Bought a Weston hand-crank meat grinder and the screen gets clogged

[GreatGazoo]

What am I doing wrong?

I did chicken thighs and that hand the screen full of sinew pretty quickly. One tip I read was to get the meat to around 34F, the colder the better but not frozen basically. So I did that with a chuck roast and it did better than the chicken but still clogged the screen up pretty good with only about 2 pounds of meat.

[Major Nikon]

1. Do you have a fine and a course plate?

The fine plate doesn't work very well unless you've already ground the meat once with the coarse plate.

I also like to slice the meat in 1" strips and feed it slowly through the grinder. If you try to put too much through at once you are likely to have problems. Another trick is to put the grinder in your refrigerator and chill it for a while before you use it.

[GreatGazoo]

2. thanks

I HAVE been just using one pass through the smaller plate. Will try chilling the meat and the grinder too.

[rusty quoin]

3. That's true. I've had the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer for better than a decade.

I've had the the mixer itself since 1992 I guess. I am not big on instructions, but I do remember reading course first for grinding meat, then thin, and that was with a powerful machine.

I've only used it to grind beef roasts, and have never found the need for fine.

Looking back, I bought it because I knew the more meat is handled, the more chance there is of food poisoning. I knew from experience that not all food handlers are watching out for you.

[Major Nikon]

4. The risk of getting sick from pathogens contained in commercially ground meat is pretty low

But it is higher than for regular cuts with all other things being equal. The shelf life also tends to be less.

I pretty much always grind my own meat with a few exceptions for things like dried sausages. My dad also did and his parents before him, so for me it's just always been the way to do it. I do it less for food safety concerns and more for freshness, quality, and customization.

[rusty quoin]

5. Yeah. I never got into that.

I probably won't in the near future either. I can understand that you are good at it, and it taste better than store bought.

[Major Nikon]

6. Breakfast sausage made from herbs from your own garden is pretty awesome

That's one of my favorite things to do, and it's actually pretty simple.

[Nac Mac Feegle]

7. Fats get sticky as they get warmer

Make sure to put everything in the fridge or freezer first.

Get the meat as cold as possible before grinding.

Put the grinder and the plates in the freezer for an hour or so before use.

Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible.


Good luck, and happy Doing It Yourself.