Month: November 2013

Earlier today, I placed a bid on a Griswold vintage meat grinder. I hope I win this grinder.

It looks a lot like the one that my mother used when I was a child. She’d clamp it to the side of the table, and my mother, brother and I took turns turning that crank to make our sausages. Sausage making was a lot of work, and my brother and I weren’t always thrilled to keep feeding the meat into the grinder. However we knew better than to complain, and it was one of our chores; grinding the sausage and stuffing them into casings. You know, if I think about it, I can still taste those sausages? I must say it tasted better than any of the prepackaged sausage that I’d purchase in the store during my pre-veggie days! The pig killed was one that we raised and was not pumped with all sorts chemicals.

One of my mothers favorite ways to prepare sausages was smothering them with homemade gravy. She usually cooked sausages for our Sunday morning breakfast. Sunday breakfast was early so we’d have time to change and go to church.  My mother showed me how awesome it is to be self-sufficient and I took it to a higher level not only with the meals I prepare, but in other aspects of my life also.

 

But back to the meat grinder…

A meat grinder grinds more than meat. I’ve seen them used for grinding wheat grass and some grains too. I’m sure, when I receive my vintage meat grinder that I’ll have  a lot of fun experimenting with the different items that I can grind and of course, I’ll be making homemade sausage for my daughter.

The past few days, with my posts about meat, one might not think that I was vegan. I am, but I do make non-vegan meals for loved ones. Before my daughter was born, the only foods I cooked, after switching to vegetarianism was vegan. That continued to until my daughter was about six years old. She wanted to try animal products… and I let her. She still mainly eats a vegetarian diet, but does supplement it with animals, and I’m fine with that.

Of course, when I saw the manufactures name (Griswold) for the vintage meat grinder I immediately thought of ‘The Griswolds’ from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I included two of my favorite scenes from the movie. I haven’t watched that in years.

 

In my twenties, I thought about purchasing a food/meat slicer. As appealing at they were to me, at the time, it wasn’t really feasible since it was just myself and I honestly could not justify purchasing that item. Also, as a vegan, there really wasn’t a need for the slicer even though I loved what it did.

Fast forward to today, I’m still vegan, but my ten year old daughter isn’t. During the school year, I prepare the majority of her lunches. Processed foods aren’t in those lunches, since I’ve make the majority of her lunches.  Her lunches contain a variety of foods;   salads, eggrolls, soups, lunch meats, fruit smoothies and a whole host of other delicious foods.

Deli sandwiches come in handy, since those lunches are quick to prepare but making the slices ‘deli thin’ can be challenging at times. Because of this, I rarely put ‘deli style’ sandwiches in her lunch. But since I know my daughter loves those types of sandwiches, I’m finally warming up to the idea of acquiring my own meat slicer. I love the thought that preparing and slicing my own deli meats puts me in control of the entire process since I’ll know how the meat was prepared; I’d be cooking the meat myself. Additionally, my homemade deli meats won’t be loaded with all sorts of unnecessary junk (such as nitrates) that are common in many deli meats.

During my research, finding a ‘manual gravity fed meat slicer’, similar to the ones I see at my local deli was top priority. I found several reviews on forums, blogs and even stumbled upon an old vintage meat slicer on Chicky Chikita’s website. I saw a few of the vintage slicers she has on Ebay. I visited Chickita’s site for a little while. She’s vegan, a sewist, and does sewing machine embroidery and applique. It sure sounds like we have a few things in common.

Anyway… after hours of research, I do believe I found the perfect slicer for our home. It’s the Avantco 10″ Manual Gravity Feed Meat Slicer.

Some features of the Avantco 10″ Manual Gravity Feed Meat Slicer are…

• Built-in sharpener
• Easy cleanup
• ETL Sanitation and ETL Listed

Within the next few weeks, I’ll purchase the meat slicer. It won’t take long for the meat slicer to pay for itself. Also, a meat slicer slices more than meats so I’m sure I’ll be using it to slice cheese and it’ll come in handy when slicing veggies for our homemade pizzas. Oh, and I know I’ll be purchasing raw beef-ribeye so I can thinly slice it to make Philly cheese steaks without the Cheez whiz. My daughter loves Philly Cheese steaks.

The Avantco,  is not as expensive as a Berkel or Hobart meat slicer, but it works similar to them, and the reviews for the Avantco are positive. Once I’ve purchased and used it, I’ll be sure to post my review about the product.

 

Of course… when I started thinking about meat slicers I could not help but remember the above Seinfeld episode.

 

Resource:

1. Environmental Protection Agency: Nitrates and Nitrites
2. World Cancer Research Foundation:  Red and Processed Meats and Cancer Prevention
3. World Cancer Research Foundation: Red and Processed Meat: Finding the Balance for Cancer Prevention
4. The Institute for Natural Healing: Processed Meats Declared too Dangerous for Human Consumption