How to Buy the Right Meat Grinder

Today we continue our series on buying restaurant equipment, focusing on the commercial meat grinder.  As always, please feel free to leave questions or to request future machines for us to cover in the comments section.

Choose the right grinder and it will be capable of churning out perfectly ground meat as fast as you need it.  The first thing you may notice when buying grinders is the diversity in their sizes.  Commercial grinders range from fairly small models, such as the Omcan PGN1000 (0.5 hp), to the very large.  The largest size grinder we stock is the Tor Rey M32 (3 hp), a high capacity grinder designed primarily for butchers.  Of course, the size grinder you buy will largely determine the volume of meat you can grind per minute.  The amount you need ground is the very best determinant of which grinder is best for you, and is more indicative of a perfect fit than even horsepower.  The consistency of your products should also affect the size you choose, though.  If you are grinding large volumes soaked beans or nuts, you will need a stronger and larger grinder to effectively manage the density of your food content.

You should also make sure to check the throat width and tray size of grinders you are buying if you know that you have larger pieces of meat or will want more space to feed it into the grinder.

All meat grinders come with plates and knives to cut the meat.  Most grinders are designed for either size 12 or 22 plates and knives; however, some very large grinders take even larger sizes.  It is a good idea to have replacement plates and knives available for when yours become dull.  We recommend replacing them together, rather than as each wears out. This is because the plates actually act as knives themselves.  If you carefully feel the holes on a new plate, you will discover that they are actually quite sharp!  It turns out that these wear down at about the same rate as knives - it's just less easy to tell.  If you replace your knife but your plates are dull, the knife is doing extra work and will itself wear down more quickly.  Additionally, your meat will not grind as perfectly.  Thus, replacing them together ensures that both are working perfectly and saves you money and frustration. 

Buying the right meat grinder and properly maintaining it will save you time and money while enabling you to easily produce delicious burgers, falafel, foie gras, or whatever other ground food is your restaurant's specialty!

How to Buy the Right Meat Slicing Machine

Continuing our series on how to buy the right machines for your business, we bring you this article on buying the right meat slicing machine.  We originally published portions of this article as a Knol on Google , but wanted to share it with you here as well. 

The first thing you should consider when buying a slicing machine is what you are going to cut.  Is it low, medium, or high volume?  Does it include hard to slice foods such as frozen meats or soft cheeses?  Do you need extremely high precision cutting for prosciutto or avant garde cuisine?

The answers to these questions, combined with your budgetary requirements and space concerns, will help you to pick the ideal slicing machine for your establishment.  With this, be sure to bear in mind the potential for your business to expand.  If you are starting with medium volumes but anticipate higher volumes in the future, it may be worthwhile to invest in a better quality machine.

If you will be cutting low volume and not cutting anything difficult, you may want to consider a compact slicer.  These are especially good for space-conscious establishments, and come in 9”, 10”, and 11” varieties.  Compact slicers are inexpensive, lighter-weight (good if you may need to transport it regularly or lift it onto a shelf from a storage space), and perfect for low volume cutting.  One thing to note is that you may have to cut your meats in half for them to fit on the slicer, as commercially packaged deli meats, such as Boars Head, are sold with 12”  models in mind. Top companies that manufacture compact meat slicers include Tor-Rey and Omcan Food Machinery of America.

If you will be cutting low, medium, or medium-high volume, not too much cheese, and nothing frozen, you can consider a belt-drive slicer.  These are highly affordable.  Standard size meats and cheeses are designed for 12” slicers, so you can buy this size to reduce prep time.  In order to minimize waste and maximize precision, look for models with Gravity-Feed.  Top companies that manufacture belt-drive slicers are Tor-Rey and Omcan Food Machinery of America.  (Globe Chefmate slicers are also belt drive, so do not mistake them for classic Globe slicers!)

If you will be cutting high volume or difficult foods such as frozen foods or large amounts of cheese, or if you want a top of the line machine for extreme precision you should look for gear-drive, Gravity Feed slicers.  These are more costly, but will last for years and years, paying back the investment in the long term. Quality Gear Drive slicing machines come in standard 12” and 13” sizes.  Because they are stronger, they are also very precise.  Globe is the iconic manufacturer of gear-drive slicers (although beware of Globe Chefmate slicers, which are belt-drive and often not gravity feed).  We sell new, demo (meaning it was used in a demonstration or as a floor model but is practically new) and rebuilt Globe Slicers; our rebuilt Globes are older models in which everything that was not perfect has been replaced.  They are tested extensively by our mechanics and guaranteed to work like new!  Tor-Rey also makes some very high quality Gear Drive slicers such as the R-300, which is available at lower cost than a new Globe.

