How to choose a meat grinder

For a housewife who loves to cook and often gathers guests in her house, a meat grinder is an indispensable assistant in the kitchen.

After all, it facilitates the preparation of a variety of dishes. With it, you can make homemade sausages and sausages, grate and chop vegetables and fruits, and even make juice.

Therefore, the choice of such an irreplaceable thing should be taken seriously, to understand the variety of models and the technical characteristics of the device.

Criteria and characteristics that are important when choosing

The market now offers a huge variety of electric meat grinders, however, all of them share common characteristics. Therefore, their parameters should be considered when buying an electric meat grinder.
What is the power of a meat grinder, how to choose the right power

The most important characteristic of the unit is power

it one of the main parameters that affects the cost of the device. Therefore, it becomes the basis of choice.

Manufacturers, as a rule, declare two indicators. This is the maximum data when blocking the shaft (peak) and nominal.

• On peak power the device is able short termin just a few seconds.
• The normal production capacity at which the meat grinder functions for a long time is the nominal.

Important! How successfully meat with veins will be processed is determined by maximum power. A nominal indicates directly the performance.

Powerful meat grinders process any meat. But less powerful units will function to the limit when chopping sinewy or fatty meat. Therefore, they can jam.

Attention. If the engine does not have an overload protection mechanism, then prolonged and intensive work can lead to a serious malfunction.

If you determine how much power you need, consider the advice of professionals. It is recommended to choose a meat grinder with a power reserve of 400 watts in nominal and 1000 watts at its peak.

Now on sale there are meat grinders with the following parameters.

• Power 250-700 watts. From 1 minute grind from 2 to 3.5 kg of raw materials. Although tough meat is given to them with some difficulty, but still it is a great option for home.
• Meat mincers 700-800 watts. They have decent power and productivity, process up to 4 kg of meat per minute.
• Power more than 800 watts. These are already professional devices with wide functionality.

Productivity and its importance when choosing a meat grinder

Another of the most important criteria in choosing a meat grinder is its performance. She defines the amount of meat that the device can process in a minute.

Tip. Do not chase high productivity if minced meat is not produced in large quantities.

Because, even having a parameter of 0.5 kg / min, the device can grind 5 kg of meat in 10 minutes. But not every dish requires so much stuffing.

For everyday use enough meat grinder performance in the range of 0.5-1.5 kg / min.

Uptime

An additional parameter, inextricably linked with performance, is the time of continuous operation of the device.

As a rule, the producer allows the raw meat to scroll for a quarter of an hour. But this time may vary depending on the processing modes of the product. Without exception, manufacturers restrict this parameter, however, such a restriction should not be considered as a serious drawback.

Reverse and its meaning

Most meat grinder models are equipped with a useful reverse function. It creates additional usability. This function is activated by pressing a specific button on the meat grinder body.

The reverse work consists in the fact that when the wires are wound on the screw, when the reverse function is turned on, the screw starts to rotate in the opposite direction. This makes it easy to remove stuck parts that return to the loading hole. Then it will be possible to resume work. In such situation a meat grinder that is not equipped with a reverse will have to be completely disassembled.

reference: units with a power of 2000 W and higher are usually not equipped with reverse.

Manufacturers rightly believe that such units are able to recycle everything, therefore, nothing is stuck in them in principle.

Body material

In modern models of meat grinders, there are options for manufacturing cases from:

• of stainless steel;
• light alloys;
• plastics.

but case and tray material is not so important, as sales consultants sometimes try to convince buyers, recommending one or another option.

During operation, the case itself and the tray do not receive serious loads, respectively plastic models can last as long as steel ones.

Materials body and tray, usually comply with sanitary norms and standards, are resistant to food acids. At the same time, plastic is used in food production, therefore, no harm can be caused to processed products.

but plastic still has some drawbacks - it easily scratches, dirt gets stuck in scratches. Consequently, metal parts are more hygienic. In addition, the color of the plastic may change over time.

Nozzles

Significantly simplifies the processing of meat and improves the quality of the prepared dishes, the presence of several discs with different perforations.

• Small holes give a homogeneous forcemeat, which is ideal in the manufacture of, for example, pastes.
• Large perforation gives minced meat in large pieces.

