The 5 Best Meat Grinders, Tested and Reviewed

We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.

Trust us, you’ll want to see how the sausage gets made.

In This Article

Food & Wine

I love butchering. There’s a certain meditative quality to breaking down meat and having complete control over the final product, in addition to knowing I’ve utilized the entire animal. You just need some sharp butcher knives and some patience. I used to process three whole cattle at a time and a couple of pigs per week in my restaurants, which left me with a lot of scrap meat to use. But that’s what meat grinders are for.

I used to sell a lot of burgers, and I tried to keep up with the demand for ground beef for a while, but that was a fool’s errand, so I just augmented our supply with what I could generate. But I could make a lot of sausage. All it took was a grinder and some casings to produce cold sausages like mortadella, or those intended to serve hot, like morcilla, which would get a final crisping on a flat top grill.

For ground meat, you can think beyond beef and pork, too. Poultry like duck, chicken, and turkey has many uses in ground form, as do rabbit and lamb. Game is also a good candidate for the grinder after segregating the useful cuts from the scrap. I’ve used some bad meat grinders, so I recognize those that are worthwhile. To choose the best, we tested a range of popular grinders made for everyone from the occasional dabbler to the experienced charcutier.

This user-friendly grinder has a wide, high-sided hopper and comes with lots of extras.

The plunger was awkward to hold and couldn't get to every last scrap of meat.

This plastic-bodied meat grinder from STX is powerful but lightweight and easy for a beginner to use. It has a wide hopper for feeding meat into the grinding tube, offers two speed settings, and comes with accessories for making burgers, sausage, and tartare. The Turboforce 3000 processed the test batch of beef on the coarse grind in 3.5 minutes, and it took a little under 3 minutes for the subsequent fine grind. It took a little longer for fatty pork butt, but not significantly.

Besides the two speeds, we appreciated the reverse button for when meat gets stuck. We did see some smearing in the grinding tube and die, but that’s to be expected. The plunger opens up to store the sausage stuffer tubes, which saves space but the odd shape of the plunger is awkward to hold, and the seams trapped some meat that didn't make it through the grinder. The grinding plates are made of tempered steel and need to be hand-washed, but the cutting blades are made of stainless steel and can go in the dishwasher. This set includes far more accessories than most, with five grind sizes, three sausage sizes, shaping tools for burgers and kibbeh, and even a pair of meat claws.

Power: 1,200 watts | Includes: 5 grinding plates, 3 sausage stuffing tubes, kibbeh attachment, meat claws, burger press, plunger

If you already have a KitchenAid, this kit turns your stand mixer into an effective meat grinder.

The capacity is fairly small, and it's only compatible with KitchenAid stand mixers.

If you already have a stand mixer and want to grind small amounts of meat — like enough burgers or sausage for the family — this KitchenAid attachment works great. The narrow tube, smaller auger, and limited hopper give the attachment a smaller capacity than a dedicated grinder, however. We had to apply some pressure to feed meat slowly down the tube in testing. Nevertheless, it powered through smaller jobs, like our ground beef and sausage tests, with relative ease. It's only as loud as your mixer (KitchenAid recommends speed setting 4 of 10 for optimal grinding), and parts were easy to assemble, and everything is dishwasher-safe.

Power: 325–500 watts, depending on mixer model | Includes: 3 grinding plates, 2 sausage stuffer tubes, plunger, cleaning brush

This compact grinder suitable for most home uses at an affordable price.

The motor is low-powered compared to other models, and it's quite loud.

This lightweight countertop appliance from Cuisinart is a great entry-level meat grinder that’s still suitable for more experienced folks. Anyone will appreciate its easy assembly, thanks to a clear user manual. The single power switch controls a single-speed grinding and reverse mode for clearing stuck food. This model was one of the louder ones we tested, registering 97 decibels at the highest; conversation was difficult with it turned on. That's largely due to its underpowered motor, which clocks in at just 300 watts. We needed to apply a lot more pressure to the plunger to feed everything into the auger, though we did manage to finish the coarse and medium grind tests (there’s no fine plate) in about 3 and 4.5 minutes, respectively. Still, the Cuisinart performed admirably for its price and would be ideal for grinding small batches of ground beef and sausage.

Power: 300 watts | Includes: 2 grinding plates, 2 sausage stuffer tubes, plunger

This powerful grinder makes short work of large quantities of meat, which is great for hunters or people who participate in a meat share.

It takes up a lot of space and costs a lot of money.

