The 5 Best Meat Grinders of 2024

 

With one of the best meat grinders in your kitchen, you can say goodbye to the guessing game of what’s lurking in that pre-packaged mystery meat. Instead, you can say hello to a choose-your-own-adventure where you’re totally in control of your meat-based meals, like the cut, quality, and composition. No more wondering about additives, fillers, or questionable preservatives — with a meat grinder, you know exactly what’s going on your family’s plate. Meggan thinks owning one is totally worth it!

When you add a meat grinder to your collection of kitchen gadgets, you can make super yummy Bacon Cheeseburgers or comforting Italian Meatballs. We even included Meggan’s favorite option, the KitchenAid Grinder Attachment, along with other top-tier picks from brands like Cuisinart and LEM! 

Ahead, check out the best meat grinders up for grabs right now.

Our Top Picks: 

1. What’s in Meggan’s Kitchen: KitchenAid Grinder Attachment – $74.95 at Amazon
2. Best Value: Sunmile Electric Meat Grinder – $49.99 at Amazon
3. Best Splurge: LEM BigBite Meat Grinder – $529.99 at Amazon
4. Best for Sausage: Cuisinart Electric Meat Grinder – $99.95 at Amazon
5. Most Versatile: STX International Turboforce 3000 Series – $159.75 at Amazon

Reviews of The Best Meat Grinders

1. What’s in Meggan’s Kitchen: KitchenAid Grinder Attachment

If you already own a KitchenAid Stand Mixer, Meggan suggests buying the KitchenAid Stand Mixer Attachment Grinder. It’s the same one she’s relied on for more than 15 years to make her classic Meatloaf recipe. The attachment transforms your mixer into a versatile meat grinder without the need for a separate appliance, so it’s ideal for occasional use and smaller grinding tasks.  

“Since I’m not processing full animals, I just have a meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer,” Meggan says. “It has 2 different discs to adjust the size of your grind and it cleans up easily – just take it apart and wash the components. It’s economical and doesn’t take up too much space if you already have a KitchenAid mixer.”

The Specs:

• Size: 8.8 by 5.5 by 8.4 inches
• Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Power: 220 watts
• Includes: Food grinder, food tray, fine, medium, and coarse grinding plates, cleaning brush, food pusher, sausage stuffer tubes, and sausage stuffer plate

The Pros:

• Economical
• High powered
• Space saving
• Easy to clean

The Cons:

• Only works with KitchenAid mixers
• A lot of parts

What Others are Saying:

This KitchenAid Grinder Attachment has a 4.4-star rating on Amazon from more than 8,100 reviews. Additionally, it was named the best stand mixer attachment by The Spruce Eats, Serious Eats, and Food & Wine. 

Buy the KitchenAid Grinder Attachment: 

2. Best Value: Sunmile Electric Meat Grinder

If you’re new to this whole meat grinding thing and aren’t sure if you want to fully jump in yet, the Sunmile Electric Meat Grinder is a great place to start. 

For its small size and price, it has everything you need in a great meat grinder: A powerful but quiet high-power motor, a polished cast aluminum grinder head, a large feeding tube for minimal clogging and jamming, and 3 various stainless steel cutting plates for coarse, medium, and fine grinds. All of the cutting plates and cutting blades can be washed in the dishwasher, too, and it’s easy to operate. 

The plastic exterior might not look the best wow your guests, but it’s easy to store thanks to its smaller midrange size. t it doesn’t look too bad on the counter. And However, you can they’ll be impressed to know you can grind up to 200 pounds of meat per hour, which is definitely –enough to keep the grill busy at the next summer block party!

The Specs:

• Size: 14.76 by 7.68 by 14.17 inches
• Weight: 7.3 pounds
• Power: 250 watts
• Includes: Food grinder, food tray, stainless steel cutting blade, fine, medium, and coarse grinder plates, sausage stuffer, plastic pusher

The Pros:

• Powerful
• Efficient
• Most pieces are dishwasher safe (all but the base)
• Easy to assemble
• Great value

The Cons:

• Plastic exterior

What Others are Saying:

The Sunmile Electric Meat Grinder is an upgraded version of the meat grinder named best overall by The Spruce Eats. It also This meat grinder has a 4.4-star rating on Amazon from more than 2,200 reviews. Additionally, it was named the best French rolling pin by.

Buy the Sunmile Electric Meat Grinder: 

3. Best Splurge: LEM BigBite Meat Grinder

If she was going to grind meat more seriously or on a more regular basis, Meggan says she wouldn’t think twice about buying the LEM Big Bite Meat Grinder. “We had this one in culinary school, and it is sturdy with excellent construction, quiet, and easy to use,” she says. “It’s a professional model for the most serious meat-grinding folks.”

