Mincers, any good or not??

bethom

Hello os'ers :hello:

I use a fair amount of minced meat and tbh when using minced beef I end up picking bits of aterey and gristle out of it and that is with good mince!! I want to know that the mince I am using is good quality so am now wondering about mincing my own.

So what I would like to know from you lovely os'ers is, are mincers any good and is there a particular one I should look or go for??

Thanks in advance!!

thriftlady_2

I've got a mincer and to be honest find it not very good.It's one of those handcranked ones.The sinews and gristle in the meat continually clog it up,and a plastic ring/washer thingy inside it actually minced up with the meat!
I can't remember the make (it's in an out of reach place at the moment ),but it was made in the Czech Republic or somewhere like that arrgh! hope I don't offend anyone!

If you buy your meat from the butcher he will mince it for you,so you can choose a nice piece of meat.I trust my butcher's mince though so I've never had a problem with it being gristly.HTH

bethom

thriftlady wrote:

I've got a mincer and to be honest find it not very good.It's one of those handcranked ones.The sinews and gristle in the meat continually clog it up,and a plastic ring/washer thingy inside it actually minced up with the meat!
I can't remember the make (it's in an out of reach place at the moment ),but it was made in the Czech Republic or somewhere like that arrgh! hope I don't offend anyone!

If you buy your meat from the butcher he will mince it for you,so you can choose a nice piece of meat.I trust my butcher's mince though so I've never had a problem with it being gristly.HTH

Thankyou thriftlady!! :T :T

I may try the butcher approach.

Can I ask which butcher you use as you don't live far from me at all

thriftlady_2

Absolutely,I'm always recommending him- Checketts of Ombersley (just off the A449 between Worcester and Kidderminster).

He has a website here http://www.checketts.co.uk/

If you look at my sig you'll see I've spent rather a lot of money there this week :eek: He does good freezer deals if you buy in bulk.The £139 paid for 13 lbs mince,9lbs sausages(excellent btw),5 free-range chickens,3lb topside,3lbs leg of pork,3lbs leg of lamb,2lbs diced pork,2lbs diced lamb,2lbs gammon steaks and 5 lbs stewing beef.I think that's pretty good value.

pol

My daughter bought the one from Lakeland and wouldn't be without it. She buys skirt and braising steak and minces that. If you cut off any fat and gristle first, you get the very best mince. It also has a sausage attachment which is great, as the butcher she gets the meat from also sells her the skins. She knows exactly what goes into her sausages, burgers and shepherds pies. She's only had it about 6 months and it's more than paid for itself already.

pol

Grumpysally

pol wrote:

My daughter bought the one from Lakeland and wouldn't be without it. She buys skirt and braising steak and minces that. If you cut off any fat and gristle first, you get the very best mince. It also has a sausage attachment which is great, as the butcher she gets the meat from also sells her the skins. She knows exactly what goes into her sausages, burgers and shepherds pies. She's only had it about 6 months and it's more than paid for itself already.

pol

Lakeland do say they will give you your money back if you're not happy with your purchase for any reason. So I suppose you could try it and get a refund if you don't like it.

I've been thinking about getting one for a while too. I'll probably try freecycle first.

mirakl

I'll second that the Lakeland mincer is great. You gotta realise it's small and a wee bit unstable, the suction cup to keep it on the worktop isn't super, however I still love it. and it's fab being able to make your own burgers and stuff like that from scratch.

thriftlady_2

That's reminded me of the other problem I have with my mincer-it won't stay clamped to the work top.I might have a look at the Lakeland one though,thanks for that.

pickle

thriftlady wrote:

I've got a mincer and to be honest find it not very good.It's one of those handcranked ones.The sinews and gristle in the meat continually clog it up,and a plastic ring/washer thingy inside it actually minced up with the meat!
I can't remember the make (it's in an out of reach place at the moment ),but it was made in the Czech Republic or somewhere like that arrgh! hope I don't offend anyone!

If you buy your meat from the butcher he will mince it for you,so you can choose a nice piece of meat.I trust my butcher's mince though so I've never had a problem with it being gristly.HTH

I agree. I bought a manual mincer and it is completely useless, the sinew etc (on very lean meat) continually clogs it up and it takes forever to mince. A waste of money and time.

maryb

I bought a Porkert mincer which I think is the one you referred to as being made in Czech republic and I had exactly the same problem with it getting clogged. So then I splurged on the mincer attachment for the Kenwood Chef and had exactly the same problem. I then realised it's not the fat that causes the problem, it's the connective tissue - the slightly stretchy almost transparent bit that is difficult to cut with a knife. It makes for very tasty casseroles after long slow cooking but it is guaranteed to clog up a mincer If you trim that off really carefully the meat will mince beaustifully. It also helps if the meat is very cold - almost semi frozen.

I asked my butcher if there was a good make of mincer he would recommend and he said that the Porkert mincers are actually very good - so it seems it's down to preparation and you can't just put any old bits of meat through the mincer

thriftlady_2

Yes that's the one,I rememeber now! Thanks Mary.It was the connective tissue that clogged it up.I found it too much trouble for mincing other things too because I couldn't get it to stay clamped to the work top.