How To Clean Kitchenaid Meat Grinder

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KitchenAid attachments make an already useful appliance even better.
Both KitchenAid and several third-party companies make stand mixer attachments you can use to grind meat, making it easy to whip up fresh burgers, sausage, and more at home.
If you don't have a meat grinder attachment yet, we recommend the KitchenAid Metal Food Grinder Attachment because it's easy to use, cleans up effortlessly, and is built to last.
See more: The best KitchenAid attachments

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It seems like everyone who owns a KitchenAid stand mixer swears by it. Owners proudly display their units on their kitchen counters, rather than storing them away in some cabinet. And, each holiday season you see plenty of pictures on social media of happy new KitchenAid owners.

There's a good reason for this appliance's popularity. You can use it to make just about anything from pizza dough to fresh pasta and ice cream. Below, we will look at how you can use your KitchenAid stand mixer to grind meat.

How to grind meat with a KitchenAid

1. Pop your meat grinder in the freezer for a few hours before grinding. This helps to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria.

2. Freeze your meat for about half an hour. Cold meat is easier to grind.

3. Make sure your stand mixer is turned off and unplugged.

4. Attach the meat grinder to your KitchenAid stand mixer.

5. Depending on which stand mixer model you have, either remove or flip up the attachment hub cover located on the very front of the gear case.

6. Insert the shaft of the housing into the attachment hub until the power shaft fits into the square hub socket.

7. Tighten the hub knob so the grinder is secure.

8. Plug in your mixer, turn it on, and set it to Speed 4.

9. Place a mixing bowl under the attachment where the meat will come out.

10. Start putting meat into the tray on top and use the food pusher to tamp the meat down into the feed tube.

11. Keep feeding meat into the feed tube until there is no more meat left to grind. Let the grinder run until no more meat is coming out.

12. If you want more tender meat, put it through the grinder a second time. However, you should not do this if you are using fatty meats.

Those are the basic steps to grinding meat with your KitchenAid. Here's a more detailed breakdown of the process.

What you'll need

Meat
Meat grinder attachment
Cutting board
Knife
Mixing bowl

First, you need a meat grinder attachment. There are several out there made by KitchenAid and other manufacturers. My favorite is the KitchenAid Metal Food Grinder Attachment. It's made entirely of steel so it's durable and easy to clean. Be sure to wash your grinder before you use it for the first time.

You will also need some meat. For burgers, you generally want a mix of chuck and sirloin. Bobby Flay recommends 85% chuck to 15% sirloin, but if you want a leaner and drier burger, add extra sirloin. If you want to add more flavor, add some brisket to the mix. I like to buy whatever cheap roast is available — hopefully something with plenty of fat — and use that for my ground beef concoctions. Feel free to experiment. I've had fun making 75% ground beef/25% ground bacon burgers.

For sausage, you generally want a combination of pork and beef or veal. Consider using pork fatback for extra juicy sausages. Here's how to make sausage with your KitchenAid.

A cutting board is a must for cutting the meat into smaller, more manageable chunks. A good, sharp knife is ideal for the task, and I recommend the 8-inch Victorinox Fibrox Pro Chef's Knife.

Lastly, you'll want a large mixing bowl to catch the meat as it leaves the grinder.

Prep your KitchenAid and attachments

First, assemble your meat grinder. With the KitchenAid Metal Food Grinder Attachment, you insert the grind screw into the main housing, attach the blade to the end of the screw, select and attach the grinding plate, and secure it all with the collar. Then, put the removable tray on top of the housing feed tube.

The KitchenAid Metal Food Grinder Attachment has three grinding plates: fine (3-mm holes), medium (4.5-mm holes), and coarse (8-mm holes). The coarse plate is best for grinding raw meat for burgers and chili, the medium plate is great for sausage meat, and the fine plate is ideal for cooked meats that you want to spread.

A few hours before grinding, consider putting your attachment in the freezer. This is supposed to be helpful from a food safety perspective. It keeps your meat from heating up when coming into contact with the grinder. Harmful bacteria are more likely to grow on raw meat as the temperature rises so the cold is your friend. I store my meat grinder in the freezer so it's always ready to go.

A half-hour before grinding, put your meat in the freezer. Cold meat is firmer and easier to grind than warmer, mushy meat.

Cut the meat into cubes that are slightly smaller than the feed tube. On most devices, this opening is usually about one or two inches. If you're feeling lazy, you can sometimes get away with cutting the meat into long, narrow strips and feeding the strips into the grinder. I haven't noticed an appreciable difference between cubes and strips.

Keep feeding meat into the feed tube until there is no more meat left to grind. Let the grinder run until no more meat is coming out, then switch it off. If you want more tender meat, put it through the grinder a second time. However, you should not do this if you are using fatty meats.

Clean the attachment

The grinder is much easier to clean if you take care of it immediately after you are done processing your meat. Otherwise, tiny pieces of meat dry onto the attachment, and it'll take some work to remove all of the little flakes. Most of the parts of the Metal Food Grinder Attachment are not dishwasher safe, and even if your grinder is considered dishwasher safe, we recommend washing by hand to increase its longevity.

Remove the grinder from the mixer. Then, take the housing apart and remove each of the pieces. Put them in a sink of warm, soapy water. Wash each element with a sponge using a cleaning brush to get any stubborn bits of meat. Once each of the components is clean, dry them thoroughly. I like to put the grinder back together and store it in my freezer, but you are free to store it however you like. Just make sure it stays dry.

As with anything you do in the kitchen, have fun with your creations. Once you get the hang of grinding your own meat, you will never buy ground meat again. It's just too easy and tastes so much better to do it yourself.

Check out our full guides to the best KitchenAid stand mixers and the best KitchenAid attachments.

James Brains

Home & Kitchen Reporter, Insider Reviews

James is a Home & Kitchen Reporter for Insider Reviews, where he specializes in sleep, HVAC, and kitchen appliances. He has tested more than 30 mattresses from startups like Casper and legacy brands like Tempur-Pedic, using his background in experimental psychology to develop objective tests and evaluate comfort, support, motion transfer, and more. He authors our guide to the best mattresses. In addition to being Insider Reviews' mattress expert, James has extensively covered robot vacuums, air conditioners, air purifiers, and more within the HVAC space. He's tested more than 20 robot vacs from brands like iRobot and Roborock over the years and is no stranger to keeping his house at a chilly 60 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks on end all in the name of testing air conditioners. He's a multifaceted writer who has covered everything from health and fitness to consumer technology. His mission is to help people get the most value for their money by guiding them in making informed buying decisions. James is currently based in Lansing, Michigan, where he lives in "The Barn Mansion," a three-story Dutch colonial home, with his wife, two sons, two cats, and a rambunctious rat terrier. When James isn't testing products and writing for Insider, he's helping to run a popular local Facebook group, Lansing Foodies. See below for some of his work: The best mattress for every type of sleeper in 2021, according to our rigorous testing The 6 best robot vacuums we tested in 2021 The 6 best air conditioners we tested in 2021 The best Instant Pots and electric pressure cookers we tested in 2021 10 grilling essentials that chefs and pitmasters swear by for making the best BBQ The 5 best mattress toppers we tested in 2021 Contact info: jbrains@insider.com Learn more about how our team of experts tests and reviews products at Insider here. Learn more about how we test kitchen products.