NorproMeat Grinder, Mincer and Pasta Maker

I am torn between 4 and 5 stars! I will tell you why I gave it 4.I bought this with extruding pasta in mind, hoping it would work to grind meat.I don't need a super meat grinder, just for a few pounds here and there, and I thought I would give a shot at making sausage (kielbasa, really).I tried it as a pasta extruder, and was really disappointed. Part of it is their pasta recipe, I know because years ago I made pasta all the time. It is not an easy thing to get right and this recipe does not work well.This thing really mashed the heck out of the dough, making it rubbery after cooking. Also, the pasta comes out so sticky it all sticks together as a large mass, so you have to peal it apart to cook.I think all that can be fixed with a good recipe. So I won't ding the product too much on that! But then I found that a large wad of dough gets left up in the chute. It won't extrude!Then I decided to toss caution to the wind and ground some chicken breast. (We love ground chicken for chili!)IT WAS EFFORTLESS! That got me excited, because I can cut that price of ground chicken in half by grinding boneless, skinless breast myself! AND added benefits are I know it is all white meat and no moisture is added to the product so I am not paying for water!That made me feel bold! I decided to grind a shoulder roast I had in the freezer (I didn't know what I was going to do with it). I decided to make beef sausage, so I cubed the meat, spiced it, and cooled it overnight. My sausage casings were not delivered by Amazon, so I just ground it and made it into hamburger. It was delicious, even with the spices!It was tougher to grind but not hard at all. It did not feel like I was going to break the thing and the tendinous junk was left around the shaft. So now I love it again! I am so happy, I can't wait to make sausage....how exciting!The good: Grinds meat really easily. Probably not for large amounts, but if you only do a few pounds (maybe up to 10) at a time I am certain this will fit the bill. It has a number of plates for pasta types and a sausage tube.The bad: It is kind of disappointing as a pasta maker. But that may be due to the recipe. I will have to mess around with it. The arm is quite long and the base will have to be 'suctioned' near the edge of your counter. Not a problem for me, but it might be for you!The ugly: I really don't like wasting food and the energy to prepare it. Having a large gap in the extruder chute is not that hard to fix and maybe they will redesign or make different plates at some point to fix this. Or maybe I am missing something about it! You can email me through Amazon if I am.I am so happy with what it is, I would like to only take 0.5 stars off for what it is not! I recommend it for small quantities of meat.

I spent waaaay too long with this grinder last night as I had 2lbs of pork shoulder ready to grind and then realized this grinder is pretty much awful. When it works, it actually works pretty great which is why I believe people either love or hate this machine. Everyone keeps saying things like "install the blades correctly" but they don't tell you how to do that - and neither does the manufacturer. Lets me share what I learned in hopes that the next person who is having problems doesn't have to go it alone like I did.Installing blades - Make absolutely sure that the slicing blade inside is installed so that the two holes on the rotating shaft fit into the two holes on the blade. If the blade falls off of these two holes, you have to stop, unclog it, and start all over. The blade has edges that hang over. Make sure they are facing the grinding piece - NOT inwards towards the rotating shaft. Next, put the grinding piece you want (recommend coarse for pork). Lastly, put the white cap around the blade structure. Turn it REALLY tight. If you don't turn it really tight and you are cutting some challenging meat, the blade will pop out of the holes and the whole thing has to start over. If you see the white cover turn when you are grinding, go aheaed and pull it off and reset the blades. Once I had this on really tight, I was actually able to grind meat.Turning the crank - It should be VERY easy to turn the crank. As soon as you feel it getting stiff, turn the crank counter clockwise. It's probablybecause you have some tendon in the blade and turning it the opposite way will cut the tendon.Suctioning to the counter - I have granite counters. It didn't work for the first hour of my attempt (yes, I spent over an hour attempting to grind 2 lbs of pork). It did finally work! The trick is to make sure the counter is very dry, push down a little on the top while turning the lock on the side. Use the key to turn the lock. If it doesn't work, keep trying. It will work and your experience is going to be miserable unless you get this sorted at the start. You just simply can't push down the meat, turn the crank, and keep the bowl from moving with a mobile grinder. I ended up with pork on my LEGS because this thing would not suction to the counter. Trust me, make it stick or don't use it.Definitely keep the meat cold.I also think I would have had better experience with longer, skinnier pieces.I'm holding out hope that I have more success with this equipment next time. I hope this review saves someone else a few hours (and a temper tantrum that involves throwing the kitchen towel on the floor while saying multiple curse words).