The meat grinders serve a lot of purposes of the users. You can use it not only for grinding meat, but also for sausage preparation and as a pasta maker. It serves brilliantly in all the forms, no matter if it is a manual or an electric meat grinder. Any form of grinder requires some maintenance to be done and it is a more serious thing with an electric meat grinder.
The machines dealing with raw meat raise certain hygienic issues which could only be appropriately addressed, if you are extra careful about the maintenance of the product. It has been found that most of the users today make use of their meat grinders only occasional. The bachelors are the best example of this as they hardly take it out on certain occasions. If that is the case as well, there is a proper way of storing your product. Even if you are a daily or a frequent user, you must follow a few important steps before placing it safely in your kitchen cabinet.
Why you need to know your meat grinder?
We are talking here generally, about both the manual and electric meat grinders. They come with some specific parts such which you must be well aware of. It comes with several parts such as cutting plates, grinder head, sausage attachments, meat pusher and so many other attachments. Most of the parts of the machine are removable which allows you to do easy cleaning of the system. Some manufacturers declare their products safe for dishwasher, while some could only be washed by hand. The products that couldn’t be used in a dishwasher are because of their special color coating which wears off while used in a dishwasher.
Therefore, for this and all other reasons, you must follow the instructions of the manufacturer by thoroughly reading the user manual of the product. Reading the user manual would answer a lot of questions about the maintenance of the product.
How to prepare the machine for cleaning?
First of all, you need to do a few simple things to set it up for easy cleaning. Therefore, before you can disassemble your meat grinder for cleaning purposes, just run it through with a couple of pieces of bread. Run the bread through the feed tube and make it come out of the grinder through the cutting blade. This thing should be done just in the similar way as you would do with the grinding of the meat. This will be helpful as the bread will collect all the residue particles of the meat that are stuck inside.
They are not easy to remove otherwise and your washing process of the grinder would also be easier. After that, remove your grinder from the counter if manual or unplug it from the wall, if electric. The grounding screws should be removed then which is followed by the removal of the cutting plate, blade and the blade cover. Make sure that you are careful with the handling of the blade as it is sharp enough to cut your hand.
How to wash the meat grinder
For washing purposes, the user must follow the instructions of the manufacturer if it should be washed in a dishwasher or by hand. Whatever the manufacturer says, it is highly advised to wash any kind of meat grinder with hand. It is because of the reason that a dishwasher can result in etching for some of the metallic parts and the blade can also become dull.
For washing, fill up your kitchen sink with hot soapy water and soak the removable parts for a few minutes. Use an abrasive sponge to scrub the parts. A bottle brush can be used to reach out for the cleaning of hard to access areas of some of the grinder parts.
How to store?
Now it is the time for storing the product after all the washing is completed. It has been tested that the mineral oils are good in keeping the metal parts safe from rusting or corrosion. You can spray a very thin layer of mineral oil onto all the metallic parts of the grinder. It is better to store your grinder in the disassembled form after they have completely dried up.
The small parts can be safely stored in a plastic bag and add a handful of rice in it. The remaining moisture will be absorbed by adding the raw rice and it also prevents rusting. Only assemble the machine, once you need to use it again.
Now, that you know what you should be doing to handle your meat grinder, you should not worry about its efficiency when you need to use it. You just have to take care of it on a regular basis. It would work as good as a new one ready to serve anytime you need.
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