Meat Grinders

I was about to order the TorRey M-22-R1 meat grinder which is the one Jack recommend. But I have a Lem Game Processing catalog & Lem has a grinder called Big Bite Grinder their #22 has the same features,same 1hp,& same size plates & knife. Their #32 has 1.5 HP with the same features & plates & knife as the torRey. The price of the torRey is $1250.00 & the Lem Big Bite Grinder is $769.99. I'm wondering if any one here has used the Lem for whole animals such as chicken,ducks,rabbits. If u have your feed back will be highly appreciated. I need to order one or the other asap. Thanks

Does anyone think this grinder will do the same job as the torRey 22

not sure, ive been using my $60 one from harbor freight! lol

these higher grade grinders, will they process bones also?

Thanks for your response Crisis. Im going to order the LEM Big Bite Grinder. It comes with a 2 yr warranty. I was just on you tube watching some homestead videos & on 1 of the videos they were making ground rabbit meat & they put the bones & organs in together to make bone meal for their dogs. They was using a grinder that costs $160 so I think the $769 LEM grinder will work fine. Thanks again

A meat grinder will be very useful to make chicken/duck/rabbit etc paddy meals for puppies. For adult dogs those small animals I'd rather just give it whole without grinding it. What I like to grind up for adult dogs are cow, deer, lamb meat with the bones. I'm thinking about getting one too. Please update us on how the one you got works for you BSK.

I've been looking into them myself a bit. My wife works at a supply store that carries meat grinders for their restaurant customers. The grinder that's sold there is in the $600-$700 range. Crisis how's that new one acting, I remember a mishap with the first,.is the second one working better or is it about par?

I don't think they can handle the heavy load bearing bones of cows & deer. I would only try grinding the non load bearing Bones of the large animals.

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Originally Posted by Mudville

I've been looking into them myself a bit. My wife works at a supply store that carries meat grinders for their restaurant customers. The grinder that's sold there is in the $600-$700 range. Crisis how's that new one acting, I remember a mishap with the first,.is the second one working better or is it about par?

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works about as well as a $60 meat grinder is supposed to i suppose, lol... i returned the first 2 and now im on #3... so id say, if your looking for quality and heavy duty, id personaly look elsewhere... i was just trying to get the job done at the fastest time possible on the lowest budget

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Originally Posted by Pit Bull Committed

A meat grinder will be very useful to make chicken/duck/rabbit etc paddy meals for puppies. For adult dogs those small animals I'd rather just give it whole without grinding it. What I like to grind up for adult dogs are cow, deer, lamb meat with the bones. I'm thinking about getting one too. Please update us on how the one you got works for you BSK.

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those are the type of bones i was more so talking about, chicken & rabbit have softer bones that should be easily processed in a commercial grade grinder, but im more curious about beef bones, deer, ect. those arent exactly "soft".

it will do the job just fine - no doubt

I have a #22 from Cabela's. It cost about 650 cdn, I'm sure it's much cheaper in usd. It works great on chicken bones.

Thanks guys

With the prices of meat sky rocketing I'm sure a lot of people may be looking into this type of equipment.Have y'all priced hamburger meat lately? Dam.I get a lot of deer meat processed into different things but it still cost.

Funny how the meat prices tracked up with the rising cost of fuel. People had surcharges and delivery price increases due to oil being $$$$ per barrel. Lots of things have not tracked back down with the cost of fuel.

Sort of like. A barrel of oil goes up this morning and pump prices go up at the same time. Prices drop and it takes a week for the 'savings' to trickle down to the pump. Seems like a lot of profit in that week delay.

A little off topic but I agree, meat prices are higher than camel cock. Even the cheaper cuts are high. We have smoked briskets for 40 years. Brisket has always been a not so popular cut, never been real costly. Now every freakin' cooking show on TV is smoking briskets and now you may as well buy a rib eye, or even a filet. Costs right out of the ying yang. EWO

EWO,

The fuel prices taking a week or so to adjust is because the fuel in the tanks at the filling station(s) was purchased at the previous barrel price. So until they re-fuel most times they hold steady.

Meat is extremely high where I live as well. Hell even the cheap cuts of chicken are $1.19 per lb. Hamburger meat here is around $4 per lb, a roast is $6 a lb! Makes one consider raising your own food, but unless you can raise a large number of head it's really even more expensive.

EWO nothing I like better than a brisket smoked over some pecan.If you remember ribs use to be a inexpensive choice of meat as well.I have actually killed a couple more deer this year than I normally do.Got a deal worked out with the guy who processes my deer meat but yea it still cost something.

Same here fellas, meat is high, gas is low, but nothing dropped with it. On top of that I watched the news a few days ago and eggs are going up %30-%40. It's time to buy chickens & feed, rather than eggs.

No doubts there. We were just talking about this at the shop earlier. The guys rip me about my Pops back in the day. We cook everything on wood. I can remember as a 10-12 year old kid being in charge of the fire barrel and shoveling coals. Many a night I was up 3-4 in the morning burning wood. Shovel hot coals for 6-8-10 hours. Do everything.

After the cook out everyone would walk by my Pops and say, "Red, you cook one helluva pig/brisket/shoulder". I was like "what the hell".

It took a number of years to appreciate what I learned. Using his methods I can pretty much hang with the best of 'em going whole hog. My briskets are good and every one compliments them but I can't seem to consistently hit them out of the park.

EWO

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Originally Posted by bamaman

EWO nothing I like better than a brisket smoked over some pecan.If you remember ribs use to be a inexpensive choice of meat as well.I have actually killed a couple more deer this year than I normally do.Got a deal worked out with the guy who processes my deer meat but yea it still cost something.