Engineered for durability and precision, it’s one of the best meat grinders that’s designed to get the job done via a powerful motor. It also comes with an oversized meat pan so you can process large quantities. With this grinder, you can process a wide range of meats, including beef, pork, lamb, mutton, venison, deer, and even chicken bones! With multiple accessories available, from sausage stuffing tubes to jerky slicers, it caters to a diverse range of tasks.

The Specs:

• Size: 20.2 by 9.1 by 16 inches
• Weight: 33 pounds
• Power: 550 watts
• Includes: 2 grinder plates, 3 stuffing tubes, meat stomper

The Pros:

• Fast
• Powerful
• Large capacity
• Professional grade

The Cons:

• Expensive
• Heavy and a bit hard to handle

What Others are Saying:

The LEM BigBite Meat Grinder has a 4.7-star rating on Amazon from nearly 900 reviews. Additionally, it was named the best splurge meat grinder by The Spruce Eats and Food & Wine. 

Buy the LEM BigBite Meat Grinder: 

4. Best for Sausage: Cuisinart Electric Meat Grinder

There’s nothing worse than grabbing sausages or beef from the supermarket only to find that the seasoning is lackluster or the meat is fatty. With this meat grinder, you can do a much better job of making your own fresh links at home and stock your fridge with protein-packed snacks for kids on the go.

If you have a hunter in the family, the Cuisinart Electric Meat Grinder is especially useful because you can process meat in bulk thanks to the 300-watt motor and sturdy pusher. And if you get stuck, there’s a reverse button that quickly and easily clears clogs without getting your hands too dirty. 

Equipped with multiple grinding plates and accessories, it offers the flexibility to customize your grind according to preference, whether you need coarse ground meat for hearty chili or a finer texture for meatballs. 

The Specs:

• Size: 9.3 by 16.4 by 8.5 inches
• Weight: 9.3 pounds
• Power: 300 watts
• Includes: 2 grind plates, 2 sausage stuffers, plastic pusher

The Pros:

• Durable build
• Two separate stuffer attachments
• Affordable
• Handles big batches

The Cons:

• Pusher can pop off
• Loud

What Others are Saying:

The Spruce Eats found the Cuisinart Electric Meat Grinder to be the best meat grinder for sausage. It also has a 4.4-star rating on Amazon from more than 800 reviews. 

Buy the Cuisinart Electric Meat Grinder: 

5. Most Versatile: STX International Turboforce 3000 Series

If you’re looking for a versatile, powerful pick, we definitely recommend investing in this heavy-duty option from STX International. It’s one of the best meat grinders because it’s armed with a whopping 1,200 watts of grinding power and comes with three-speed settings, a wide meat tube, and a meat hopper that can hold 3 pounds of meat at a time. This means that it can effortlessly tackle even the toughest cuts of meat! The manufacturer even claims it can slice through up to 240 pounds of meat per hour! 

It comes with a variety of accessories, too, like three blades, three grinding plates, a sausage-stuffing plate, a burger press, and more, so it gets extra points for versatility. 

The Specs:

• Size: 20 by 12 by 11 inches
• Weight: 12 pounds
• Power: 1,800 watts
• Includes: 3 blades, 3 grinding plates, sausage-stuffing plate, 3 sausage stuffing tubes, kibbeh attachment, plastic pusher, burger press, meat claws

The Pros:

• Powerful motor
• Many attachments
• 3 grinding speeds
• Good for tough cuts of meat

The Cons:

• Parts must be washed by hand

What Others are Saying:

The STX International Turboforce 3000 Series has a 4.6-star rating on Amazon from more than 5,100 reviews. It was named the best multifunctional meat grinder by The Spruce Eats and best overall by Food & Wine. 

Buy the STX International Turboforce 3000 Series: 

Other Meat Grinders to Consider

CHEFFANO Meat Grinder

The CHEFFANO is a popular pick because it comes with a ton of accessories for grinding and stuffing, which makes it a versatile tool for the kitchen. It’s also easy to operate with a simple on/off button. The biggest drawback is that reviewers mentioned being frustrated that food can start to plug up the feeding tube. Luckily there’s a reverse button that can help unclog it, but for the price, we’d rather suggest a meat grinder that will prevent frustrating situations. The CHEFFANO Meat Grinder is available at Amazon for $85.99.