The functionality of the meat grinder grows, approaching food processors, if additional nozzles are available.

It is better to focus on this point immediately when choosing a model of a meat grinder. Indeed, although additional nozzles can be purchased separately, the connection parameters may vary. Therefore, it can be difficult to purchase nozzles for a specific model later.

Types of nozzles

The main standard attachments included with most meat grinders.

• Kebbe - gives out minced meat tubes that can be stuffed, fried or baked. Kebbe is an unusual dish for Russian cuisine, so if you put a little less stuffing and cover the edges, you get zrazy.
• For the manufacture of sausages - speeds up and simplifies the filling of home-made sausages. The nozzle is made in the form of a tube connected to the output of the unit. A tube with a tied end is placed on the tube. The forcemeat emerging from the tube forms a sausage, it remains only to dress the shell through arbitrary sections.
• For slicing cookies - a metal plate with various holes in the frame, is placed in place of a conventional disk. The dough, squeezing through the holes, takes on specific shapes. Then a strip of dough is cut into batch pieces and baked.
• For shredder and grater represent a separate (usually plastic) tray with a working chamber. Replaceable rotating cups are installed in it, while the main tray and meat receiver are not used. There are usually 3-4 glasses (one for a shredder and 2-3 different graters).
• Juicer - used for the manufacture of juices. It is an elongated metal housing with perforation, inside is a conical screw shaft. During rotation, it strongly compresses pieces of vegetables or fruits, squeezing juice. The squeezed residues are discharged through the top of the cone. This nozzle is extremely easy to use. When making juice, all vitamins are preserved. The nozzle does not need to be too often cleaned of waste. However, she also has its drawbacks - a large amount of oilcake at the exit.

There are models of meat grinders equipped with rarer types of nozzles - for grinding coffee and pepper beans, noodle cutters, citrus presses etc.

However, the best meat grinder is not one that is equipped with all possible types of attachments. And the one that has components that are really necessary in the work.

Attention. Extended equipment, of course, increases the price of the unit. Therefore, when buying, it is worth considering which nozzles will really be required in the kitchen.

If you want to perform maximum functions with one meat grinder, of course, you should purchase the maximum number of nozzles.

In any case, it will be cheaper than buying mechanisms separately - a blender, a juicer, a coffee grinder, etc.

Brands and manufacturers of meat grinders

One of the important points when choosing a meat grinder model is the brand and brand.

Here you may encounter some difficulties - the choice is varied and rich. You can buy a budget option and a more expensive one.

In principle, many companies produce good equipment, so any electric meat grinder can be of high quality. Therefore, what to buy is a matter of taste.

Expensive units

Users who prefer expensive imported equipment traditionally choose the following brands:

• Moulinex (France);
• Kenwood (Great Britain);
• Panasonic (Japan);
• Philips (Netherlands).

German products are always popular Bosch (Germany), having an impeccable reputation.

Budget models

Among budget goods, the products of the company received positive characteristics Zelmer (Poland).

Traditionally, products from China also appear on budget lists:

• Redmond;
• Polaris;
• Supra.

Units of low cost and high-quality performance offer domestic brands:

• Axion;
• "Miracle";
• "Rotor".

Tips for choosing an electric meat grinder for home

Before purchasing a household appliance, it is recommended read customer feedback online, undoubtedly, a lot of information can be gleaned from them, about which the seller may be silent.

To focus on the following characteristics of the unit.

• Number of speeds. Usually the speed of the meat grinder is one, but if the unit is equipped with the function of making juices, then there can be two of them, as in a juicer.
• Collapsible screw chamber makes mincing your meat grinder a lot easier. But unfortunately, only some models are equipped with it.
• Rubber feet increase the reliability and stability of the device. Now provided in almost all meat grinders.
• Nozzle Compartment usually located on the body of the meat grinder (not on all models). The presence of such a compartment allows you to compactly place the unit on the work surface.
• Outlet height above the table. Usually it happens from 10 to 15 cm, so that the housewife should not have any difficulties in using the dishes.

Now you know how to choose the right meat grinder. It will undoubtedly facilitate homework, help save time and money.

The advantages of an electric meat grinder over a food processor are obvious and undeniable. This power, performance, reliability, ease of use and low price.