Meat Processing Equipment 101 - Grinders
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Jonathon nope, but that’d be cool. Maybe not as fun as a brewery, but I work for an awesome agriculture tech company called Precision Planting. You’re still welcome for a tour if you’re up this way!
Speaking of tours, I’m actually from Pekin, IL - the home of Excalibur. I’ve had the chance to tour their facility. It was sweet to see all of the different spices and such, the blending process, etc. If you guys ever come up to Excalibur, hit me up and I’ll buy ya’ll a beer while you’re in town.
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gChart Sounds good on the beer if we are ever up that way. Is this you guys? https://www.precisionplanting.com/
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gChart hitting you up on email for something!
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Meat Processing Equipment 101 Meat Grinders
Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!
What Are The Main Functions?
The main function of a grinder is to take a whole muscle cut of meat and break it down into a ground format that can then be seasoned, cured, stuffed into a casing and then cooked.
How Do They Work?
Electric grinders have a hopper at the top where you load your meat that you are preparing to grind. The hopper has a hole in it that leads down to the throat of the grinder where an auger that is powered by the motor pushes the meat towards the plate and knife that will curt and grind your meat. The grinding knife goes behind the plate with the sharpened surface facing towards the plate, this cuts the meat and forces it through the holes of the grinding plate, the larger the holes on the grinding plate the faster your meat will grind and the coarser your product will be. Many products need to be ground twice, sometimes through a larger plate first and then through a smaller plate and sometimes twice through a larger plate.
How Important is it?
It depends on what type of meat you will most often be starting with. If you are going to be starting with whole muscle cuts then it is the most important piece of equipment that you can have! Other than a Bowl Chopper, which is an expensive commercial piece of equipment, will allow you to take a whole piece of meat and break it down into a ground product.
Alternatives
Like we said above, a Bowl Chopper will offer you similar functionality but the cost makes them unreasonable for the home processor. The main alternative to a Meat Grinder is to purchase already ground meat. If you want to make snack sticks you can buy ground pork, seasoning and cure it and then use a Sausage Stuffer to stuff it into casings.
Should You Buy One
If you are choosing between a grinder and stuffer to make meat sausage at home I would say a wild game processor should go with the grinder as it will allow them to break down the carcass and stuff and the person using beef or pork should get a sausage stuffer and buy pre-ground meat from the store.
Best Choice For Beginners
The Walton’s #12 Meat Grinder is a nice choice for beginners as it gives you a medium-sized plate, with a powerful enough motor to break down larger cuts while staying under $200.
Other Information
Grinders come in different sizes with different grinding capacities, the number associated with the grinder corresponds to the size of the head assembly as well as the plate and knife you can use with that grinder. Standard sizes are #8, and #12 which are the same size, #22 and #32.
A larger grinder like a #32 grinder will use a plate that is 3-15/16" in diameter and something like the Walton’s #32 can grind upwards of 18 lb a minute. The power on a meat grinder also plays an important role in how many lb a minute it can process and how long it can be run for. Power can range from 575 watts on a small #8 kitchen grinder up to 1.5 horsepower for the Walton’s #32 series. The amount of horsepower is important as this is what drives the auger in the head assembly and more power means you can grind faster and use larger chunks of meat saving you processing time.
Some meat grinders do have the ability to act as sausage stuffer as well as a grinder. You can switch out the plate and knife for a star stuffing adapter, attach a stuffing horn and stuff your ground product into casings or meat bags. While the stuffing capability is a nice thing to have it is much harder and will take longer to stuff with your grinder versus using an actual sausage stuffer. Because of the pressure required to stuff a product into smaller casings meat grinders will not work on anything smaller than a bratwurst or hotdog-sized product.
