A meat mincer or meat grinder is a common kitchen appliance, which used for fine mixing or mincing cooked or raw vegetables, fish, meat, and other similar items. It substitutes appliances like mincing knife, which are used for obtaining minced filling, meat etc. Coming to history of meat grinder, it is being used since the 19th century effectively.
Types of Meat Grinders
Meat grinders are manufactured in two versions; they are Electric Meat Grinders and Manual Meat Grinders. Let us discuss them briefly.
Electric Meat Grinder
Electric meat grinders are professional meat grinders, which they used to grind chicken, fish, and even vegetables. Electric meat grinder works more effectively than other meat grinder versions. The electric meat grinder reduces the human effort and works very efficiently. Apart from work, maintaining the electric meat grinder is very easy. With the help of the electric meat grinder, at a time you can grind large amount of meat. However, the electric meat grinder is expensive compared with manual meat grinder.
Manual Meat Grinder
Working with manual meat grinder is easy and it works effectively, but it isn’t superior to electric meat grinder by any means. The manual meat grinder generates more steady results. Generally, manual modes are freestanding and connected to a countertop with the help of a C-clamp or a suction cup.
The manual meat grinder is resistant to corrosion and rust. Among all manual meat grinders, zinc coated cast iron meat grinders are the pick of the lot, followed by chromium/zinc plated or stainless steel meat grinders. It is better not to use models designed with plastic parts, to avoid health hazards.
What Are the Parts of a Meat Grinder?
Parts of meat grinder are discussed in detail, in this section.
Crank
A crank is nothing but handle, which is used to activate the major part inside the meat grinder to grind vegetables or meat.
Feed Pan
The filling tray is also known as the Feed pan and this pan setup is designed and placed at the top of the meat grinder. It helps the meat to flow uniformly to the grinder.
Stomper
The pusher or stomper is a cylindrical shaped part, which inserts meat in the feed pan’s hole. Generally, it is used to push or, stomp meat to the bottom of grinder body.
Cylinder
The cylinder is major body part of a meat grinder. Usually, it covers the inner parts of the meat grinder. It is often referred to as the body or housing of the setup.
Worm
The worm is also called the auger and it is a spiral part inside the meat grinder. It is attached to the meat handle to help in grinding meat efficiently.
Grinder Plate and Knife
Once the meat is grinded by worm, a grinder knife grinds it once again. Then the meat is pushed to the grinder plate from the knife.
Working Principle of Meat Grinder
All meat grinders starting from most simple ones to the most complex ones, function based on same working principle. After cutting meat into pieces, it is fed in the hopper, and a screw presses the meat via cutting blades and then via a perforated plate. For better results, the meat should be chilled.