PRODUCT TESTING Sausage makers: the missing link
All four models did an acceptable job of grinding the meat.
By CHARLES PERRY
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sausage is a simple food: just seasoned meat stuffed into a cleaned casing. The hard part is getting it in there.
Technically, all you really need for the job is something to chop the meat, and some device to push the chopped meat through the casing. You can even stuff casings by hand, as people did for centuries.
These days home cooks tend to use a counter-top grinder for both jobs. Typically, they grind the meat, then they remove the blade and cutting plate, fit a stuffing tube in their place and run the meat through the grinder again.
We tested four rather different grinders for their stuffing abilities, from an archaic 19th century-style hand grinder that your great-grandmother might have used to a grinding attachment that fits onto an electric mixer.
Grinding
Meat grinding technology is pretty well established, and all four did an acceptable job of grinding.
The Norpro Meat Grinder-Mincer worked slowly, because of its small size, and you wouldn't want to make more than a couple of sausage links with it. The fastest by far was the VillaWare Power Grinder (also the largest and most expensive model).
All home grinders tend to clog up. When the holes of the grinding plate become cluttered, the meat is ground smaller than it should be, resulting in a pureed texture. This was a particular problem with the KitchenAid Grinder Attachment.
It's more irritating when clogging brings the whole mechanism to a halt. Then you have to disassemble it and clean it out. The VillaWare grinder has a convenient reverse button that can often save you that trouble.
Cleaning
Any equipment that handles raw meat has to be scrupulously clean. The two electric grinders were easier to wash because their feed-grinder heads are removable. With the manual models, the whole machine has to be immersed in the dishwater.
The VillaWare is the best all-around grinder and stuffer, and you can find it on the Internet for as low as $99.95.
If you already have a KitchenAid mixer and don't plan to make sausage in large quantity, the KitchenAid stuffing attachment might be a better choice.
The Norpro's attraction is that it worked decently, considering its very low price (and, it's cute).
But forget the old-fashioned IOMC Meat Mincer. It's strictly for nostalgia -- or maybe for weight training. This monster is even heavier than it looks.