Meat Grinder recommendations

[EddieWalker]

My wife would really prefer the have ground up meat for the dogs. An odd thing about Akitas, is that they like to lick their food instead of taking bites of it. They will bite and chew, but only after they have licked it all up.

From what I'm reading, the LEM looks like it should be a good choice. We are not buying anything just yet, but it's nice to have something on the "want list" for when we do decide to buy.

 

[gsganzer]

Eddie,
I have all my meat processed, so I haven't needed one but I would think any of the LEM or Cabelas Commercial models, probably 3/4 or 1HP. Both seem to have spare parts available and get good reviews.

I know you do a lot of food processing, do you have a good vacuum sealer? I have a cheap Foodsaver vacuum sealer, but looking for something better. I'm wondering if anyone here has had good success with a particular vacuum sealer. Reviews on all of them seem pretty spotty.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks Gordon. We had a cheap vacuum sealer that was more effort then it's worth. Karen uses it to seal her veggies from the garden last year. I think she threw it away. She hasn't mentioned anything about getting another one.

 

[MossRoad]

We bought a freezer and a Sears Kenmore vacuum sealer back in 1985 when we got married. The vacuum sealer outlasted the freezer by 10 years! Last year we replaced the vacuum sealer with a FoodSaver brand. Not the cheapest and not the most expensive model. It works better than the old Sears, but you have to put a bit of pressure on the top to get it to complete the vacuum.

Every couple-three months we buy 20# of chicken breasts, 10# of pork chops, and 10-20# of ground beef. I vacuum seal all of them in 2-portion sizes. We buy vacuum bag material in bulk roll so it works out to about 25 cents a bag.

 

[MossRoad]

... We are not buying anything just yet, but it's nice to have something on the "want list" for when we do decide to buy.

It's nice to have something in mind in case you run across a deal unexpectedly in the future. Yard sale, craig's list, sale at a store, etc.

 

[gsganzer]

Every couple-three months we buy 20# of chicken breasts, 10# of pork chops, and 10-20# of ground beef. I vacuum seal all of them in 2-portion sizes. We buy vacuum bag material in bulk roll so it works out to about 25 cents a bag.

I'm like Moss, sometimes I find a great deal and I'll buy some bulk product and then divide it. I've also been making bulk batches of stuff, like venison chili, and then freeze into smaller portions. The frozen portions are great when I go camping or to the deer lease because they act like ice packs in the cooler. The vacuum bags are stouter than regular zipper freezer bags and don't get holes/leak as easily.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I hope you do not mean roast them before grinding. That does not work well.........

If you sharpen your cutter it works just dandy. Cook a whole big chicken. We debone, grind up and make a chicken salad. Sharp hand grinder. We dont grind road kill much usually.

 

[dlctcg]

@gsganzer - We have gone through a couple Food Savers, the first one we had was actually a really good machine... 2nd one was ok...

We now have a Weston Pro-2300 & I believe we are going on 5+ yrs with it. It is big & heavy but has ben a great vacuum sealer. Ours is used many, many times a week (if not daily) so it has a permanent place on the counter in the pantry & is always plugged in ready to go.. If it stopped working tomorrow I'd buy another one or their newer unit, but we use it all the time...

 

[jjp8182]

@gsganzer - We have gone through a couple Food Savers, the first one we had was actually a really good machine... 2nd one was ok...

We now have a Weston Pro-2300 & I believe we are going on 5+ yrs with it. It is big & heavy but has ben a great vacuum sealer. Ours is used many, many times a week (if not daily) so it has a permanent place on the counter in the pantry & is always plugged in ready to go.. If it stopped working tomorrow I'd buy another one or their newer unit, but we use it all the time...

It's good to know they can last - I bought a Weston 65-1301-W Pro 16" last year and used it to seal ~20 gallons of turnips and several bags of corn on the cob. So far this year it's been used to pack 10 gallons of corn.

Would probably be used more if it was left on the counter full time, but my wife likes to have lots of clear counter space -- and I've grown used to having it for some things (like making homemade pizzas - thick crust with topping piled deep)

Only problem I've had was occasionally needing to wait a few minutes for it to cool, but that was really only a problem last year since I'd filled multiple bags and was doing final sealing in batches. Worked much better this year to create a batch of about 10 bags, then do the final sealing of them as each was filed.

 

[gsganzer]

Wow, those Weston units really seem nice. Definitely a step above what I've been using. While searching Weston, I came across this meat processing equipment supplier. They seem to carry top notch professional equipment at all price points.
Meat Processing Products