well, that was exciting

Like an eager kid at Christmas, I finally unboxed my Kenwood meat grinder (Kenwood is British, so the machine is labeled a "mincer") and set it up so I could make ground beef for tomorrow's chili dogs. But damn—when I flipped the "on" switch, the thing powered up like a loud jet engine. It was after 10 p.m. when I did this, and I didn't want to disturb my neighbors, so I instantly shut the grinder down. I'll grind the meat and make the chili tomorrow morning. This means getting up early, but I have little choice.

That problem aside, I took the time to read through the Kenwood's instructions and look over the parts. Everything is much sturdier and more serious-looking than my meat-grinder attachment for my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, not to mention bigger. This machine is apparently meant to grind meat in quantity. It's even got a nifty reverse switch for when the grinder gets jammed. I don't know whether "reverse" means the meat will get vomited back up the funnel it went down in order to reach the grinder, but I'm enough of a curious monkey that I'm going to have to try the reverse switch at some point.

And thanks to some of the Korean food videos I've been watching, I now know there's a better solution to loosening any meat that's stuck to the grindworm: instead of stuffing bread down the funnel, use ice. That's a simple, elegant solution. (Oh, yeah—the Brits apparently call the grindworm the scroll.) I might take some photos tomorrow when I start the thing up again.