Extrusion Spaghetti Maker Uses?

[Tirza]

I have been looking on ebay for a meat grinder. I want to use the coarse disc to grind some veggies to a uniform consistency. I have found that using the food processor is good if I want to pulverize something like a pate but if I want larger pieces, it ends up in too many sizes all the way from puree to large chunks. I'm thinking along the lines of the relish my mom used to make. The cucumbers and onions etc. would come out in nice little tiny almost cubes.

So the other day I saw in the meat grinder section, a machine that said it was a pasta maker/meat grinder. I looked at it carefully and saw that it was very much like a meat grinder in appearance. This was the kind that extrudes the dough like spaghetti and macaroni, not the one that rolls and cuts flat noodles. Has anyone ever used this kind of pasta maker to grind anything? If so, did it come out nicely, or should I just get a meat grinder if I want that kind of effect. I have access to the kind of pasta maker I am talking about, but it has a broken part. I want to know if it is worthwhile getting the part and using that.

[Doe]

When I first saw the title I thought - chinese noodles - yes! You could use any of the numerous cracker recipes here, make extruded noodles, and dehydrate them for chinese noodles.

Don't know about it grinding. Sorry.

Teri S

[Tirza]

Doe, THANKS for the hint. It is worth keeping that thing just to try this idea out!

[Lay-Lay]

n clue, sorry. Let us know how it turns out.

[rawpriestess]

I used to grind my own meat, so I know how they work, they are made of steele which rusts, so I would never use it for vegetables, but if yours isn't made of steele, then it might be okay. I used to make meatloaf, with veggies, meat eggs etc, it worked great, I think you might like to use it.

[Lay-Lay]

my mom used to use a steel one to too grind meat. It worked great, but I don't remember her ever doing vegetables in it. We grew are own meat and she sold alot of it so it was a handy machine in those days to my mother.

[juliebove]

My mom used to use her meat grinder to chop cranberries for cranberry bread. It was a very messy thing to do. The grinder always dripped juice and she had to put a large roasting pan underneath it to catch the juice. I don't think it cut up the berries into uniform pieces, but that wasn't why she did it this way. She did it because she made several dozen loaves at once and this was a quicker way to do it than chopping the berries by hand.

I don't think she ever used the meat grinder for meat. She bought it specifically for the cranberries. She got it used somewhere. She would also use it to chop cranberries for cranberry salad. I found that a regular knife did the same thing, although it took a little bit longer.

I used to have something similar to a Mezzaluna, but instead of having two handles on it, mine had only one. And it was small. I could merely rock it back and forth across the food and the super sharp blade would chop it up. It worked well, but the handle wore out on it. It had a wooden handle that had been carved with a scene from Alaska on it. The handle was not painted or sealed in any way. We lived in some places with high humidity and this seemed to cause the wood to deteriorate. Got very nasty looking. So I got rid of it.

[spicyfull]

I wish you much success in your endevor........That's how recipes are made, from your head............