The Universal Food Chopper that made my baby food!

As soon as we could tolerate it, my sister and I were fed hand-milled baby food.
My folks even took this magic hand-crank device into restaurants (can you imagine?).
Sister and I ate baby food made from whatever they ate, mushed up tiny. Presumably this was part of the transition to solid food.
I'm not a parent, so don't ask me - we survived  

So what can it be used for today? I'll post pictures as I clean it up and play.


This picture from https://www.nps.gov/jofi/blogs/images/Universal-Food-Chopper_1.jpg

My parents have two of those.  They let me use one to grind biochar

never thought of making baby food with a meat grinder ! you can always use if for grinding choke cherries down to make them safe to eat. i have seen that done. i have also read in one Bill Mollisons books that you could take the blades out run a slurry through it to make a type of pelleted seed. the one you took a picture of looks like the standard one found in many a flea market so you might find some extra blades around for things like shredding stuff as apposed to mincing it. just found one in my parents home today actually.

Got one of those here at my Grandmas house! Think its just here for decoration but I would like to try to use it.

OK, here are some pictures from my first use of the Universal Food Chopper.
Definitely a learning experience!
Apparently it is a number 3, the big one, not a number 2, as I remembered.

Some meat.

Now the learning starts!
Uh oh it's leaking on the floor, better use a catch bowl next time.

I think the wing nut needs to be replaced, as it does not sit square. And the plate does not grind flush to the body.

Note when I took of the plate, it's because it stopped grinding, clogged with connective tissue.

Despite some issues, this seems like a really effective meat grinder. Made me some decent ground beef for dinner.
No wonder you can still buy something just like this after, like, 125 years!

I'm not totally sold on the necessity of a meat grinder in my kitchen.

What else can I use it for?



(By the way, I think this made transitional food. Not real baby food.  It does not have a fine enough plate to make mushy texture a baby could digest without chewing.) Maybe good for when I get really old and can't chew much anymore.

Got one of those here at my Grandmas house!

Gordon, what do the plates look like on that one?
Got one with smaller holes, or are they oblong cutters like mine?

You can still buy them new...  Might be cheap you-know-what, but then maybe not, I might part with $33 and find out.  Universal #3   I wonder if the component parts are interchangeable and could be used to replace missing parts on older units.

my mum used one of these regularly - may have been a no 2, not sure and she lost it last time they moved (along with a whole drawer that she called her useful bits drawer...)

She used it for mincing cooked meat, and mashing beans as I remember, but doubtless all our baby food was made with it too