KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment for Stand Mixers - Stainless Steel Meat Grinder & Sausage Stuffer - Perfect for Homemade Burgers, Sausages & Baby Food

When I read other reviews about there being some sort of "metal" filings being ground in to the food, I assumed people weren't using it right. I received my Kitchenaid Food grinder yesterday, cleaned it up very well, and put it to use today. Imagine my dismay when I began seeing what looked like finely ground blackish/grey "metal" filings in my meat. I noticed that when the meat was coming out, this junk seemed to come right out of the center of the grinding plate. I took the grinder plate off and noticed that the knife is LOOSE around the square peg part of the grind worm. It has quite a bit of "wiggle" from side to side. I suspect this is some sort of milling/manufacturing issue since there should be no wiggle (I can almost turn the knife part of the assembly completely around the square peg) in this product, the knife should fit snugly around the square peg. My theory is that this is causing some wear on the square peg/knife and producing metal dust, which then gets transferred to the meat. I would imagine that ultimately, with enough wear, the square peg will lose it's squareness and render the grinder useless because the knife would just spin freely around the peg.I'm going to ask my husband if there is any way to permanently affix the knife part to the grinder worm. Since this will be used exclusively as a grinder, I don't have to worry about taking it off for other attachments. If I can solve the "wiggle" problem, then there should be no more metal filings. Until we can figure something out, I won't be using it. I would return it, but it's a hassle and should work fine with some modifications.The grinder does work beautifully, but it's clear this is not an isolated problem so based on that, I couldn't recommend it.UPDATE 12/16/2012I've had the grinder for several months now and use it only occasionally. I upgraded to four stars from my original review for the sheer convenience of the grinder. This thing is *great* for quick grinding, say pulling an elk roast out of the freezer and grinding it up for spaghetti, etc. Although I still get the silvery/black stuff coming from the same location I mentioned in my original review, I just take my nail and kind of keep the meat clear of that area. None of the stuff gets in to my meat. You could probably take a small water bottle cap and gently hold it over that area to avoid contamination? It's kind of a weird and annoying problem, but not enough for me to *not* use the grinder. In fact, we processed two deer with this grinder and I was surprised at how well it did. I wouldn't recommend it for heavy use like that as you're probably likely to burn up your Kitchenaid (we had a few units at our disposal and just switched the grinder between the units), but it did do what we needed it to do! I would recommend this grinder for light-use, just be aware of the issue with the silvery stuff.I initially purchased this meat grinder attachment to grind my own sausage however, I ended up using it after a hunting trip to grind up some elk. While I didn't fully anticipate that the grinder would make it through the grinding process given how much meat we needed to grind (roughly 40lbs), I was pleasantly surprised that the grinder held up and seems like it is ready for more. I have listed a few pros and cons for the product below:Pros:1) While the product is plastic, the material quality is exceptional and is very durable.2) Having two grind sizes was very beneficial, I did a double grind (large first, then the smaller size) and the quality of the ground meat was as good if not better than the store.3) The attachment was very easy to take apart and clean. The product material cleaned very easily and all of the mechanical pieces were easy to remove and reassemble.Cons:1) This grinder had a very hard time grinding fat. As we processes the elk meat, we added beef fat to accommodate for the lean meat and the fat caked to the inside of the grinder and auger forcing me to take the grinder apart and clean it every few pounds of grinding making it very time consuming. I was able to work around this by grinding all the meat on the larger grinder setting without fat and when I came back to do the finer grind, I added the fat and it didn't bind up as much. With that said, this would concern me if I were grinding up even a few pounds of fatty beef or pork.2) The cutter needed to be cleaned throughout the grinding process to remove gristle that would tend to wrap around the cutter, which would add resistance to the grinder making it so that I had to push pretty hard to get the meat to grind.3) The plunger seemed a little flimsy and wasn't very comfortable to push the meat into the grinder. it could start to hurt your hand after a while.All in all, I was very satisfied that with the product especially considering the cost compared to standalone meat grinders. I don't believe that the product is intended to grind 40 lbs of meat in one shot however, for general use at home a few pounds at a time, this is a great product and I would certainly buy it again.I purchased this product last week as I wanted to grind meat / cheese for fresh tortellini I was making. I ignored the negative reviews, however they did leave me a little confused.The product is plastic, however its is robust. I minced down a mix of sausages, chicken, herbs and Parmesan cheese with no problem at all. You have to chop items into small cubes and then place in the machine (raw or cooked).I certainly didn't notice any difficulty at all with the shoot being too small, the product being slow and mincing / grinding nor food being left over. If this is happening I suggest the instruction booklet is read again as there's something you are doing completely wrong. It's not a difficult machine to use, you just attach to the Kitchenaid and then mince your food. Simple.I would highly recommend this product to any person who enjoys cooking.So far I have used this to grind beef and breadcrumbs, I was expecting it to be very slow and not very good but it was the complete opposite. I ran my round steak through it twice in about 2 minutes, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to use it for longer since it was so much fun. I won't be buying packets of mince anymore, now I know exactly what is in my minced meat, not just mystery cuts from the supermarket.I would not recommend this product, it's probably better to go with the stainless steel version of this as mine broke after first use - adjusting ring snapped and now it's not holding the blade and I still waiting for response from sellerIt is good quality product. But KitchenAid should have explain more clear communication on how to use the mincer. There are bits that don't work until you have to find out yourself. I had a problem when using at first because I didn't know how to operate effectively. I now know. You will need to trim vines and grease then thinly slice meat then cut into small dice approx. 1 cm. You then push the on button to highest speed before putting meat in, it seems to mince quicker. I cut thicker meat it stuck, so this is not suitable for commercial as it is slow. If you want to get it done quick like fast lane in catering. You will need bigger machine, this one only suitable when you are not in a hurry. You have to put a little at the time,it will flow better than put too much and use the pusher push it. This will make your job slower than put little at the time. I just noticed another utube she put too much and force to push the meat, not good demo.OK so it is a little tricky making sausages. There must be a knack to adopt so that one person can do it but we haven't managed it yet but the benefits of making your own sausages cannot be over-stated so it is well worth the effort. It is also quite enjoyable and satisfying.