If you will be cutting very high volume and are not under severe budgetary constraints, you may want to consider an automatic slicing machine.  Automatic slicers provide continuous cutting capabilities and may cut down on labor time because they operate on their own without manual assistance.  The majority of automatic slicers are gear-drive and gravity feed, and therefore capable of processing hard-to-cut foods as well.

If you use these guidelines to buy a slicing machine and you maintain your machine properly, it should last you for years of easy, precise slicing!  

Feel free to reply to this post with any questions you may have about buying slicing machines, or to let us know if there is a machine you would like profiled in this series!

How to Buy the Right Mixer

Today, we continue our series on how to choose the best restaurant equipment for your business with an article on how to buy the right commercial mixer (also known as dough mixers or planetary mixers) for you!  If there is a specific type of equipment you want advice about, please leave a comment on this post and we will dedicate a future post to it.

A planetary mixer is a very versatile machine that can operate on a large scale.  Different attachments allow you to mix cookie, cake, and bread dough, whip up creams, sauces, and icing, even slice, grind, shred or grate products.  Planetary mixers have a single offset shaft that turns in an orbital motion resembling planets going around the sun, which accounts for their name.  When attachments are affixed to this shaft they rotate through the mixer bowl in an elliptical shape, which ensures an effective mixing of the entire contents of the bowl. 

To determine the size mixer you need, take these of factors into consideration:

1.       Some items expand when agitated, so bear this in mind when considering your batch sizes.

2.       As your business grows, you may need to make larger batches, so you may want to account for this growth.  Some people choose to buy smaller mixers and then upgrade as necessary, but if possible, it is generally more cost-effective to account for growth when buying your first mixer.

3.       If you’re mixing dough, you can determine the size you need by calculating the absorption ratio (AR).  The drier the dough the tougher it is to mix, and that is going to affect how large a batch you can mix according to the size of your mixer.

To calculate the absorption ratio, divide the water weight by the flour weight (for example, 20lbs of water and 50lbs of flour equals a .4, or 40% AR).  The lower the AR, the more stiff and therefore more difficult to mix the dough is - and therefore, the smaller the batch will need to be.

Note that just because you need to mix a smaller batch due to the stiffness of the dough does not mean you can use a smaller mixer.  The point of calculating the AR is to find a batch size that your mixer can manage without overworking and burning out.  Consult with the operator's manual or the mixer manufacturer for recommended batch sizes for different absorption ratios.  In general, if you plan to use your mixer for day-in and day-out dough mixing, go with a heavier duty floor mixer that can handle the heavy load dough puts on a mixer motor.

Depending on the tools you need in your kitchen, you will probably also want to purchase several attachments to go with your mixer.  All of the mixers we sell come equipped with the following parts, which we also sell seperately in case you need replacements; the links below are to our replacement pages so you can see images:

• Bowl
• Dough Hook - Spiral shaped attachments for mixing and kneading yeast-based dough
• Flat Beater - Paddle shaped attachments perfect for mixing batters and icings or for mashing vegetables like potatoes.  Basically, anything that needs to be creamed should get the flat beater treatment.
• Wire Whip - Looks just like the hand-held version, but packs a lot more punch.  Use it for the same things you would use your hand whip - meringue, creams, and frostings - just on a much larger scale.

 Many businesses also choose to buy the following additional attachments, enabliing their mixer to perform multiple different tasks and saving space in the kitchen:

• Vegetable Slicers and Graters/Shredders - these attachments can process a high volume of just about any kind of vegetable very quickly.  Use them to slash your prep times on tedious slicing tasks.
• Meat Chopper/Grinder - these attachments allow you to chop up or grind meat products quickly and efficiently.  They fit a variety of disc sizes to customize output.

A commercial mixer can do a lot of work for you.  Buy the right one at the start and take care of it throughout and you'll have a permanent, reliable fixture in your kitchen's daily operations.