I got mine for free when I bought my stand mixer years ago. It went unused for quite some time until the Safeway was out of 80/20 one day and we needed to do burgers. So I bought a chuck roast and some short rib, cubed it up and used the grinder. Now this is not a high performance model by any means, but it gets the job done, and the burgers were fantastic. Since then I use for burgers, chili meat, and pork sausage.
But a year or two ago I decided (can’t remember why) to try it for falafel… alternately feeding the chickpeas, halved garlic cloves, cubed up onions, and small bunches of parsley and cilantro, and then mixing in the other ingredients afterwards. I found the grinder extracts more juice from the aromatics, making the mixture more flavorful and moist, and the texture (using the small die) is “perfect” every time.
With the falafel method being a game changer, I am curious what else you use it for besides meat?
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
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Interesting, thanks for the tip on using it for falafel. It’s no harder to clean than my food processor (and dries a lot faster) so I think I’ll give it a whirl.
Mine is a knock-off of the KA stand-mixer design and so far has worked quite well for meats, but that’s all I’ve used mine for. Every time pork shoulder goes on sale for $2/lb, I’m making brats or bangers at about $2.50/lb and regular bulk sausage patties for about $2.25/lb.
It came with several grating attachments that I’ve used for hard cheeses and to make potato slices and hash browns.
FWIW, you remind me that I saw this Tasting Table article last year that says you can use the grinder for formed pasta like spaghetti if you have a fine die (just don’t use blade and reduce water content in dough). But I’ve never tried it.
I actually have a pasta extruder (with dies for spaghetti, penne, rigatoni and many other shapes)… unfortunately I don’t really like the drier, more semolina-ish dough you need for extrusion so I rarely use it.
I do use some semolina in my pasta, but it has a much better texture than the extruded… I just stick to hand cut shapes (linguini, fettuccine, pappardelle, ravioli, etc.).
Pretty much same method as above… substituting the chickpeas with raw mushrooms/sun-dried tomatoes/or other veggie(s) of your choice.
Place the grind in a skillet with a small glug of EVOO and sauté till tender/reduced… and finish with salt/pepper/cheese(s) of your choice. Let cool and stuff.
I know you can use a FP to do this… but just like the falafel, no scraping down the bowl and the texture is always perfect.
And while I haven’t made one, I hear this is a good method for a sofrito as well.
