The LEM #8 BigBite is the grinder most home butchers should buy. In Smoked BBQ Source's timed test, a BigBite ground a 4 lb brisket in about three minutes and handled untrimmed sinew without slowing, more than twice as fast as the popular STX. It's heavy and costs about $420, but it's built to last and carries a five-year warranty.
Key specs
| LEM #8 BigBite | |
|---|---|
| Price | About $420 |
| Size | #8 |
| Motor | 0.5 HP |
| Output (maker) | 7 lb/min |
| Plates | 4.5 mm, 10 mm, stuffing |
| Weight | 29 lb |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| Notable | Rifled head, storage drawer, all-metal gears |
How it grinds
LEM rates the #8 at 7 pounds a minute from a half-horsepower, permanently lubricated motor with a built-in circuit breaker. The "BigBite" part is a rifled head that grabs meat and feeds it to the knife, so you push less with the stomper. The throat is 2 inches across.
Smoked BBQ Source tested a 0.5 HP BigBite: a 4 lb brisket took 3:08 on a single grind and a 6 lb pork butt took 12:20 ground twice, against 7:27 and 30:14 for the STX Turboforce 3000. The BigBite was also notably quiet.
Build and parts
The head, auger, knife, plates and meat pan are stainless steel, and there's a storage drawer for plates and tubes. It weighs about 29 lb and measures 18.5 × 9.1 × 15.6 in, so it lives in a cupboard or garage rather than on the counter. It takes standard #8 plates and knives, so replacements are easy to find.
In the box
Fine (4.5 mm) and coarse (10 mm) plates, a stuffing plate, three plastic stuffing tubes (½, 1 and 1⅜ in), a stomper and an auger puller. LEM recommends against an extension cord; the cord is 6 feet.
Price and warranty
About $420 at outdoor retailers when we checked. Five-year warranty with lifetime customer support. Made in China.
After grinding
Ground meat keeps one to two days in the fridge, so freeze what you won't cook. Pressed flat in vacuum bags, it freezes and thaws fast; our sister site has a guide to vacuum sealing meat. Grinding for jerky? Ground jerky has to reach 160°F; see ground beef jerky on The Dehydrator Report.
This review is based on LEM's published specifications and on independent tests where they exist; we name whose test each finding comes from. We haven't run our own timed tests on this model yet and will add hands-on notes when we do.
Questions
Is the #8 big enough for a deer?
Yes, for most hunters. At 7 lb a minute (LEM's figure), 40 to 60 pounds of trim is a long afternoon rather than a weekend. If you do several deer a season, look at the #12.
Can it stuff sausage?
It can, with the included plate and tubes, but a separate stuffer is faster and doesn't warm the meat. See grinder tube vs sausage stuffer.
