A home meat grinder is an appliance used to make hamburger, sausage or other ground up meat. At one time a necessity in every home, most meat grinders today are purchased by hunters or those who raise their own meat.
Home meat grinders vary in price, but none are inexpensive; the the cheapest ones selling for around fifty dollars. A good grinder, either electric or hand powered, will cost in the range of one hundred and fifty dollars. Many home kitchen centers come with a meat grinder attachment. Stand alone grinders can be found in most super centers, some specialty stores and online through many different websites.
Home meat grinders come in a variety of sizes and models. Some use electricity and some use a hand crank. The size of the job to be done is generally, what determines what type of grinder most people have. Price sometimes plays a part in the decision as well.
Both electric and hand cranked meat grinders work on the same principle. Add meat and turn the grinding wheel. Meat is added through a hopper positioned over the sharpened turn screw which forces the meat through a series of chopper blades; the blades form the meat by pushing it out of an appropriate sized screen.
Hunters generally prefer a small electric grinder as most only harvest a single, or possibly a double, kill during season and find that the expense of a large electric grinder is prohibitive. Used to make hamburger and especially sausage, hunters enjoy creating recipes that showcase the tastiness of their meat.
Most homesteaders choose large capacity hand cranked grinder as their choice as it requires no power other than their own to use. Many back to landers, or homesteaders, claim they can grind up the meat from a cow in a single afternoon. Making sausage is perhaps the most common use for a grinder in the homesteader's kitchen.
Many different types of meat can be ground into burger and sausage. Favorites are pork, beef and venison, but many also use rabbit, chicken, turkey, elk and buffalo.
With a small meat grinder, even the average homeowner can begin to experiment in making their own sausage. Many people find that once they have started making their own, store bought burger and sausage are never quite as good. By coming up with various combinations of meats, the resulting product can be a specialty of your own kitchen.