torrerine-blog

[torrerine-blog]

The decisive factors for choosing the meat grinder

A meat grinder is an appliance that every true kitchen enthusiast dreams of possessing, as it allows you to work different types of ingredients in a simple and quick way.

Another important advantage offered by the meat grinder is that it can have full control over the quality of the meat you want to work. Very often, in fact, we read alarming news on the contents of the packs of minced meat sold by large retailers. Cuts of a bad choice, scraps ground along with the meat, too fat and unhealthy parts are just some of the problems that can be found buying the meat already ground. This happens especially when buying frozen and pre-packaged products, such as hamburgers, filled pasta, patties or single-portion ready meals.

Buying a meat grinder is, therefore, a choice that allows on the one hand to monitor the quality of the ingredients, and on the other to save. Then there are many Italian families, still dedicated to the home preparation of sausages, salami and various types of preserves, for which the use of a meat grinder becomes even more necessary.

Before purchasing the best meat grinder, however, it is necessary to read up on the technical and structural characteristics which may have different models on the market. Indeed, there are substantial differences between the various products, linked on the one hand to the type of use made of them, and on the other to the price range. In this purchase guide, we will examine these elements and we will analyze in a specific way what are the most important aspects to evaluate in order to choose the most suitable meat grinder for your needs.

The first of these elements is certainly the operation of the product: it is possible to find manual meat mincers, which do not require any type of power supply or electric mincer. Two sub-categories of products belong to the latter group: the mincer with a belt of distribution and those that use only the engine. Let's look specifically at the operating methods of all the types of meat mincers on the market (and suitable for more or less intensive domestic use).

Manual meat grinder Manual meat mincers are the simplest and most economical type since these products do not have advanced technological components. Precisely for this reason, their price is considerably lower.

To work the various types of meat these products exploit the pressure: a good meat grinder must not squeeze the pieces, but finely chop them, leaving the juices and the organoleptic properties of the ingredient intact.

To obtain ground coffee with these products, the pieces of meat must be placed in the upper tray, which will fall slowly into the part that contains the rotating knife. Turning a crank the knife will rotate (quite slowly compared to an electric meat grinder), allowing you to cut the meat and push it towards the holes, from which the finished product will come out.

The main disadvantage of using a manual meat grinder is that you need to use a good deal of physical strength, especially if you need to work large quantities of ingredients. The result obtained, however, if the internal blades are well sharpened, is certainly optimal. A slow rotation, in fact, means that the meat in contact with the steel of the blades does not heat up and loses juice and consistency.

Electric meat grinder As anticipated, two categories of products belong to the sub-group of electric mincers: those with a timing belt and those without. The difference between the two types is that in the belt-driven meat grinder the motor is connected to both the shaft and the belt, ensuring a better distribution of the power that is delivered gradually, while in the meat grinder without the belt the motor is connected only to the shaft. In the first group of products, we will, therefore, find more powerful engines, while in the second group the power in watts will be lower, but the efficiency (on short or medium-long jobs) will be the same.

The operation is similar for both products. As for the manual meat mincers, inside there is a spiral knife block which, rotating, cuts the meat and pushes it towards the disc from which the ground coffee will come out.

The advantage of the electric meat grinder is to completely automate the entire grinding phase: you will only have to insert the meat in the upper tray and the machine will do the rest. It will also be possible to work very easily on almost all types of meat, even the most nervous ones, and in some cases even dried fruit, cheese or tomato sauce.

However, we find two more or less significant defects: on the one hand energy consumption, which could become conspicuous if the meat grinder is used for prolonged sessions or very frequently, on the other hand, the rotation of the internal knives which, being faster, risks compromising the quality of the meat obtained. If you want to buy an electric meat grinder, be careful not to set a rotation too fast.

Materials and structure After examining the technical characteristics, let's move on to the structural ones. It is, in fact, possible to differentiate the various meat mincers also on the basis of the materials that compose them and the overall dimensions. We essentially find two macro groups of products: those with the body made of plastic and those with the metal body.

Clearly, in both cases, the discs and knives are in stainless steel, the only material that guarantees resistance to wear and deterioration. Plastic meat mincers are usually the most compact and lightest models, and often do not have an engine but a crank. The small dimensions, together with the low price, certainly represent the great qualities of this typology. However, plastic meat mincers are sometimes unsuitable for processing all types of meat, as they often do not have many optional accessories and are more difficult to clean than metal models.

Products made of die-cast aluminium or stainless steel, on the other hand, are more solid and resistant, and usually have a motor (even if there are metal chopper with a crank) and can have variable dimensions.

For those who want a product that can be subjected to intensive use, it is advisable to focus on the metal mincer, while those who want to make occasional use of the appliance and above all have to make simple preparations (such as hamburgers) can instead orient themselves on a plastic meat grinder. Even the dimensions of the meat grinder are not to be underestimated: the choice between a compact model and a larger model is above all linked to the quantity of meat to be worked and the type of use (intensive, occasional, semi-professional) that will be made of it.