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Temperature is the trick with a brisket .I like a smoker than can easily maintain a consistent temp without spikes in temps! It all comes down to what your smoker is capable of imo.I don't have anything fancy just a home made smoker but it does pretty good ! And man sometimes you just may get a bad brisket.No such thing as a bad brisket or ribeye right ? Lol it does happen .I have only a couple places I buy select cuts from and one place is 30 miles one way .More expensive but it's worth the drive! I will go ahead and pay extra for a quality cut such as a brisket or steak .

Mine is a homemade smoker as well. It does a pretty good job and actually holds temperature better than I expected.

Agreed. We use to have the best butcher shop for miles. When the guy retired another took over but soon drove it in the ground. I work about 45 miles from home but there are some quality shops there. Like you said, more expensive but better cuts and better selection. Although it is miles from home I am already there with work.

Like most things the quality is worth the extra money. EWO

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Originally Posted by S_B

EWO,

The fuel prices taking a week or so to adjust is because the fuel in the tanks at the filling station(s) was purchased at the previous barrel price. So until they re-fuel most times they hold steady.

Meat is extremely high where I live as well. Hell even the cheap cuts of chicken are $1.19 per lb. Hamburger meat here is around $4 per lb, a roast is $6 a lb! Makes one consider raising your own food, but unless you can raise a large number of head it's really even more expensive.

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I was wondering about the, SB. With beef prices so high I was thinking about buying a cow or two and have them slaughtered but I wondered if it'd even be cheaper or not.

I bought a few chickens to get some eggs layed but I guess I bought them at the wrong time lol. We've been having nothing but cloudy, cool days and they haven't layed a darn egg yet lol. So far they're just pet chickens lol.

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Originally Posted by treezbulldogs

I was wondering about the, SB. With beef prices so high I was thinking about buying a cow or two and have them slaughtered but I wondered if it'd even be cheaper or not.

I bought a few chickens to get some eggs layed but I guess I bought them at the wrong time lol. We've been having nothing but cloudy, cool days and they haven't layed a darn egg yet lol. So far they're just pet chickens lol.

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I actually went for the chicken raising this past spring. I purchased them as chicks and raised them on my garden vegetables. They were thriving and ultra healthy. I let them free range by day and they went into their kennel (lol) at night. They just started laying in November.

Once it got cold I could not get them to eat feed, they only wanted to free range and became skinny. I tried all sorts of different chicken food, even exotic bird feed with mostly nuts and dried fruit. They were having none of it. They wouldn't touch store bought vegetables or bread, I must have gotten some odd chickens. They were Rhode Island Reds.

Anyhow I fed the remaining birds (the ones my house dog hadn't helped herself to) to the dogs. My dogs never got used to them either, at all. I had to keep them coop'd more and more otherwise with the cooler temperature and wet weather the yard would be a mess. So I'll just get my eggs from the fella down the road.

Sorry for rambling off topic...

S_B

What do you folks think about electric smokers?

I've been half ass talked into trying one. Everyone I've talked to lately has retired the iron smoker and bought one of those electric fridge looking smokers. They claim you get the same product and it's a lot less hassle. I'm not totally convinced, seems that wood burning red hot in that hot iron box adds that special flavor.

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Originally Posted by S_B

What do you folks think about electric smokers?

I've been half ass talked into trying one. Everyone I've talked to lately has retired the iron smoker and bought one of those electric fridge looking smokers. They claim you get the same product and it's a lot less hassle. I'm not totally convinced, seems that wood burning red hot in that hot iron box adds that special flavor.

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I would highly recommend the Weber Charcoal Smoker if your just looking for a good quality smoker to feed the family from time to time.I have one myself and they are worth the price tag.

I have a Masterbuilt electric smoker. I just got it as a gift for Christmas. Only cooled four or five times. Fence riding on it right now. The food was good and it was easy. With only a couple of handfuls of woodchips over 5 hours the chicken tasted way too smoky. The beef ribs turned out nice as I did not use as many chips, only a few about an hour out. There are four racks of baby backs going right now. We will see later tonight.

I think I like it thus far. I'm still a wood guy when it comes to cooking so I am not completely sold. My brother in law has one and he did the turkey at Thanksgiving and it was as good as any smoked bird I have ever had.

EWO

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Originally Posted by EWO

I have a Masterbuilt electric smoker. I just got it as a gift for Christmas. Only cooled four or five times. Fence riding on it right now. The food was good and it was easy. With only a couple of handfuls of woodchips over 5 hours the chicken tasted way too smoky. The beef ribs turned out nice as I did not use as many chips, only a few about an hour out. There are four racks of baby backs going right now. We will see later tonight.

I think I like it thus far. I'm still a wood guy when it comes to cooking so I am not completely sold. My brother in law has one and he did the turkey at Thanksgiving and it was as good as any smoked bird I have ever had.

EWO

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That's interesting about the wood chips, less is more. From what I've been told by guys with custom built smokers, they've retired them and have gone electric. No more adding wood and checking constantly. The ease of the electric smoker has won them over with pretty much the same results.

S_B

I like my lil weber u can use wood or charcoal , both if you like and it doesn't take a lot .It has been a nice little addition.My next cooker is a green egg I have just about all the cash saved up for it.I can't wait to get this beast.But when I feed the whole crew always go back to my home made smoker its plenty big ,but just too big for a few people.

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Originally Posted by bamaman

I like my lil weber u can use wood or charcoal , both if you like and it doesn't take a lot .It has been a nice little addition.My next cooker is a green egg I have just about all the cash saved up for it.I can't wait to get this beast.But when I feed the whole crew always go back to my home made smoker its plenty big ,but just too big for a few people.

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Sounds good when is the next BBQ? :D

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Originally Posted by S_B

Sounds good when is the next BBQ? :D

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Lol man I try to have one every weekend .