Guy at a county fair in Iowa told me my grinder was running too hot, and he was right

Mark Mason · 2026-10-07T04:30:03.173473+00:00

I was doing a demo booth at a county fair outside Des Moines two summers ago, grinding pork shoulder for sausage all afternoon, and an old butcher from a small town nearby stood there watching me for maybe ten minutes without saying a word. He finally leaned in and said my meat was coming out warm and gray at the edges, which meant my blade and plate were dull and I was basically smearing the fat instead of cutting it. I argued with him for a minute, then pulled the plate and felt how hot it was, and he just nodded and walked off. Swapped in a fresh blade the next morning and the texture was night and day, so now I check blade sharpness every couple hours like he clearly did for 40 years. Any of you running a grinder hard in summer, how often are you swapping plates?

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Guy at a county fair in Iowa told me my grinder was running too hot, and he was right | Butchers - Guest Forum