Welcome to Friday Food reviews where I will be covering a different food or product each week and looking at… what are they?  where do they grow, what can we substitute them for in a recipe, are they safe to eat, how to store them, how to use them, cook them, anything connected to that food. or product..all the why’s and the wherefores…it will, of course, be mainly my own opinion or a known fact…good or bad…there may even be a tried and tested recipe…or three…

This week it’s…The National #25…A food Grinder…

I’m all for if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it or replace it and this little mincer which belonged to my nana has been around the world with me…This one is apparently a 50’s model which means it is still working as new at approx 70 years old…how many modern mincers would last that long? it’s easy to clean which is more than I can say for many modern mincers…its a hand grinder and minces cooked meat, raw meat, vegetables in no time at all…

I know many of you have recommended that I make videos… I have not done that yet…but I have found one which is easy to watch and demonstrates the mincer very well…

Please watch the video it is only a short one but it highlights this little mincer perfectly…

I have seen quite a few of these advertised on eBay at a very reasonable cost which would not break the bank at all…I am guessing you would spend more if you took the kids to Burger King.

Now if you are like me you love the history of things then please click the link below which again was very kindly provided by the very man who made the above video

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Spong_and_Co

Does my mincer do what all these modern ones do? it minces my cooked meat when I make a shepherds pie…plus if I am making sausages then it minces fresh meat very well and just at the right size for me if I wanted finer I could buy extra little discs but it suits me fine… it’s easy to clean, doesn’t take up much storage space, actually has no parts which will break…you can use it if you have a power outage and cook on gas…slice your potatoes instead of mash if you don’t cook on gas you could have shepherds pie ready to cook in 25 mins…

I always make my own sausages or buy them from a friend here who makes her own sausages ( I have watched) she was married to a German gentleman so makes really lovely German sausages also many of the markets here make their own sausages which means natural sausage casings are freely available…

A quick tip on how to spot a natural casing is if the sausages on display are not all a uniform shape but all slightly different and maybe wider at one end from the other.

Firstly I will give you two recipes for Sausage spices which are easy to make as most people have the spices in their store cupboards and it helps with the rotation of your spices as they do lose their flavour if they sit in your cupboard for an extended period…

These mixes are lovely if you are buying your meat already minced… I will also give you a recipe for making your own sausage meat from scratch.

To read the original post please click the link here Homemade Sausages

Thank you for joining me today, I hope you have enjoyed learning about my old fashioned mincer …Do you have one like mine I look forward to hearing about it if you do…I love reading your comments…please stay safe as this new strain of covid seems very contagious…x