My review of the manual meat grinder

Making meatballs and hamburgers ourselves is an easy task. Making them at home gives a truly superior flavor to what is usually available to buy, because of the spices and seasonings we add to taste. If we also choose and grind the meat ourselves, the results are top-notch.

Miriam, author of The Winter Guest, has long used manual meat grinders, so today she tells us about this kitchen tool that is becoming more fashionable every day, the one from Kitchen Craft.

I'm quite a fan of relatively simple, traditional cooking, and if it recalls old-fashioned flavors and is done with techniques that are still perfectly valid today, even more so. That's why I admit that when I set my eye on the manual meat grinder I pictured myself preparing all kinds of dishes with ground meat and had to bring it home.

Grinding meat at home is something for which I don't see a great need to use any energy other than that of your own arm; I love manual gadgets if the difference in effectiveness with the electric equivalent isn't large, as is the case with this grinder.

But the advantage that stands out above all in being able to grind the meat yourself at home is the absolute control you have over the ingredients you use. I don't mean this as a criticism of the meat sold in stores, but once meat is ground its shelf life is greatly reduced, since it presents a much larger surface area vulnerable to germs compared to a whole cut of meat.

You have surely noticed that the expiration of packaged ground meat is shorter than that of a simple steak. And for that same reason it is necessary to add some kind of stabilizer or additive, to at least prevent accelerated oxidation. Well, consider that if we grind the meat at home we also avoid these additives.

This manual grinder is made of iron and is quite heavy, but precisely for that reason it is stable enough during use. It clamps to any table with a clamp, like pasta makers or bench vises. It comes equipped with three grinding plates of different gauges, to grind the meat into different sizes, and it also has a sausage accessory.

Because the grinder is a fairly simple device in its construction it is relatively easy to clean. We must not forget that it is from Kitchen Craft, a brand of kitchen tools always very practical and well priced.

Grinding meat in your own home allows you to prepare all kinds of unconventional meat combinations. I still have pending preparing a good foie terrine in the French style. And the manual grinder is great if we want to venture into making some type of sausage as was done in many homes and continues to be done in many villages. This is a task I still have pending. One of many.

A manual meat grinder really is a fairly modest-sized device that fits almost anywhere, and that allows you to prepare a wide variety of dishes with all kinds of ground meats. Can you imagine grinding your own meat for hamburgers on the spot? Or the meat to make championship meatballs? On the blog we have some exquisite Persian kebabs made with this grinder that I encourage you to try.

Grinding the meat at home we can also add all kinds of spices and seasonings to give it our personal touch. In short, if you like cooking and want to surprise your guests with new flavors this manual grinder would be perfect for you.