Crank, Clamp and Grind: Picking the Best Hand Meat Grinder

A hand-crank meat grinder is one of the oldest tools in a home kitchen, and it still earns its place. It needs no outlet, it is quiet, it breaks down into a few metal parts that wash in the sink, and for a few pounds of chuck for picadillo or pork shoulder for chorizo it does the job well. You feed cubes of cold meat into the hopper, turn the crank, and a screw pushes the meat past a spinning knife and out through a perforated plate. The plate’s hole size decides whether you get a coarse chili grind or fine meat for albóndigas.

This guide is the manual-only companion to our electric meat grinder guide. Every grinder here is turned by hand; stand-mixer attachments and electric models are left out, and none of the electric guide’s picks is repeated. For each one we give the plate sizes as listed and how it fixes to the counter, because a hand grinder is only as good as its grip on the table.

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Quick verdict: which hand grinder to buy

The table compares those five. All eight grinders are reviewed in full below it.

Five hand grinders side by side

Size, body, plates and mounting for our five standout picks.

Product images from Amazon. Sizes, plates and mounts are each maker’s or listing’s own figures.

Our picks for the best hand meat grinder

Eight grinders from LEM, Weston, Porkert, Victoria, VEVOR and Westmark. The numbers in the names (#5, #10, #12, #22) are the industry’s head sizes: the bigger the number, the bigger the plate and the more meat each turn moves. Five are tinned cast iron, the traditional build; three are stainless. We skipped the many unbranded stainless grinders on Amazon and the plastic suction-base models, which are a different, lighter tool.

How to choose a manual meat grinder

Head size. The number is the plate size, and it sets how much meat each turn of the crank moves. A #5 or #8 suits a pound or two; a #10 or #12 is the practical home size; a #22 is for bulk work and takes real effort to turn. Bigger is not better if you only grind for one dinner.

Stainless or tinned cast iron. Tinned cast iron is the traditional build and is heavy and steady. The tin wears over the years, and bare iron rusts if parts are left wet, so it must be washed by hand and dried at once. Stainless costs you some weight but forgives a damp drawer, and some stainless models, like the VEVOR, go in the dishwasher.

Plates. A coarse plate (about 3/8 to 1/2 inch, or 10 mm) gives chili meat and chorizo texture; a fine plate (3/16 inch or 4.5 mm) gives smooth meatballs and a second grind. Several grinders here ship with one fine plate only, so check before you buy.

Clamp or bolt-down. A clamp lets you fix the grinder to a counter and put it away after; measure your counter edge against the clamp’s maximum opening. A bolt-down base, like the Porkert No. 22, is steadier for long sessions but needs a bench or a board you can screw to and then clamp.

Sausage kit. If you want to stuff chorizo or longaniza, a kit with two or three tube sizes saves buying parts later.

Grinding meat safely at home

Grinding spreads any bacteria on the surface of the meat all through it, which is why ground meat is handled more carefully than a whole steak. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service says to cook ground beef to 160°F, measured with a food thermometer, and that color is not a reliable sign it is done. FSIS’s safe minimum temperature chart gives 160°F for ground beef, pork, veal and lamb, and 165°F for ground chicken and turkey. Our instant-read thermometer guide covers the tool for checking.

Keep it cold throughout. FSIS advises keeping raw ground meat at 40°F or below and using it within one to two days, or freezing it. In a kitchen, that means cutting the meat into cubes, chilling the cubes and the grinder’s metal parts in the fridge or freezer before you start, working in small batches, and getting the ground meat back into the cold straight away. Cold meat also grinds cleanly instead of smearing.

Clean right after use. Take the grinder apart, scrub every part in hot soapy water, paying attention to the plate holes and the threads, and dry each part fully before storing. Keep raw meat on its own board; our guide to cutting boards for meat covers boards that clean up well.

How we picked these eight grinders

We looked only at grinders turned by hand, from makers we could identify, that were in stock on Amazon when we checked. Electric grinders are in our electric guide, and stand-mixer grinder attachments are left out because they run on a motor. For each grinder we read the maker’s listing for size, plates, mount, materials and warranty, and wrote “not stated” where the listing is silent. We checked the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall database for every brand here and found no recalls of meat grinders; LEM’s recalls listed there are for food dehydrators and canning jars.

LEM’s cast iron #10 was left out because stock was scarce, and the many lookalike stainless grinders and suction-base plastic grinders were skipped because we could not identify the makers. We did not buy or use these grinders for this guide; how each one works comes from its maker.

Hand meat grinder questions, answered

What is the best hand meat grinder?

For most home kitchens, the LEM #10 Stainless Steel Clamp-On Hand Grinder, because it does not rust like tinned iron, comes with coarse and fine plates and a sausage kit, and LEM sells replacement parts.

Is a manual grinder good enough for regular home use?

For a few pounds at a time, yes. It is quiet, needs no outlet and is easy to clean. If you grind ten pounds or more often, an electric grinder saves real effort; see our electric meat grinder guide.

Can I put a hand grinder in the dishwasher?

Not a tinned cast iron one: wash it by hand and dry it at once. Some stainless models can go in; VEVOR says the parts of its #12 are dishwasher safe. Check each maker’s instructions.

What plate should I use for chorizo or taco meat?

A coarse plate, around 3/8 inch or 10 mm, for chorizo and chili. For a finer texture in meatballs, grind once coarse, then again through a 3/16 inch or 4.5 mm plate.

Does a hand grinder need to be bolted down?

Most clamp to a counter or table. The Porkert No. 22 stands on four legs that fix to a bench. Whatever the mount, make sure it is tight before you start cranking.

Our final pick for grinding by hand

Buy the LEM #10 Stainless if you want one hand grinder that will last and not rust. Choose the Weston #22 for sausage and big clamp-on batches, the Porkert No. 22 for bulk on a bench, the VEVOR #12 for dishwasher cleanup, the Porkert No. 5 for small jobs, the Victoria #12 for a coarse half-inch plate, the tinned LEM #10 for a plain clamp-on grinder, and the Westmark for grinding and baking. For motor-driven options, go back to our electric meat grinder guide; for searing those burgers, our smash burger press guide.

If you would rather we did the cooking, see the menu or call to order.