How to use a manual meat grinder [Beginner’s Guide]

Meat grinders are valuable additions to your kitchens. As they help you in acquiring fresh ground meat for your recipes. Also they hugely reduce the risks of contamination and infection. And the quality is guaranteed too. And if you want to know more about them, go to our article on the best meat grinders. But we always prefer the electric grinder to a manual meat grinder. And we know that it is understandable. As the whole point of owning a meat grinder is easy and safe grinding of meat. And electric meat grinders do just that. If you want to know how to go to our article on how does a meat grinder work. 

However buying a manual meat grinder is somewhat an odd choice. Because it obviously needs manual effort unlike the electric ones. But owning a manual meat grinder has its own perks. A lot of people choose it because of its simple design and operation.

And others do it for the compact and economic aspect of it. Even others choose it because it does not need an electric outlet that can be used anywhere. If you are up to invest in the labour and time, you can go for a manual meat grinder. Because this is also cheaper than the electric ones.  Also our article on how to buy a meat grinder will help you in buying one. And in this article we will list out the way for how to use a manual meat grinder for you.

How to use a manual meat grinder?

Further we will discuss the steps you should follow to know how to use a manual meat grinder. 

Before that you should know that the size of the grinder depends on the size of the hopper/feeding unit. And also on whether the grinder can be bolted down or fixed. 

Prepping up the meat

• Firstly, clean the meat nicely. And then remove the bones and silver skin. If you want to, remove the fat. But if you remove it completely, it would lose the binding element. And it will not make good burgers or meatballs.
• Then put the meat into the freezer to cool it. Never completely freeze it. As the cool meat retains its shape when cold. Moreover it prevents the emulsification of fat from the friction generated during grinding.
• After you take it out of the freezer, chop it down into cubes. Depending on the size of the grinder.

Assembling

• First take the grinder body and put the auger in it. Then you should screw it in completely to the back of the body inside.
• After that place the blade on the tip of the auger and turn it to fit. And make sure the blades are facing outwards.
• Then place the grinder plate onto the blade. Also make sure that the plate is placed flushed against the blade.
• And then place the securing ring around the plate. So this will secure the plate in place tightly. However, do not make it so tight that it won’t dismantle later.
• Finally, at the back of the grinder body on the outside, place the hand crank/handle. The handle comes with a screw. And this screw fits the handle to place, not too tight. So as to allow it movement.

The Process

• Now that your grinder is assembled, secure it. If it is a clamp on, place it against the workbench and screw in the attaching screw. So that it is fixed into place and does not move. However if it has bolts you will have to bolt it in. Although a lot of manual grinders come with strong suction feet these days.
• Then place a collecting bowl in front of the grinder for the ground meat.
• After that you put the meat in the hopper.
• And then gradually turn the handle. Keep it going till you grind out the amount of meat you need.

Finally, after you are done with your grinding, dismantle and clean the grinder. And if you want to know more about it, check our article on how to clean a meat grinder.  

Conludingly, we hope that we have cleared your doubts as to how a manual meat grinder works. And now you are considering buying one. But keep in mind that not everyone’s requirements are the same. And there are parameters you should consider before buying a grinder. So for more details in that area check our article on how to buy a meat grinder.

Moreover, if you want articles on meat grinders in general, do check our article on the best meat grinder.