KitchenAid Grinder Attachment

[SLFlyt]

I am thinking about getting the Kitchenaid grinder attachment for my mixer because DH has decided he wants to make sausage!!

Was wondering - does anyone have this attachment and is it worth having? What are some of the other things I can use it for besides grinding meats?

TIA

[Kayaksoup]

I have it! I love it, but I only use it for grinding meat. The best chicken burgers ever came out of that machine. So I may be biased, but i say get it:D

[Catew]

I have it and love it, although both my Kitchen Aid and the grinder are about 35+ years old (belonged to my MIL for ages). I use it for grinding meats, although I expect you could use it for nuts or even for large batches of tomatoes.

[VegasDramaQueen]

I have most of the accessories for the KA stand mixer. I got this mixer a few weeks ago and have used everything except the ravioli maker which we'll use this week. I ground boneless beef shortribs with my grinder and then plopped them on the Weber grill. The most fantastic hamburgers ever. I have no idea why the taste was affected but it was. As I've mentioned before, grinding your own meat allows you not only to control what goes into your hamburger (or sausage) but you can control the amount of fat content. If I need a handful of ground lamb or ground pork, I can do it myself. I also ground beef and pork for meatloaf. If you're making your own sausages, you can also control the amount and type of seasonings too. It's very easy to operate. This is a "must have" accessory in our house.I definitely want to start making my own sausages and there are some great books on the market with sausage making recipes.

[SPITFIRE]

I love the grinder attachment and have used it a few times to make sausages for my DH. I highly recommend Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book for recipes. He has great recipes and also explains how to buy and prep the casings, etc.. Casings can be hard to find--usually I can find them at a butcher's stall at my local farmer's market.

So far I have made Chicken and Apple Sausages and Yankee Sage Sausages. Making your own sausages is an empowering experience. It's time consuming but worth it--do it give it a try!

[Terrytx]

I got it for the DH. He makes our sausage and grinds meat for hamburgers. He loves it.

[swquilts]

We've had the sausage attachment for years and it works great! We have outgrown it now since we make 150-300 pound batches and sell it to friends. :rolleyes: We have since bought a commercial grinder.

(I think it created a sausage monster in DH!)

[VegasDramaQueen]

SPITFIRE: Thanks so much for the heads up on the Aidelle cookbook. We've had their sausages and they really are great. It brings to mind another fantastic sausage maker located on Venice Beach in California called Jody Maroni. I just googled it and found that they have a sausage making book also, along with recipes on what to do with all those sausages. LOL>

[Curleytop]

Yep! Have had mine since 1972 when I bought my first KA. The best thing about any of the attachments is that they will work with all their mixers. So the attachments I had worked fine on my Artisan which I got last year.
I make my own hamburger meat, this way I know what I am eating. When there are boneless roasts or london broil on sale, I make hamburger meat! GO FOR IT!

[VictoriaL]

Wow. I have had mine for 10 years and used it only once or twice...:(
Maybe I'll dig it out and try again, you all seem to like it so much!

[MISSINDI]

I don't know too much about meat grinding (perhaps even less than that!), but what kind of meat exactly do you buy to grind up? Is there anything you need to do to it before grinding it? Just bought an extra bowl for my KA mixer, but so far that's it. The reviews here though have me thinking about buying the grinder attachment, right after I buy the ice cream maker attachment. :D

[Catew]

I can't ever find ground chicken or ground lamb in my local grocery stores, so I grind those fairly often. I don't grind beef much, but would if I were unable to find super-lean beef.

The amount of prep you do depends on how concerned you are about fat content and how much meat you're going to grind.

I try to eat a low-fat diet, so I trim poultry of all skin, and I remove all visable fat from everything. If it's non-poultry, I try to select the meat that's easiest to trim and has the least marbling (which is often the cheapest as well).

If you're grinding a lot of meat -- more than a pound or so -- you need to worry about the grinder getting bound up with silver skin and connective tissue. This might only be an issue for me since our grinder is rather old, so a newer one might not have this. I have run into this with lamb; in that case I had to dissassemble the grinder and clean out the disk in order to finish the job. It wasn't hard, just a bit of a pain.

[VegasDramaQueen]

You can grind any kind of meat you want. I am going to make ham salad with some leftover ham, celery, onions, sweet pickles and mayo. Put that on a kaiser roll with some iceberg lettuce and it's great. I don't use super lean beef to grind because you will wind up with dry hamburgers if that's what you're making. It needs some fat to keep it juicy and the fat is where the flavor is. I just like being able to control the amount of fat and control exactly what kind of beef goes into my hamburgers or meatballs. My mother in law would coarsley grind bologna and add onions and celery and mayo. A little lettuce and you've got a pretty good sandwich. Better than just plain bologna. I also have ground up leftover cooked beef, and corned beef for hash. Just another thought, if you purchase the pasta making plates to fit over your grinder you can extrude some pretty neat looking pasta. The set comes with 5 plates.

[MISSINDI]

Thanks for the info. Think I might look into it.

Gee, I sure hope Jen doesn't see this thread, because she'll cave and buy a meat grinder attachment, and then blame it on me. :) Wait, she might not have a KA mixer. She'll need one of those too.

[Curleytop]

You wanted to know what things to do before grinding. I suggest that the meat should be cold, or even slightly frozen. Trim off extra fat! Cut beef into long strips, so you can feed it into the hopper. Use the wooden
stomper to get it down into the grinder.

[jtoepfert100]

Originally posted by MISSINDI
Thanks for the info. Think I might look into it.

Gee, I sure hope Jen doesn't see this thread, because she'll cave and buy a meat grinder attachment, and then blame it on me. :) Wait, she might not have a KA mixer. She'll need one of those too.

I can't afford the mixer because of all the cookbooks you keep "making" me buy! ;) Oh, but don't think it's not at the top of the Big Ticket Item Wish List!

[MISSINDI]

:D Hey, Valentine's Day is coming...