New Kitchen Tool

I got a new kitchen tool as a gift from my darling MIL after Christmas. We both like to make ham loaf. If you know, you know! For those lost souls who haven’t tasted this deliciousness it is ground ham and ground pork (and some other stuff) mixed together and baked with a brown sugar/vinegar glaze.

It is not a Vegas item so for some years I had to depend on my MIL bringing me the mix frozen when she came for a visit. I then found a butcher shop close to my work. The first few times I went they happily ground ham for me. I would take the package home and make the loaf. I believe the shop may have changed owners or butchers because then it became quite a chore to get ham ground. Sometimes they would tell me they did not have any ham? Other times they acted like this was the most horrendous request they had ever received. Since I was such a bother I just took my business elsewhere, meaning my house. For years I would hand dice the ham I needed for the recipe.

After Christmas my MIL was cleaning out somewhere at her house and found her MILs meat grinder. She was raving about it and asked if I wanted one to grind ham. I controlled myself and did not even answer yes in all caps.

My MIL is an ebay wizard and she found me one, purchased it and had it sent to my home. Last weekend my DH and I cleaned it up and began grinding the ham.

This utensil is a thing of beauty - it is cast iron (even though it is not black as you would expect), looks as great as it did when it was purchased new. Came with 3 blades (fine, medium and coarse) in the original box.

We got right to work. To practice we sacrificed some slices of bread my husband and baked a few days prior. Then we got busy.

We absolutely love it. Now I am looking around for other things to grind. I used some of our bounty right away to make ham loaf for dinner that night. I even ground enough to put two packages of the ground ham in the freezer for use later.