Both plates and knives are available in both disposable and sharpenable versions. Disposable should be used until they are dull and then thrown out, sharpenable plates and knives can be sent into Walton’s and we will sharpen them for a small fee. These types of plates and knives are more expensive initially but it is much cheaper to have us sharpen them than buy new ones, plus they are made to a higher quality and will give you a better-finished product. You can see the difference between a disposable and sharpenable knife just by looking at it, the disposable will look like a pinwheel and just has a flat edge, the sharpenable knife has a quality piece of steel on each arm that sticks up from the body.
Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders
Jonathon I bought the new #32 Meat grinder for myself for Christmas. I was wanting one that would attach to my 44lb Weston mixer. I assume it will, but it doesn’t have reverse. I didn’t notice this until today. You recommend switching directions every minute when mixing. Is this really necessary, or can I run the motor continuously to get effective mixing? Thanks, and Merry Christmas.
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chrisndee2 Sorry, we have some updating to do on that. Weston removed the reverse “requirement” from their meat mixer about 2 years ago apparently. We’ve tried to update it most places but I am sure there are strill videos and posts around with it saying you need to change direction evenly.
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chrisndee2 Sorry, we have some updating to do on that. Weston removed the reverse “requirement” from their meat mixer about 2 years ago apparently. We’ve tried to update it most places but I am sure there are strill videos and posts around with it saying you need to change direction evenly.
Jonathon I have now also realized that the new grinder won’t work with the 44 lb mixer. Is there an adapter available?
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chrisndee2 Chris, our mixer works with their grinder but it turns out that our grinder doesn’t work with their mixer do the size of the head. I’m gonna email you.
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First off, Happy New Year Everyone!
I finally got to use the much awaited Waltons #22 grinder over the holidays! I did a normal batch of snack sticks (25lbs) 15lbs of Eye of the Round with 10lbs of Boston butt. I used the waltons bold jerky seasoning and some sure bind. Everything came out great!
I waited for some time to bite the bullet and get a grinder and in doing so I patiently (kind of) waited for Waltons to get theirs shipped. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the grinder as it chewed threw 25lbs first pass in less than 4 minutes. Second grind did take a little longer but to be expected. One thing I noticed is that it looked like it was getting a little protein extraction on the second pass. Which made my mixing time a little less than 8 minutes.
I was bummed that it wouldn’t connect up to the Westin 44lbs mixer (like chrisndee2) which I had bought long before considering a grinder. Sad face
oh well 
I guess I assumed the grinder would have a reverse function as most of the other #22 grinders I’ve seen have this. Is this something that could be upgraded/modified with a different switch? Do I really need the reverse when connected to a mixer?Obviously I don’t want to negate any warranty but just curious…
All in all the grinder worked flawlessly and I’m super glad I waited! Cant wait to do another batch of snack sticks and start playing around with sausage and summer sausage blends.
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First off, Happy New Year Everyone!
I finally got to use the much awaited Waltons #22 grinder over the holidays! I did a normal batch of snack sticks (25lbs) 15lbs of Eye of the Round with 10lbs of Boston butt. I used the waltons bold jerky seasoning and some sure bind. Everything came out great!
I waited for some time to bite the bullet and get a grinder and in doing so I patiently (kind of) waited for Waltons to get theirs shipped. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the grinder as it chewed threw 25lbs first pass in less than 4 minutes. Second grind did take a little longer but to be expected. One thing I noticed is that it looked like it was getting a little protein extraction on the second pass. Which made my mixing time a little less than 8 minutes.
I was bummed that it wouldn’t connect up to the Westin 44lbs mixer (like chrisndee2) which I had bought long before considering a grinder. Sad face
oh well I guess I assumed the grinder would have a reverse function as most of the other #22 grinders I’ve seen have this. Is this something that could be upgraded/modified with a different switch? Do I really need the reverse when connected to a mixer?Obviously I don’t want to negate any warranty but just curious…
All in all the grinder worked flawlessly and I’m super glad I waited! Cant wait to do another batch of snack sticks and start playing around with sausage and summer sausage blends.
dudeweembo a retrofit is being worked on.
Isaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks
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dudeweembo a retrofit is being worked on.
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