how to care for manual meat grinder

I have recently aquired and old hand crank grinder from my grandparents (grandfather passed away recently) it has been sitting idyll for likely decades but appears to be in good shape. it does need to be cleaned badly. I want to make sure that I don't damage it and I am afraid that water might be a bad thing. at the same time I can't imagine not being able to immerse it in water considering it will have raw meat running through it. so how do I take care of one of these things?

Is it rusty? My mom used them a lot in the past. She said she cleaned hers with soap and water, but kept it oiled to keep it from rusting. Thinks maybe she used vegetable oil on it, but doesn't know for sure. Whatever oil she used, didn't get rancid. She used that meat grinder a lot when we were kids. I think it's still here somewheres!

it doesn't seem real rusty. I'm sure they are all about the same so I will go with the soap and water then oil. thanx!

my mother of course went through everything up at their place in south Dakota and brought me anything she thought I might want. I also got a dehydrator that was barely if ever used, a hand crank pasta maker, and a big icecream maker. its nice to have some useful things to remember them by. they were truly to be admired as far frugality goes. i was also given several throws my grandmother made out of their old clothes, mostly the overalls that my grandfather always wore. I don't think I ever saw him without those striped overalls on!

That's neat your mom got those dual purpose things for you. Useful and memorable. It's likely the way your grandparents would want to be remembered; as hardworking, practical folks!

I think it's way cool that you will be grinding meat! My mom used to grind up liver & make patties with it. She brags that she "tricked" us kids into eating it, passing it off as hamburgers. I think it was probably just my sibs though. I don't remember a time in my life where I wouldn't eat liver & onions. Or fried chicken livers! Yummy! 

Somewhere around here I have an old hand cranked grinder that I got after my mother passed away. I remember as a kid she used it mostly for grinding cheddar cheese to make pimento cheese sandwiches.It was a bit of pain to clean but worked fantastically.

I have two goats that need to be butchered, I have decided to take them to a butcher because I am having trouble making myself do it since I had in my mind that I was going to keep these originally. but I should have some meat to grind up here in a few weeks! I could have the butcher do it but, hey...I just want to use the grinder! I really like summer sausage. I think I will see if I can make it. I have nooo idea what it takes. I might look it up and promptly change my mind.

My uncle made summer sausage with some store-bought ground beef. He shared it at a family picnic and it was very, very tasty. Wish I'd gotten his recipe. I'm sure what you would make, Leah, would be even better with naturally raised goat meat!

I remember first seeing a meat grinder as a youngster out clam digging on the Puget Sound with my extended family. Grandma clamped a meat grinder to the picnic table and ground up the clams for clam fritters. Now those were yummy, too! Mmmm!

I found this site, one of the few that talks about real fermented summer sausage. when I hunted for summer sausage recipes I came up with alot of just plain cooked sausage imitations. I like the tangy taste of real summer sausage. I think I will go with this recipe if I can find everything I need to make it.

http://schmidling.com/summer.htm

clam fritters? what are they like? my brain  goes right to 'apple fritters' at a donut shop they must be different than that!

My uncle probably made the simple cooked kind. Are you going to smoke yours as you ferment, or after you ferment it, Leah?

The fritters were a great clam flavor, probably held together with a little milk (or clam juice?), eggs and flour (or bread crumbs), I suppose. I'm sure there was probably not much more seasoning than salt and pepper. Maybe like a crab cake, but with clams, and fried in a skillet. I was awfully young. As a kid, I liked them better than whole clams because they were easier to chew and didn't look like clams any more. We used to camp and dig there every summer - grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins - until they closed that beach to clam digging.

Speaking of crabs, the best stories were from the year we brought our St. Bernard with us. She stuck her nose into a bucket of live crabs and one grabbed onto to her big, long St. Bernard lip. Poor thing! She yelped and had to shake quite a bit before the crab fell off her lip!

I'd love to hear how the meat grinder works and how the sausage turns out, Leah!

I will probably leave the smoking part. I eat smoked foods some but I worry about all the carcinogens attaching themselves to the food when it is smoke. part of the reason I want to try my hand at my own is to see if i can come up with something yummy that doesnt' have nitrites in it.  it appears that the cure he suggests has nitrites but there is an alternative at the supplier he suggests that might not. I need to look into more. the ingredients aren't posted. it just says that the pink stuff has nitrites........does that mean the white stuff i see there that says it can replace prague #2 doesn't? I dunno. I will get it sorted out eventually...

My grandmother had one, my sister has it now.  My mother has one.  I picked up a new one about 3 years ago.  As I recall, my grandmother stored hers in a drawer with handtowels on top.  Not sure if there was a reason other than she kept it there for 50 years and thats where it goes.  I keep mine in a drawer with other metal gear.  The blade, nut and die I moisten with mineral oil and keep in a small tupperware dish with lid.  I have no rust, but the thing is quite new.

At my grandmothers we would use it to make "speggwiches" to take into the field for lunch.  Push the stuff through the grinder: an onion, some hard boiled eggs, a can of spam.  Mix it up with some out of date mayonnaise, add too much salt, then leave it in the hot sun beside a truck.  Get hungry enough, these are great.  I think we should all have died.

My mother used hers to make mincemeat and ground meat.  Pork, beef, deer, moose, whatever was handy went through. 

I picked mine up because it was 15 bucks on clearance at Tractor Supply and came with the sausage attachments.  I pick up pork shoulder or butt roasts for a buck a pound, take out the meat, trim the fat, turn it into ground pork, pack it into ziplock bags about a half a pound per bag.  Added to ground beef, it makes a fine meatloaf or meatballs, great for pasta/tomato sauce, or chili mac.