Meat grinder Facts for Kids

For other uses, see Meat grinder (disambiguation).

A meat grinder is a cool kitchen tool that helps you chop up meat, fish, or veggies into tiny pieces. In some places, like the UK, it's also called a "meat mincer." It's like a super-fast chopping knife!

You put the food into a funnel at the top. Inside, a special screw pushes and squashes the food. Then, the food goes through a plate with lots of small holes. The size of these holes decides how fine your food will be. You can even change the plate to make things like sausage casing or breadcrumbs! After you're done, you can take the grinder apart easily to clean it.

There are different kinds of meat grinders. Some are small for home kitchens, and you can turn them by hand or with an electric motor. Others are huge machines used in butcher shops or food factories, and they can chop tons of food every hour!

History of Meat Grinders
How Meat Grinders Work
Different Types of Meat Grinders
- Home Use Grinders
- Commercial Grinders
Images for kids
See also

History of Meat Grinders

The very first meat grinder was invented a long time ago in the 1800s by a person named Karl Drais. Back then, you had to turn a crank by hand to make it work. The meat would be pushed through a metal plate with small holes, coming out in long, thin strands.

As electricity became more common, companies started making electric meat grinders. These modern machines can chop up lots of meat quickly and easily. Some even come with extra parts that let you make sausages, special Middle Eastern dishes called kibbe, or even juice fruits!

How Meat Grinders Work

An example of sausage making with a meat grinder

A meat grinder has a few main parts that work together. First, there's a funnel where you put the food. Below the funnel is a turning screw, called an auger. This auger pulls the food down and pushes it forward.

At the end of the auger, there's a spinning blade that cuts the food. Right after the blade is a metal plate with many holes. The cut food gets pushed through these holes, making it into tiny pieces. You can change this plate to get different textures, from coarse to very fine.

Some bigger grinders also have a special mixing part. This lets you mix different kinds of meat or add spices and salt *before* you grind them. This helps make sure everything is mixed perfectly and tastes great!

Different Types of Meat Grinders

You can find meat grinders for different uses.

Home Use Grinders

These are smaller grinders perfect for your kitchen. They can be hand-cranked or electric. Electric ones are super convenient for quickly preparing meals. They are great for making your own ground meat, mixing ingredients for meatballs, or even making homemade sausages.

Commercial Grinders

These are much bigger and stronger machines used by businesses like butcher shops or large food factories. They are built to handle huge amounts of meat, sometimes thousands of pounds in just an hour! Some special commercial grinders can even chop frozen blocks of meat, which are super hard and cold. These powerful machines use strong motors and special blades to cut through frozen meat as cold as -25 degrees Celsius.