Meat Grinders

[TrapperBR549]

I am happy with 3/4 horse LEM. I have a jerky slicing attachment, juicer, and mixer for it. All work well.
We go through several deer per year and since much of our hunting is at our house I keep the grinder head in the freezer. If we kill one I will pull it out, grind what we want ground and put the head back in the freezer. It saves a bunch of clean up time.
I have the foot switch and a big stuffing tube to grind directly into the meat bags and finish it off with the taping tool. With the wife feeding it and me running it we can grind a ridiculous amount of meat in very short time.
I disagree with others about manual stuffers. If I have my way I will never stuff sausage with a grinder again. I have a 5lb stuffer for small batches and a 20lb for big days. The 20lber is a pain to wash but this is typically only used when we are doing big family day sausage making of 100lbs or more.
I am not saying LEM is better than any of the other brands. I believe all of the good ones will do the job and I don't see how anybody could wear one out unless they abuse it.

 

[swampthang]

Anybody got any experience with meat grinders? My brother in law had a small one that we burned up last deer season. I’ve been looking online at Cabelas, Scheels, etc. and the reviews seem to be all over the place. We would be grinding 3-5 deer a year and probably a hog in the near future. What does everybody use and how do you like them?

Good morning,
I have been a butcher for a lonnnng time. I retired from Ga dept of corrections in 2008 but have been helping my best friend open and run a custom slaughterhouse and butcher shop ever since.
I kill between 20-30 cows per week ( yeah covid has us busy as hell)
And although I use commercial Hobart equipment I highly recommend the cables equipment. I have a 1 3/4 hp grinder I gave my neighbor with cuber attachment, burger patty maker and different grinding plates.
He processes over 25 deer and hogs a season and for home use it does as good job as my Hobart.
Now if your into sausage, brats, snack stix etc..
Hands down get a Haaka vertical stuffer. ( 220.00 price range)
It's very well made all ss and make BEAUTIFUL artisan sausages. I even use an 11 lb haaka at Reedy creek meat co.
For small batch deer and hogs where I dont need a $18,000 hydraulic stuffer.
Both cables and haaka are well made, easy to operate and clean.
I like the cables over the LEM .
No doubt Hobart is the very best commercial equipment you can buy/use but if you ever have a problem they're expensive to repair.
Hope this insight helps.
Good hunting.

 

[JSH]

Can’t add a darn thing that has t already been said above on grinders and stuffers. If your making much sausage, a meat mixer is another great time saver.

 

[Rich S]

I use a Cabelas 3/4hp #12 to process a few deer a year. Takes about 30 - 40 min to grind and package 25# of burger. I use a stuffing tube and grind directly into the plastic bags. My wife likes the juicer attachment to make tomato juice. I don’t use it to run a mixer so can’t comment on that.

 

[Ccrider]

I say buy once cry once. I bought this grinder about 15 years ago after burning up three non commercial grinders. This thing is a tank. It will grind as fast as you can feed it and not heat up. I don’t know if it is still made.

 

[mr45man]

Like many have stated, cut the meat up and then partially freeze it. The back of the auger can get extremely hot otherwise, no matter whose grinder you purchase. Also important to have your bacon ends and pork butt roast cold to lessen fat buildup on the auger. If you make mixed burger, brats, etc., purchase several meat lugs. Don't skimp here. My son-in-law crafted a plywood table with two holes and a large plastic funnel in them. We put 5 gallon buckets under the funnels and scraps go there as we are cutting. He made slots for a Teflon type cutting board to fit into so it doesn't slide around, and also a slot for a meat lugs. Don't skimp on your cutting board. Purchase the heavy duty large one. Good knives are a must. We like the ready made hamburger packages and fill them with the grinder using the foot pedal switch. We bought the taping jig from LEM and it works slick. Unless you can afford the electric sausage stuffer, I would forego the manual one. It's a slow tedious task using it and just another piece of equipment to clean up. We have an LEM mixer and I have mixed feelings on the mixer. We use it sometimes and hand mix other times. Your equipment setup area and equipment in addition to your grinder are as important as the grinder itself. Unless you enjoy spending days processing and cleaning up the equipment, it's imperative to buy what you need and create an efficient work space. If you only do one deer a year, then disregard my post. We quit processing our own deer for several years, but a few bad experiences at the locker plant put us to buying equipment and doing our own again. We couldn't be happier.

Locker plants are terrible.

