What is the difference between a meat grinder and a meat mixer?

A meat grinder cuts whole muscle or trim into ground meat; a meat mixer combines already-ground meat with fat, spices, and binders — they perform separate steps in the same process and are not interchangeable.

A meat grinder uses an auger, blade, and plate to force raw cuts through holes and produce ground meat at a specific texture — coarse, medium, or fine depending on the plate size. A meat mixer uses paddles or a spiral agitator to fold seasoning evenly through ground meat after grinding. Running dry spice through a grinder or trying to grind whole cuts in a mixer will damage both machines and produce unusable results.

• Meat grinders process whole cuts into ground meat; plate hole sizes range from 3/16-inch (fine) to 3/4-inch (coarse).
• Meat mixers handle already-ground product; Valley Sportsman models range from 17-lb (4-gallon) to 40-lb (7-gallon) batch capacity.
• Grinder throughput is measured in pounds per hour; a #12 grinder moves 150–200 lbs/hr under real home-use conditions.
• Mixer capacity ratings assume raw ground meat — adding fat, spices, and binders reduces effective capacity slightly.
• Most sausage recipes require both machines in sequence: grind first, then mix.