Ok... I have been looking for a hand turned meat grinder for a while because i am sick of stewing all this deer meat. My father used to have a meat grinder, but it has been ages since I saw him use it. He sold it at a yard sale, so I was unable to get my mitts on it. I went to a flea market and bought something called (it has this casted on the side) Enterprise Food Chopper no. 501. It might be missing parts... I dont know. It appears to be operational. Heres what it looks like: it cast iron, has a clamp on the bottom, a very small inlet for food- about 2 inches at the top of the 1 inch deep funnel, maybe 1 1/2 inches where the funnel meets the screw. There is a screw type thing inside. At the outlet end, there are several blades- two look like fan blades, one is a disk. I was able to make out the following on each of the "blades" Fine, Medium and the disky one: nut butter. there is some sort of threads around the outlet, but I dont see how any thing could screw over the end because there is a wing bolt that screws the blades on. I remember my fathers meat grinder having some sort of thing that looked like a plate with a bunch of holes in it to press the burger out. I would try the "food chopper" but it is painted and I am going to sand blast it first- i am afraid of lead based paint. My question comes in here. Is a food chopper the same as a meat grinder? If not, what would you use it for (I plan on trying the nut butter blade on my pecans this fall that blade is pretty self explanitory. Does it sound like my device should have a cap for squeezing burger out of, or does this one do it by itself? (via the blades) If nothing else, the food chopper is certainly old, looks nice. I could always slap a new coat of paint on it... it anly cost me ten bucks, so I would be content just to look at it occasionally=)

-- Kevin in NC (vantravlrs@aol.com), April 06, 2001

Answers

If it's the same as our meat grinders, the "fan blade" butts against the disk or "plate with holes in", sharp edge touching. The thread on the outlet is for the threaded cover that holds it all together. The wing nut is probably what holds the handle on. Check antique shops to look at similar grinders. Around here they are loaded with them. Hope this helps!

I find that the grinders don't work too well on raw meat - the sinew, etc, clogs them.

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), April 06, 2001.

If the paint is grey it is factory applied and it does not contain lead.Don't blast it you WILL ruin it for food use because it will rust and harbor bacteria.Look champion and enterprise up on the net.As well as universal.they are still in production.Oh yeah try CHOP-RITE I KNOW for sure they are in production.You will see your chopper type on one of these sites.

-- greg (gsmith@tricountyi.net), April 07, 2001.

there are wing bolts on both the handle and the outlet ends. The paint ( I agree that it is factory grey paint) is coming off even after repeated washings, that is why i thought to sand blast. I thought that back a hundered years ago all paints contained lead- this could be a misconcepton of mine. My 2 year old has already been diagnosed with high levels of lead content due to a key chain fob made out of pure lead... kids like keys and I gave them to her trying to quiet her once in a while, the teeth marks were pretty good evidence. At any rate, lead content is important issue for me. i appreciate the possible leads on web sites and will be researching them in a minute.

-- Kevin in NC (vantravlrs@aol.com), April 07, 2001.

Enterprise made a lot of meat equipment - we have some old choppers around here someplace, and also a sausage press. The choppers I'm familiar with had a large ring that threaded on the outlet end and held the plates in position. The blade fit on the inside and "chopped" the meat as it passed over the holes in the plate. Both the plate and the blade can be sharpened. The plate size determines the coarseness of the finished product. Sometimes the meat is ran through the machine twice for a finer grind. A stuffer horn can be attached to the outlet, under the ring, and the machine used to stuff sausage into casings. The finish of the chopper is usually a nickel? plate - shiney, but not quite like chrome. Some have a dull grey appearance, but I've never seen one painted and still in use for processing meat. Many choppers were electrified by adding a large pulley and a washing machine motor. The really nice ones used a cream seperator gearbox, running in reverse, to slow the chopper to a manageable speed. I recommend cutting a piece of wood to use as a "stomper". Even the hand cranked ones can mangle a finger pretty badly. Also - the old timers NEVER washed the chopper when they were done processing meat. They ran bread through it until no traces of meat were evident and packed it away. It was brought out the next time it was needed and given a good washing before it was used. It was believed that washing it before storage would cause it to rust - the animal fat offered a protective coating.

-- Paul (hoyt@egyptian.net), April 07, 2001.

Kevin ,I've heard the japanese used to encourage their traffic cops to eat Miso soup, when they used lead in gasoline.Studies in japan revealed that molecules in Miso chemicaly bonded to heavy mentals like lead and helped take it out of the body when the Miso left the body through excretion.I am not educated enough to really know if this is true ,but though I'd share it .

-- Steve (A12goat@cs.com), April 08, 2001.

I agree with Paul about not washing the meat grinder before putting it away, just give it a good washing right before you use it. That's what my father and grandfather taught me, anyway. I do use a hand grinder (for a lot of things, not just meat) and it is awfully slow to do large amounts of meat that way. When we lived in Alaska there was a big electric grinder that made the rounds (I'm not sure who actually owned it) of whoever had meat to take care of. They are pretty spendy, but sharing it made it worthwhile. The grinder does clog up with sinew and stuff, all you can do is stop every once in a while and take it apart and clean it. Also you'll need to keep something under the handle end to catch the juices that leak out the back. It's easiest to cut, and grind, meat that is partially frozen, by the way.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 09, 2001.

One other trick is to spray with cooking oil, Pam or the like, and wrap in a towel. Vicki an expert in rust and humdity living in East Texas! :)

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 09, 2001.

Sharpen the circular blade by putting a sheet of fine auto body sand paper on a sheet of glass. Work plate back and forth till holes have a sharp edge. Can also be done on surface grinder at a machine shop. Knives need to contact plate withe shearing action. sharp knife and plate will cut sinew and send it through plate. Jack

-- jack (jsweeney@northnet.org), April 10, 2001.