Metal Food Grinder Attachments for KitchenAid Stand Mixers

At first, we thought this model could be a great dupe for the KitchenAid Grinder Attachment! But since it’s not certified by KitchenAid it’s a bit of a gamble, so we recommend just going with the KitchenAid so you don’t mess up the warranty on your stand mixer. The Metal Food Grinder Attachments for KitchenAid Stand Mixers is available at Amazon for $49.99.

Kitchen Basics Manual Meat and Vegetable Grinder

This model manually requires a very specific setup for attaching it to surfaces like a counter or table. In the end, we said no thanks because it seems cumbersome to set up, and winding the arm sounds a lot like work! The Kitchen Basics Manual Meat and Vegetable Grinder is available at Amazon for $34.95.

Why You Can Trust Us

Hi, I’m Belle, an award-winning content creator and an adjunct professor who works in restaurant PR in the Midwest. For more than 20 years, I’ve held almost every position imaginable in various restaurants, including ownership of a Korean-concept hot dog cart (that was named after my dog’s teeth). My writing and on-camera work can be seen on the Better Homes & Gardens website. 

Meggan and I worked together to create this guide of the best meat grinders available. You don’t have to be a serious hunter or preparing food for a long season to invest in one of these devices — in fact, when putting our list together, we primarily considered the casual user who wants to give meat grinding a spin. 

We first started out with the meat grinder Meggan uses, along with her other favorites before researching other highly recommended models. After reading hundreds of online reviews to find the best options out there, we compared them side by side and rated them on design, price, ease of use, and overall value.

Everything to Know Before Buying a Meat Grinder

What to Consider Before Buying a Meat Grinder

Here are some factors to think about prior to buying the best meat grinder for your kitchen:

• Construction and cleaning: Meggan says you should look for a meat grinder with stainless steel parts, not plastic ones. Since it does a dirty job, you’ll also want to make sure the base and all its parts are easy to clean. 
• Size: You should also take a look at the dimensions and consider whether or not it warrants the storage space. If you think you’ll use it all the time, it is worth it! But if you think you’ll only be a casual user, you might want to invest in a smaller machine.   
• Power: In order to grind through hunks of meat, you’ll want to look for a meat grinder with at least 200 watts of power. All of the meat grinders on this list should fit the bill!

Do You Need a Meat Grinder?

Well, it depends. If you have a hunter or butcher in the family who will need to produce a lot of meat, then the answer is probably yes, you’ll want one of the best meat grinders. If you have a foodie in the house who wants to create their own sausage mix or wants the freshest ingredients, then the answer is definitely a yes. A meat grinder will also come in handy for saving money if you want to buy meat in bulk when it goes on sale and freeze ground meat for later. 

But if you care more about convenience and mind having a lot of cleanup after cooking, you may want to pass on a meat grinder. It’s definitely not a must-have for all kitchens!

How Do You Grind Meat Without a Grinder?

According to Meggan, you can grind down meats like pork butt or steak that’s been cut into 1-inch cubes in a food processor using the pulse function until the meat is coarsely chopped.

Can You Grind Meat in a Food Processor?

Yes, as mentioned above, use the pulse function to grind down meats like pork butt or steak that’s been cut into 1-inch cubes until you achieve meat that is coarsely chopped. 

How Do You Clean a Meat Grinder?

Since you’ll be working with raw meats when you use your grinder, it’s very important to wash it thoroughly after using it to avoid cross-contamination or foodborne illness. Every meat grinder has different cleaning instructions, but here are the basics:

Step 1: Make sure the machine is unplugged.

Step 2: Disassemble all the parts.

Step 3: Place all dishwasher-safe parts in the dishwasher, but make sure to check your manual to double-check what pieces can be cleaned in a dishwasher.

Step 4: Soak all removable parts in hot, soapy water for a few minutes to break down the grease. 

Step 5: Scrub all the parts clean with a sponge or bottle brush.

Step 6: Dry all the parts immediately with a dishtowel to avoid any rusting.

Step 7: If you want to reassemble the parts to store them, do so only after they are completely dry.

The Best Ground Meat Recipes

Eventually, you’ll want to dream up your own creations. But in the meantime, check out some of these recipes by Meggan that are great on their own, but are downright incredible with freshly ground meat when using one of the best meat grinders.

Chicken and Turkey Recipes

Turkey Meatballs

Grilling and Smoker Recipes

Best Bacon Cheeseburger

Beef Recipes

Salisbury Steak Recipe

Soup and Stew Recipes

Venison Chili

Soup and Stew Recipes

Sausage Tortellini Soup

Main Dishes

Meatloaf Recipe

Italian Recipes

Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe

Beef Recipes

The Best Swedish Meatballs

Prices were accurate at time of publication.