 40lbs of meat in, and it sits right on top of the long auger and feeds itself perfectly. Even so, I don't have any issues with the temps or overheating, or the meat gumming up.

[km]

My Kitchenaid with the smokehouse chef grinder does a great job. Important to use cold meat. And you were only grinding on speed 2. You’re suppose to grind on 4 which would go twice as fast.

[engineerncook]

There are a lot of meat grinder attachments available for the Kitchen Aid. Prices range from $25 to $125. How about testing and comparing some of those?

[Vinnylander]

What I found out helps out a lot with the kitchen aid grinder is spray everything down with vegetable oil before you grind makes everything move nice and smooth and keeps it piled up after about every 2 pounds and I pull everything apart I spray it again makes everything real easy won’t stick as bad been using a kitchen air for a good amount of time grinding deer so far this season I’ve done over 20 pounds with it

[avery]

Wouldn't want to do a whole deer with the kitchenaid.... me who has done three through a kitchenaid attachment now and hoping to finally upgrade 😆

[carfvallrightsreservedwith]

keep your grinder knives (and plates) sharp. 400-600 grit wet/dry sandpaper stuck to a piece of glass, keep paper wet (water is fine), maintain even pressure, alternating circular motion for eveness of cut (figure eight works too).
Or do what i finally did and buy sharpening discs (from SAUSAGE MAKER) that fit your grinder size. Assemble, turn on, run 5-8 seconds and you're done.
*Dull knife/plates cause excess heat which contributes to smearing of fat.

[illiniwood]

Cabela's $400 grinder has a removable ice pack that goes around the auger housing. In my book, that's a game changer above and beyond all the rest.

[janisgore]

I have a cheap heavy duty..$100 grinder..I just do small batch burger and homemade sausage..It serves me well..My only complaint with it is the auger is a little too small in circumference for the tube. Check for auger fit before you buy one..Good video...

[carlosenriquez]

For small batches a good food processor can do the job but keeping the meat properly chilled becomes very very very important.

[bowlinglefty]

I just needed a grinder that was better than the Kitchen-Aid brand attachment made out of plastic and always cracks at the pin. This one is all metal and I haven't had any problem grinding a couple of lb's of meat at a time.

[Lythrox]

I would not compare a KitoArt Chinese cheap attachment to the KitchenAid actual attachment. The Kitchen Aid attachment, 4 blades produced no dulling of the fat for the first pass like all grinders after time. It will 100% blend in with each pass after. A Commercial Hobart will do the same thing.

Agree with your tier selection. Once a month/week KitchenAid. Once a day. Hobby Grinder. A whole Elk or cow. Hobart. Skip the 400 dollar purchase all together. Become a man and open your own butcher. Seriously 400 for a meat grinder. Not worth it.

[HevyGee]

I have a KitchenAid mixer; I am eyeing the Kitoart. The main task of this grinder will be the creation of raw cat food. Will the Ketoart process chicken, rabbit bones?

[brianwhitelaw]

The kitchen aid grinder is supposed to be run at speed 4

[drbecktex]

I started out with a hand grinder. That mfer was work! All day long to do 5 lbs. Got a half horse and now I can do 20 lbs in about half a day including cleanup.

[beefandpork]

Freezing the cubed meat helps the cut quality of the kitchen aid. Also which grind plate you use makes a difference. I don’t think you mentioned which plate you used for the test, if so I missed it.