Today's first post is all about my "new" hand-cranked meat grinder. It's a used Enterprise No. 12 that I purchased last week online and it arrived late last afternoon. I'm so excited because now we have a grain mill and a meat grinder.
Since the meat grinder had a bit of surface rust and it wasn't as smooth-cranking as I would like, I took it apart and cleaned it with soapy hot water. Surprisingly, this grinder was really easy to take apart. That knob on the far right is a screw that you can loosen to remove the handle. Once I had the grinder in parts, I put them under running hot water and scrubbed gently. Any rust that was on the surface came off quickly. I then dried all the parts thoroughly and rubbed the inside of the body and all of the smaller parts with lard. When I put it back together, it was running smoothly! Good as new. I found an online shop where I can purchase newer blades, plates, and sausage stuffing tubes (as well as casings and seasonings), so I will accumulate those little by little.
It isn't as shiny as a new one, which costs around $150, but it is still in real good shape. I think it weighs around 10 lbs., so it is certainly heavy-duty. You can see that this is the bolt on model. I would most likely need to bolt it onto a piece of heavy wood or onto a table that I don't mind ruining for the sake of great sausage. I didn't want to buy the clamp-on model (a No. 10 or 5) because I thought they may be too small, or the clamp would be kind of a hassle. I like that I can hold onto the No. 12's body even if I don't bolt it on.
The grinder's body has the words "Enterprise" and "Tinned" on it. The Enterprise meat grinder company is now known as Chop-Rite Two. Supposedly, the design for this meat grinder goes back to the late 19th century. You can still find some old advertisements that show the original Enterprise meat grinder model and how much it cost ($3.00).
Along with this meat grinder, I'm going to show you a cool tool that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. I'm still in love with this knife.
This is called a Hjordis Sword Goddess knife. It's not a really famous knife, but I love its durability, design, ergonomics, and the overall quality. It cost me $15 for the knife and around $3 for the shipping. Because he loves mine so much, my fiance wanted one for himself, so I decided to buy another one to give him for Christmas. He asked me to purchase one more for a gift exchange at work. I'm sure his recipient is going to enjoy this knife as much as we do! I've used mine for cutting meat, opening up boxes, cutting tape, etc. I just love using my Hjordis for cutting up meat - it slices through the meat like butter!
It's quite heavy for a knife of its size, but I like that characteristic. To me, heaviness is almost synonymous with quality. The blade is not too long, but it is sturdy and does not move at all when I try to wiggle it around. When I first got the knife, I didn't realize how sharp it was out of the box and I cut myself a couple of times. The tip was surprisingly very sharp. I'm used to kitchen knives and not utility or pocket knives, so I will need more practice with this. I love it anyway! If you want to purchase one, please go to Misty's website (she doesn't know that I'm doing this, but I love this knife and her fast shipping/communication that I want to help her out). Let her know where you got the link, please! You can also check her out on Youtube where she does helpful videos and shows you, in a couple videos, how she uses her Hjordis knife.
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