Who, for example, has the habit of processing beef and pork to prepare cold cuts and sausages to eat throughout the year will need a large, powerful model made with good quality materials or a product is able to work even for 3/4 hours without the performance being affected. The most compact meat mincers are ideal for kitchen enthusiasts who, while working with different cuts of meat, do not have to deal with such abundant quantities.

Accessories A meat grinder can be more or less equipped. The presence of additional components is mainly linked to the price range, so the higher the price the more equipped will be the model. We can divide the additional components that can be supplied into two groups: the disks, which will allow you to choose between different levels of grinding, and the other secondary accessories.

The discs are definitely the most important components of a meat grinder. The ingredients, in fact, after being processed by the blades, pass through these and it is precisely this step that determines the thickness of the ground that will be obtained. Based on the preparations to be made, it will be necessary to have more or less fine ground.

To increase the versatility of the mincer and ensure that it is suitable for making all types of the ground it is therefore advisable to purchase a product that has at least 3 interchangeable discs.

Another accessory widely used in Italy is to make sausages or a cone that can have different sizes and that allows to automatically insert the ground meat inside the gut. Accessories for making pâtés are also very useful, a preparation very common in some parts of Italy.

In addition to these accessories, all related to meat preparations, it will also be possible to find components that allow the processing of cheeses and tomatoes per passata. Specific disks will, therefore, be provided for these two preparations. In some products, instead of the disks, there will be second support to be fitted to the machine body and inside it can be inserted different types of cones that will allow not only the processing of cheese but also the choice of the type of grain to be obtained. These products certainly offer the utmost versatility since, with just one expense, you can have two different appliances, both very useful in the kitchen.

The other optional accessories a meat grinder can have are: a presser to push the meat into the product, a bowl to collect the ground meat and the tray to be placed on the upper part on which to place the raw meat to be processed.

[torrerine-blog]

How to choose a vegetable slicer?

Welcome to the definitive guide to know which is the best vegetable cutter in the market! If you are looking for vegetable cutters it is very likely that it is because you have decided not to waste more time in the kitchen. Chopping vegetables when cooking is one of the tasks that we spend more time in the kitchen, so with a vegetable cutter, we will save time to invest in many other things.

When buying a vegetable cutter there are several aspects that you have to take into consideration so as not to make mistakes with your purchase. Being a tool that will be in contact

With the foods you cook, we recommend that you follow these buying tips:

1.Material: The material of manufacture is one of the basic fundamentals that you have to take into account since depending on the same results and benefits will be higher or lower. In the market there are many models in which most of their parts are plastic, so they have such low prices. Ideally, the material should be made of stainless steel, among other things because it is easy to clean and because it does not contaminate in any way the food that we will later cook. 2.Size or capacity: The size of the vegetable cutter is important if we do not have much space in our kitchen. Also, if the vegetable-cut has a compact design, you can take it anywhere. 3. Cutting accessories: There are specific vegetable cutting machines for each cut, but the ideal is that the same machine incorporates different accessories to vary the type of cut depending on the recipes that we want to prepare. Another important aspect is that the blades can be easily changed, otherwise we could cut ourselves. There are models that instead of blades incorporate grids that allow cutting potatoes to the perfect size to fry them, for example. 4.Safety: It is essential that the best vegetable chopper or cutter you choose has a series of minimum safety measures. Think that the blades that cut the vegetables are extremely sharp, so it would be fatal if you had an accident when using the cutter. 5.Ease of use: The cutter has a part in which the vegetable that we want to cut and a handle to make the movements is fixed. The vegetable cutters in which we have to hold the piece of vegetables or fruit directly by hand are very dangerous, so always choose a model that incorporates a handle. 6.Ease of cleaning: When cooking, cleaning is essential, so the cutter must be easy to clean manually or compatible with the dishwasher.

Types of vegetable cutters

In the market, there are different types of cutters for vegetables such as potatoes, courgettes, aubergines, carrots ... These are the ones that we highlight:

Manuals

The manual vegetable cutters have a great disadvantage that we have to do the effort.

Of course, the strength that we have to do will depend to a large extent on how good the design of the vegetable cutter is and how sharp its cutting accessories are. A badly sharpened blade will make us have to make a much greater force to cut the food.

Electric

An electric vegetable cutter is the most practical thing that currently exists.

We just have to choose the desired cutting attachment and place the vegetable in question.

Finally, by pressing the button we can see how the vegetables are cut automatically.

You'll be thinking that the best electric vegetable chopper or cutters are very expensive, but it's not like that. It is clear that there is a difference with respect to manuals, but it is not exorbitant or inaccessible. A little below we will show you some very interesting models.

Spiral

The vegetable spiral cutters are designed to carry out different recipes in which we want the vegetable to have a more aesthetic presence.

If there is something that we have all dreamed of at some time, it is undoubtedly a spiral potato cutter, since you can fry the potato in a completely new way.