If you’re a hunter, amateur charcutier, or otherwise find yourself with a large amount to grind, a brand called MEAT! is indeed an obvious choice. The Dual Grinder passes meat through two plates one after the other, which means it can go from large cubes to fine ground in a single pass. At optimal speed, it can go through 5.5 pounds of meat per minute. Though we and we got through our tests much faster than other models. We processed 2 pounds of beef through the coarse die in less than 2 minutes and through the fine one in less than 3 minutes. We love the built-in storage drawer for all the components, and the attachments are dishwasher-safe.

This is a serious grinder, and it costs serious money. It's also a large, heavy machine that might be a pain to store. But if you're looking to invest in a professional-level grinder, this is a great choice. (If you're really hardcore, you could also upgrade to the even-larger 1-horsepower Dual Grinder.)

Power: 0.5 horsepower | Includes: 3 grinding plates, 3 sausage stuffer tubes, plunger

This grinder made short work of beef and pork and can even grind chicken bones.

It’s bulky, expensive, and loud.

The Big Bite is a beast of a grinder. It turned 2 pounds of diced beef chuck into a coarse grind in 58 seconds and took only a few seconds more to run through for a fine grind. It was incredibly easy to use for such a large, fast machine, with nothing but an on/off switch for the motor. Cleaning meat grinders is never fun, but the LEM was simple, if time-consuming, to wash.

This heavy-duty grinder weighs about 40 pounds, so you’ll need to clear some room for it in a cabinet or maybe the garage. But on the upside, a storage drawer in the body holds the plates, stuffing tubes, and other bits and pieces, which keeps everything organized and cuts down on additional storage needs. It's also a professional-level machine, so it carries a professional-level price.

Power: 0.75 horsepower | Includes: 3 grinding plates, 3 sausage stuffing tubes, plunger

Our top pick was the STX International Turboforce 3000 Series Electric Meat Grinder, a powerful yet lightweight model that’s great for beginners or experienced home users. It's reasonably priced but still includes more accessories and extras than most competitors.

Food & Wine

We put the grinders above through a series of side-by-side tests designed to evaluate their performance as well as ease of use.

After completing our performance tests, we revealed the retail prices of the grinders to consider value. At the time of testing, they ranged from $100 to $530, with an average of $280.

As with most electrical appliances, grinder power is usually measured in watts. The more watts the motor has, the faster the grinder can grind meat. The total quantity you want to grind at a time is also important when considering how powerful of a machine to buy, as a lower-wattage motor is more likely to overheat when it runs for a long time without a break. Of course, higher wattage comes at a trade-off: More powerful meat grinders are also more expensive, heavier, and larger.

Most grinders come with at least two plates to control texture — the smaller the holes, the finer the grind. Coarse ground is great for something like chili where you want some chunks, while fine grind makes for smooth-textured sausages. Depending on how many different tasks you plan to do, you might find more grind plates helpful. Another common meat grinder accessory is a sausage stuffer tube. After you've ground and mixed up your sausage meat, these let you pack it into casings to make links. There are also multiple sizes of stuffer tube, so you can create anything from narrow breakfast links to thick bratwurst.

On top of that, your grinder might come with some bonus cleaning and cooking tools.

You’ll know if you haven’t cleaned your meat grinder pieces well — the smell will be the first indication. (I’ve seen some horrific things with dirty meat grinders.) Meat grinders are notoriously time-consuming to clean thanks to all the tiny parts that wind up coated in grease. A high-pressure sing sprayer is good for removing most meat remnants, and a bottle brush can often handle the rest. If possible, try to find dishwasher-safe components. You'll still want to rinse off meat bits before putting parts in the dishwasher, but the high temperature will get them fully clean and sanitized.

Food & Wine

A food processor doesn’t grind meat so much as cut it into irregular pieces. As the pieces get smaller and smaller, the meat "smears" into the emulsified texture of a hot dog, slice of bologna, or a Vietnamese meatball. A grinder can create a coarse but still-even texture, giving that toothiness you want in a burger.

The easiest way to sharpen your meat grinder blades is with sandpaper. A wet/dry sandpaper intended for metal is best. Place the blade flat-side-down against an 80-grit sandpaper and move in in a figure-eight motion about 10 times. Then repeat this process with a finer-grit sandpaper, like 180 or 240. Alternatively, you can run the blade edges along a honing steel if you don't have sandpaper on hand.

Start by taking apart all the pieces and rinsing off all the meat scraps. It's fairly easy to clean the auger, plunger, and hopper tray, but little bits like to cling to the blade, the holes in the plate, and anywhere there are screw threads. If there's a bend between the feeder tube and the auger housing, that's another spot to pay special attention to — a flexible brush can be a big help. If any parts are dishwasher-safe, you should still wash off any visible solids before they go in the machine.

The most important rule for cleaning a meat grinder is to follow the directions for your specific machine. The motor base and anything connected to the electrical parts should not go in the sink, and you should be careful to