Meat Grinding: plate sizes? regrind?

[muddydogs]

Funny seeing this old thread today as this weekend I was grinding up some meat doing the regrind method because I read it somewhere probably. After grinding 20 pounds then fighting through the slow regrind I decided to try the last 10 pounds through the fine 4.5mm plate first so I didn't have to regrind. Well that 10 pounds went through just fine so I proceeded to grind another 30 pounds of elk while adding pork trim at the same time then I ground up an 18 pound pork butt. Should have tried one grind sooner as I wasted a lot of time grinding twice. My grinder is nothing fancy, just a $100 LEM #8 575 grinder and it ground everything up just fine. As fast as I couple poke the pieces down the tube the grinder spit them out and I don't due the 1" cube deal as a few years ago I figured out that the grinder has no problems dragging in any length strip so I cut my grinder meat 1" to 2" wide and as long as as the piece of meat I'm cutting will allow. My 6 year old LEM grinder is pushing over 1500 pounds of meat through it and still going strong.

 

[muddydogs]

Did you just hand mix the beef fat in before your single fine grind? Also how does this unit work in conjunction with the poly burger bags? Half the battle is filling those bags. I'm eyeing this same grinder right now.

I mix my fat in while grinding the meat, little meat then a little fat. Once done grinding I hand mix the meat well then stuff in poly bags.

I tried using the grinder a couple times to fill poly bags but I always did it after everything was ground and I was feeding the meat back through which is as painful as a regrind. Since I have a 12 pound stuffer I just ended up pulling it out as it stuffs poly bags in quick order.

 

[jaredgreen]

I run mine through the course plate twice. It’s much faster, and I end up with a really nice texture. No need to do any excessive trimming for this method.


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[mfllood3800]

I cut my meat up in small2" pieces and the fat to match. Hand mix, then grind once into poly bags- never had an issue with excessive fat, cause I don't use a lot of fat anyway. I hate regrinding.
If for some reason I have to regrind, I just refrigerate it and get it cool again.

 

[TheFieldJournal]

I know this is a follow up from an old thread, but something I've learned about the Cabelas grinders may apply. Many of the large professional Cabelas grinders had an unconventional design of the head (may be you have one given that you have had the grinder 10 years and that is about the age). They had cast ridges inside and don't have the cast and then machined spirals inside the head that most grinders do ( most heads are machined after casting with a tight tolerance to the auger, but the design I'm talking about doesn't). This makes them an inefficient design and mine is slow on regrinds - really slow. This head design was phased out and I looked at buying a conventional head from the manufacturer, but never did.

Like you I learned to grind and regrind, but phased out the pre-grind when I saw it wasn't needed. Glad you got it working for you.

Are you saying the current carnivore grinders were redesigned lately? Or the later production versions of the old grinder were?

I picked up a 1.75 HP carnivore from the bargain cave a few months ago. It's way overkill for what I need, but I couldn't pass up the deal. I think it was $468.99 then they had a 20% bargain cave items sale going on, then I had a 15% off cabelas club coupon, and I paid with gift cards that I bought on ebay that were 20% off (my dirty cabelas savings secret) so it came out to $255 and change plus tax.

Anyways, my only gripe is the large clearance between the head and the auger. It has the straight ridges.

This document is for feed screws in the plastic industry, but it kind of explains the purpose of the grooves. http://www.randcastle.com/grvdldpe.pdf

I'm guessing that a spiral pattern would increase the surface area and friction, thus be better at self feeding with all other things being equal.

I'm not sure if the clearance was left there for ease of manufacturing? Less machining & looser tolerances means lower cost and less rejects, or if it was purposely engineered that way to reduce the load on the unit. A tighter tolerance there means better self feeding, but it also means more back pressure and a higher startup torque seen at the motor during stop/starts with meat in the grinder.

So it's not quite commercial grade, but it's pretty decent. An old commercial hobart in good tune would probably be the most functional, but the compactness, lifetime warranty(if not purchased second hand or in the bargain cave), and sanitary advantages of stainless steel are pro's for the cabelas unit.

Does anybody know who makes these new grinders for cabelas? It would be interesting buying a spare auger, welding it up, and machining it to a tighter tolerance against the head.

 

[Tod osier]

Are you saying the current carnivore grinders were redesigned lately? Or the later production versions of the old grinder were?

Not the carnivore, they have not been around that long. I'm talking about the "professional" grinders that were the older line that the carnivore replaced. It sounds like the carnivore you have has the same head style as mine. I have not researched the carnivore, but the older line is made by Weston for Cabelas. When I did the research the Weston grinders had the traditional machined inside and the cabelas lineup was switching at least some models to the machined head. This was a few years back, so some details may have slipped. To get parts you call Cabelas, and they transfer you to Weston. If I remember right, I couldn't not get the Weston parts for my Cabelas because there is an agreement that sales go through Cabelas. To get the parts I wanted it was a couple hundred dollars and I had to get it through Cabelas with more markup than I wanted. There were some people that got free head upgrades from Cabelas to the machined style when they complained about performance of the cast only head. As for who makes the carnivore, I'd check with Weston first.

 

[TheFieldJournal]

Not the carnivore, they have not been around that long. I'm talking about the "professional" grinders that were the older line that the carnivore replaced. It sounds like the carnivore you have has the same head style as mine. I have not researched the carnivore, but the older line is made by Weston for Cabelas. When I did the research the Weston grinders had the traditional machined inside and the cabelas lineup was switching at least some models to the machined head. This was a few years back, so some details may have slipped. To get parts you call Cabelas, and they transfer you to Weston. If I remember right, I couldn't not get the Weston parts for my Cabelas because there is an agreement that sales go through Cabelas. To get the parts I wanted it was a couple hundred dollars and I had to get it through Cabelas with more markup than I wanted. There were some people that got free head upgrades from Cabelas to the machined style when they complained about performance of the cast only head. As for who makes the carnivore, I'd check with Weston first.

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

Yeah, I think it does.

Thanks for the tip on Weston, I shot them an email. I'm starting to wonder if I could get parts for my unit or not since I bought it through the bargain cave.

I just looked at the weston website and comparing the two units side by side, it looks like they use the same gear housing castings, so they probably are made by weston. We'll see how it performs. I wonder if the old commercial heads interchange with the newer units. Maybe somebody on here has access to both grinders of the same size and could tell us.

 

[Tod osier]

Weston would not talk to me, other than through Cabelas (they asked for a SN and then wouldn't deal with me with a Cabelas SN).

I'd bet all the heads interchange, but that is just a guess.

 

[Tod osier]

I believe that I was wrong about the name in my above - the older Cabela's pre-carnivore line made by Weston is "Commercial", not "professional" (#8 and up).

 

[TheFieldJournal]

I just spoke with Cabelas. They source the new grinders through blue sky innovation group. I'm guessing they're just an importer. I know the weston units are imported as well, maybe they're made at the same factory...