Meat Grinder recommendations

   / Meat Grinder recommendations #21  
I would think it would be easier to roast the hogs first. You can do a few at time depending on your setup. Since its for the dogs you don't have to worry about rub or anything like that.
I hope you do not mean roast them before grinding. That does not work well.........
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations #22  
No, dogs don't need food to be ground up. Roast it low and slow and you have loose meat for the pups. As someone else said, freeze it after.
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations
  • Thread Starter
#23  
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.
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations #24  
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.
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations
  • Thread Starter
#25  
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.
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations #26  
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! :unsure: 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.
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations #27  
... 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.
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations #28  
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.
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations #29  
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.
 
   / Meat Grinder recommendations #30  
@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...
 
 
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