 

[mr45man]

Look for a commercial grinder, used restaurant equipment .1 horse Hobart .
Used one to grind and stuff. Easy to clean, just run a few pieces of bread threw it for the dogs and wash in sink.Did several hundred pounds of sausage every year, deer/ pork mix .beef pork mix. Cut to size ,
season ,mix meat, grind.. Helps to have large pans that hold 25 or 50 lbs of meat.
God I miss those days on the farm.

 

[hogdogger]

Aloha Bill
Like others here I also use LEM equipment. Years ago I bought a 1 hp grinder from cabelas but it would get really hot. It was also pretty loud while grinding. I do a lot of animals every year I hunt wild boar 1-2x a week sometimes more. And deer several times a year sometimes doing control work where we can get 30-50+ deer a day. We process easily over 1000# of deer n hogs a year. And our LEMS are still going strong.

This is a small batch of wild boar char siu sausage the gang made few days ago.

 

[12bhunting]

I have two lem 3/4 grinders and grind probably 12 a year. Hamburger, chorizo, sausage, summer sausage..... Every year I wish I had bought a bigger one.

 

[DaveTooley]

Here's a website that has EVERYTHING.

meat grinder

Shop Meat Grinder at WebstaurantStore, your resource for restaurant supplies and equipment. Order today for fast shipping, wholesale pricing and superior service.

www.webstaurantstore.com

 

[3Sigma]

I have a LEM #32 hand crank. I only process a few deer a year, and the hand crank is pretty bulletproof. Just bolt it down to a workbench and get to work. Biggest challenge for me was sharpening the blade and lapping to the plate. Cold and nearly frozen.

 

[alintx]

Have a one horse Cabela's that does over twenty a year. Totally happy with it, and great warranty

 

[WSnyder]

LEM promo code FALL20 20% discount over $70 through 10/09/22

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Cabelas for 10 years, several elk,many deer. I put the feed/blades and pan in the freezer and the meat is chilled overnight in the frig. No heat or greasy meat that way. Not sure who makes the Cabelas grinder. I add beef naval (20-25%) to any venison ground meat for burgers.

 

[Kalitrazescapee]

I started with a Cabela's 1/3 HP grinder...I stepped up and bought a lem 1.5hp ...I don't want to partial freeze..thaw ...I just want to cut it into long coffee cup dia strips and drop them in...no dbl grinding...bad part is I should have upgraded stuffer before price increase.... I want to get setup again...( Moved) and make salami. Only herbivore meat.

 

[Lefty2506]

I know this is an old thread, but I had a couple of things I'd like to add for someone looking for a new grinder. My dad and I used his Hobart with a #32 head that he bought new in '69 for most of my life. He hasn't hunted deer now for about 5 years so it has been sittng idle for a while now. When I started butchering on my own, I started off with a cheap Chinese #12 I bought on ebay for $100. It worked fine for single grinding 1 deer. After spending 8 hours one night double grinding 2 deer, I order a Cabela's 1-1/2 hp commercial grinder the next day and couldn't be happier. With that said, I DO wish I had gone with a LEM because I think they would have better support. A few years after I bought mine, Cabela's changed there design to what is now their Carnivore line of commercial grinders. At that point I jumped on the opportunity to buy all the attachments I could for mine. Not long after that, LEM and Cabela's both introduced an ice pack for their grinder heads, but it didn't fit my older model. If I managed to break something on my grinder, I'm not convinced that I'd be able to get a replacement part to fit it. With that said, if something breaks on it, it will be because I did something stupid.

As far as size, I always tell people to get something that's equivalent to a #32 because its big enough to fit your hand into when you're cleaning it up afterwards. The thing I hated most about that cheap #12 was trying to clean it up afterwards.

Other tips I've picked up:
I put all my grinder parts in the deep freezer for a few hours before grinding meat.
I coat everything with either olive oil or grapeseed oil (both are available in aerosol form at walmart) before putting it in the freezer. Things flow though the grinder MUCH better this way, and cleanup is a LOT easier. I used LEM Silicone spray for several years, and that helped a lot. I ran out of that last year mid season and grabbed a can of PAM Olive Oil because it was handy. It worked MUCH better than the silicone, especially on the 2nd grind.
I use a foot pedal to only have the grinder running while I'm feeding it meat. NEVER trust that the foot pedal will prevent it from turning on because its VERY easy to accidentally activate it. You don't need the expensive foot pedal offered by Cabela's or LEM. Any foot switch from Amazon or Ebay will work so long as its rated for at least 15 amps (that's all most wall outlets are rated for anyway).
Meat doesn't freeze until about 27 deg F (pork is a little lower). I keep mine in a modified freezer set at 27 to 28 deg prior to grinding it. If I let it set all day, or over night at 27, part of it will be frozen when I get it out but if I put it in the fridge for an hour or so it will thaw enough to start working with it, and it grinds GREAT.
I use Sterilite 12qt containers to put my meat into and to grind into. They old about 17 lbs of meat, they are cheap, they clean up pretty easy, they stack, and they fit nicely in the fridge.
Lastly, if you double grind and the 2nd grind just doesn't want to feed for some reason despite the meat being cold enough, try taking out the plate and knife and re-installing them. Sometimes, I'll get a piece of silver skin in between them right off the bat, and its a fight to get it to feed. Once I clean the plate and knife off and reassemble, it always runs great from that point on. This only ever happens at the very start of the 2nd grind for me (like right off the bat), and I haven't had it happen since I started using the olive oil or grapeseed oil.

