Meat grinder

I've been doing some research today on the same thing... From what I'm seeing the kitchenaid one is good for doing VERY small amounts of grinding, and the stuffer is pretty much junk.
Cabela's appears to be the grinder of choice, but I'll keep an eye on this thread to see what others have to say! :-D

I make a lot of sausage and have a LEM #5 grinder for larger runs (15 lbs or up)....

but for smaller batches - like 3 to 4 lbs- I use the grinder attachment to the Kitchenaid stand mixer - I like it very much - works well and it cleans up very easy! had it for years.. and still running strong !
you get the best results if you cut the meat in pieces and freeze it a little to firm it up.. get a cleaner cut that way and specially with pork - the fat does not "smear" !

My Kitchen Aid grinder attachment is pretty old, at least 20 years or so, and my mixer is one of the 300 watt models, which is small compared to the ones available today. I think I paid around $40 for the grinder. Once the meat is ready to grind (cubed, trimmed out, and iced up in the freezer) I can grind at the rate of 1 pound / minute, with the mixer on the 4 setting. The photo above is 10 pounds of pork butt, which would have been a 10 minute job.

Between my green chili, my custom blend burger, and sausage..... I grind about 200 to 250 pounds of meat per year. Sometimes I'll do a double grind for certain sausage recipes, but mostly I use a single grind with the coarse plate.








And I agree, the KA stuffer is junk. I use a 5# upright stuffer, which is handy as I usually make at least 3 varieties each time I do sausage. I do have access to a 15# stuffer which is nice for packaging bulk sausage or burger in the 1 pound bags.