A meat mincer is a commercial kitchen tool that grinds chunks of meat into smaller pieces with a simple process. It can be used for mincing meat and fine chopping, grinding vegetables and fish, making sausages, and even juicing, making it a versatile tool for any kitchen.
How Does a Meat Mincer Work?
A meat mincer has a chamber with two openings in which you put the meat, or other food, to the opening above, and it gets out from the other, which has metal plates with holes. It also features a knife between the helix and metal plate, cutting the food to make it easier to pass the holes and grind. Then, the cut pieces go through a grinder plate with several holes depending on how finely ground you prefer the meat.
Meat Mincer Types
The most known meat mincers are manual tools designed to grind small amounts of meat. Manual meat mincers can be hand-cranked or fastened to a counter or table and grind 2-3 pounds (0.9-1.3 kg) of meat in a minute. They work by hand feeding the meat to the funnel, and it’s driven into the cutting blade by a spiral auger.
The other type is the electric meat mincers, designed more complex but operate similarly to manual ones. The food items are placed into the top funnel as in the manual mincer and automatically transported from the plates. They come with cutting plates of various sizes, ranging from 12 to 14 inches (30 to 35 cm.)
Parts Of a Meat Mincer
Feeding Tray: The feeding part is the starting point of the process where you place the meat, which is pushed into the auger with the help of a plunger.
Blade: The sharp blade begins the grinding process by cutting the meat fed to the tool to ease the grinding before the meat passes through the auger and grinding plate.
Auger: Auger is the screw-like tool attached to the motor and rotates inside the chamber with the motor’s power, cutting the meat and pushing it into the blades from the feeding tray. It gives the final cut to meat to make it small enough to pass through the plate.
Grinder Plate: The grinder plate is the final part that gives the meat coarseness in your desired texture with its various hole sizes available. They are mostly metal, which is more durable, and a meat mincer may come with special plates to make sausages, making it perfect for different purposes in one tool.
Case: The case is the outer part that houses everything, which is mostly made of metal. It has a hole where the ground meats come out and a screw to attach it to your kitchen equipment.
Motor: Electric meat mincer machines operate with the help of a power source. The motor’s power affects the speed and efficiency of the grinding operation.
What are Popular Meat Mincer Features?
Reverse Function: Reverse function in the meat mincers allows cutting hard items such as the tendons and other connective tissues that couldn’t be cut in the first round. Especially in machines with less motor power, tendons may twist up on the shaft, lowering the quality of the meat and slowing the machine down.
Additional Attachments: Most new meat mincer models include various nozzles, which either come with the tool or are sold separately. These attachable nozzles can be graters and extrusion tubes for making sausages and juicers, which add versatility and efficiency to the equipment.
Even there are pasta attachments that turn the meat mincers into pasta makers. You can make noodles, various shaped pasta, and spaghetti by loading the pasta dough onto the machine and replacing the grating plates with pasta ones.
Self-sharpening Knives: On the blades of some meat mincers, self-sharpening prevents blunting and ensures efficient mincing. It is done by using laser processing on the knife’s cutting edge, which makes the reflow notching remain on the metal surface. Later, the notching is tempered, which makes the cutting-edge hardness non-uniform. Since the metal wear will be more intense because of decreased metal hardness, it will create a micro tooth during load, making the blade sharper.
To Sum Up
Meat mincers are versatile equipment in commercial kitchens, capable of handling various tasks, including mincing meat. Whether manual or electrical, meat mincers provide minced meat with your desired seasonings and consistency, let you make your sausages, and even use it as a pasta machine or juicer with additional attachments. Not only butcher shops but every kitchen may benefit from the versatility of a meat mincer.
If you would like to see which equipment you need for your kitchen and butcher shop, you can take a look at our butcher shop equipment list.