Oh, and with a good #32 or equivalent head, the grinder will take the meat almost as fast as you can feed it on the first grind. If its warm outside, I'll put the meat back in the cooler at 27 deg for an hour or two (along with the grinder head) before doing the 2nd grind. I butcher in my mudroom which is not climate controlled. If its down in the 20s outside, I can skip putting stuff back in the cooler. I have a spare fridge in the mudroom and all the containers of meat go in there while waiting to be ground, or after grinding waiting to go back in the 27 deg cooler.

 

[5spd]

I have a LEM bigmouth 5lb grinder.
Does a great job. I process 2-3 deer, goats a season.

 

[muleystalker]

I bought one of the first Cabelas Carnivore #12 grinders when they first came out. They are a bulletproof grinder but since Bass Pro bought them out I have heard from many that the quality has changed. They look the same for the most part but many have had issues with them and seems there is no help from Bass Pro and no parts available. I have since bought a LEM #22 Big Shot Double Grind because I got sick of the double grind process. Oh man what a difference, it's as fast as the first grind with a regular grinder and it's done.... your course grind and your fine grind all in one shot! And as a bonus your grind is still nice and cold and you can go strait into stuffing without worrying about fat smear. What a game changer and time saver. If you're just grinding hamburger you can grind right into hamburger bags all in one shot. Or when making sausage go strait to stuffing without having to chill your grind again. Several companies make double grind grinders now and I know LEM makes a double grind attachment if you already have a LEM grinder.I believe WESTON also makes a Double Grind upgrade attachment for their grinders, and reading in reviews it looks like it may fit some Cabela's grinders but do your homework don't go by my word.

I bought an Electric Stuffer on a good Black Friday deal this year From LEM, a 30lb stuffer and their 50lbs meat mixer which will mix up to 40lbs comfortably and its a side dump, it tilts to the side to dump right into your tray. That saves a lot of time and hassle tilt to the side bump the power a couple times and its in the tray. A good trick is to stay the inside of the mixer down with a little food grade oil or silicone before you put the meat in, I usually use avocado or regular olive oil. The mixer hooks right up to my grinder. Hope to try them out after the new year.

 

[muleystalker]

I have an LEM 3/4 Hp. We do about 5 deer a year. I also purchased a dual grind attachment for it last year. We have a sausage stuffer but it's a hand turn and a PITA. We make brats and stuff them right through the grinder. It works slick using a foot switch. By all means purchase the foot switch. I don't have any complaints with the 3/4 Hp but I'm sure a 1 Hp. would be a little bit faster. Here is the one I have

#12 BigBite® Meat Grinder - 0.75 HP | LEM Products

The LEM Products 0.75 HP Stainless Steel BigBite® Meat Grinder offers a substantial step up from our smaller BigBite® units. Grinding approximately 11 lbs. per minute, this grinder packs a wallop to make short work of your grind time.

www.lemproducts.com

One thing I would add is if I planned to stuff a lot of sausage and had to make a choice because of funds, I would go smaller on the grinder, a #12 at least, make sure its Double Grind model and then put the money I saved towards an electric stuffer! Stuffing sausage through a grinder is a pain and it's easy to screw it up, just like having to grind twice is a pain and time consuming. If you can afford the stuffer and a bigger grinder great, but a I would take a #12 Double Grind grinder and an electric stuffer over a #32 grinder and have to grind twice and stuff through a grinder. And if you can afford the Electric Stuffer and a #22 Double Grind Grinder even better. A good #12 Double Grind will Grind as fast as you can feed it if you prep your meat properly. I cut it into strips and it grabs them and pulls them down as fast as I can feed them, when you get the the ens grab bit of the ground meat forming small log and feed it down to push out all the meat. I use a #22 now but only because I got a deal and wanted a double grind, I never felt under gunned with a #12. But I always hated trying to stuff through a grinder, even my buddy's #32.