Customer Reviews

Deni 3500 800-Watt Professional Grade Meat Grinder

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

We were nervous about ordering this unit because it had no reviews when we did. But it had the best power rating; it was big enough to feel comfortable that it wouldn't burn up the first time you use it and a low enough power (800 watt versus 1350+ watts on the largest home units) that it wasn't going to blow breakers when you plug it in. It seemed like just the right size - and it was (is).

We bought this because we refuse to buy any store ground meat anymore; we haven't done so for a couple years - neither sausage nor hamburger. We grind our own. We do have to buy the meat to grind but we find it as fresh as we can and rinse off the outside well with cold water before beginning. (Update 6-11-10: Now we have learned that experts say don't rinse the meat. What's in your water might be worse than what's on the meat!) That's about as safe as you can get, I think.

We've been using a manual grinder which I don't mind so much but ours is a heavy duty one that mounts with 4 screws. We mount it to a big cutting board with stainless bolts and wing-nuts and then clamp the cutting board to the table. That puts a lot of wear on the table from the rotational forces of the grinder. We decided on the electric because the motor confines the rotational force into the unit - no wear on your table or counter. OK, and it is easier on the arms, too.

We ground 10 pounds of chuck into hamburger last night and 15 pounds of Boston [...]pork roast into sausage this morning. (edit: This is supposed to be Boston B?tt roast but censorship is out of control on the Internet and I guess the name of a pork roast offends Amazon - they changed b?tt with the "u" in it to [...]. Anyway -) The grinder did not miss a beat. We did stop about half way into the sausage and put the meat back into the freezer for a bit. Sausage meat should be very cold when you grind it or it gets mushy. That isn't a fault of the grinder; it's just the way it is.

Just to be safe while the meat chilled, we completely cleaned the machine. Cleaning only takes a few minutes with a good kitchen brush and a bottle brush. The meat screw has a rubber gasket to keep meat out of the mechanism but I don't think anything even got that far in. After 25 lbs of meat, the motor assembly was spotless except meat that hit the outside front under the grinder.

Follow the instructions and use the desired size disc first time around. On our manual grinder we would start with the largest disc and then use the final size disc. That was easier on us. We tried the same with a little of our meat using this unit and it made mush when it went through the second time. We cooked the mushier ground meat for tacos tonight and it worked great so even that wasn't so bad. When we used the smallest disc first, because that was the final size we wanted, the unit didn't hiccup at all. It handled it without any noticeable heat.

Same thing with having the meat very cold. It's in the instructions; just read and follow them. We ground the beef while it was still semi-frozen but thawed enough to cut easily with a knife. The sausage roast hadn't been frozen so it was completely thawed - which is why it had to go back into the freezer for a while. Again, follow the instructions. Dice the meat into cubes and put the cubes into the freezer for a bit to partially freeze. If you don't do that step, it still grinds just fine and tastes just fine. It is just mushy looking - more like store sausage stuffed in plastic tubes kind of texture.

It comes with a plastic pusher for pushing the meat into the unit but the meat screw is well engineered. You almost don't need the pusher unless you feed it too fast. The only time I really had to use the pusher was to push the very last bit at the end of each batch. The unit pretty much pulls the meat through once it is started. Just let it do the work; don't force it. You'll get much better appearing results.

In summary, after grinding 25 pounds of meat, we're really pleased with the unit.

Here's an update for June 11, 2010. We've done probably 200 lbs of meat through ours and it still works as good as the day it first arrived. We did sausage with it once. The grinder did its job but it was our first attempt at sausage. :) We had a hard time doing our job with the casings and not sure we'll do it again. But we did find another great use for it this spring. When strawberries were in season we bought lots of them and made jam. After mashing a couple of batches of berries using the potato smasher, we finally figured out we had this motorized thingie in the pantry. I got it out and with the largest plate we ground the strawberries for the next 3 batches with no effort at all.

Plenty powerful. The throat that you feed the meat into could have been a little larger, and the attachments for grinding the meat, coarse, medium or fine are not stainless, so they tend to start rusting after the first use, so make sure you put a thin coat of veggie oil on them when you are done.

This grinder is absolutely awesome. Just make sure you put it together correctly. I put the cutting blade in backwards the first time I used it and what a horror show. It took me over an hour to mangel six pounds of pork butt. The picture showing how the cutting blade goes on is too small and you need a magnifying glass to see it. Make sure the rounded part of the blade is not facing you and the flat part with the blades is facing you. I would highly recommend this grinder to anyone. It ground up the meat faster than I could feed it and the hamburger was great plus the taste is unmatched.

Today I ground 6 plus pounds of pork butt in around 3 or 4 minutes.

Well-built unit. 800-watt motor handles meat with ease. Easy to clean, compact to store, doesn't make too much noise. I bought this unit through Amazon after reading positive reviews on other sites. After two months since purchase I have no complaints whatsoever.

My husband loves this grinder for making homemade sausage. I shopped around before purchasing this Deni grinder and was shocked to find so many grinders priced $200+ with 500-watts OR LESS of power. This 800-watt grinder is perfect for home use, and it can grind the toughest cuts of meat and fat with ease. It is a well-made machine with a nice weight to it so it doesn't "jump around" on the counter when in use.

We bought our meat grinder during hunting season so we could make our own ground meat and jerky. The Deni 3500 was so simple to set up, even easier to use, and a breeze to clean. We used the medium blade for ground meat for burgers, the large blade for chilli, and the fine for cased jerky. I love this item!

THis Grinder is awesome. We have used it for pork and beef and turkey and it never skips a beat. Frozen or fresh it zips right through no matter what you challenge it with.

i am so in love with this product and happy I bought one. it's so amazing. it will grind almost anything up into the sizes you want. different parts to make it bigger or smaller and I enjoy the sausage attachment for it. my family loved the homemade sausage and I even went so far as to ground together stuff for sandwiches, using spam, cheese, onions, olives. boy was that good. The kids were so crazy over that. This is an absolute must buy item and the price pays for itself in the long run.

I have looked all over for a good meat grinder at a good price. Lots of grinders are much more in cost but less in watts. This is a 800 watt and seens to have good power. Time will tell how good it is. It cleans up very easy and grinds just fine. For the money you can't go wrong. So I give it a four star review. I saw where some said it is loud, but it is not that bad, it's because is has more power than smaller ones.

We purchased this grinder after reading enough about problems with ground beef and the questionable origins of some of it. It is perfect for our needs. I have made a variety of combinations, looking for the best burger/meat loaf mix. Probably the most applause has come from 3/4 chuck roast, 1/4 pork steak or shoulder, and a good slice of salt pork plus four strips of bacon. Ready now to experiment with other grinds like ham. Tried using the smaller plate for ground beef (as suggested in the booklet) and found that using the larger plate and grinding twice gives the best texture. Very easy to use, very easy to clean. No spatter or flying chunks. Grind meat very cold or half-frozen. Caution--don't tighten the parts too firmly--expecially at first--or you will have a heck of a time getting things apart. This is a compact, nice-looking, and very efficient little machine.