The Best KitchenAid Meat Grinder Attachments, and Where They Stop

If you already own a KitchenAid stand mixer, the KINGEAGLE stainless attachment is the one we'd add: food-grade stainless, dishwasher safe, three plates and three stuffing tubes, and a 36-month warranty against KitchenAid's one year on its own attachment. The genuine KSMFGA is the safe choice if you'd rather stay in the family. None of them turns a mixer into a deer-season grinder.

That last line isn't a knock. An attachment is the cheapest way to find out whether grinding your own is for you, and for burgers and a few pounds of sausage it's plenty. It just has a ceiling, and it's worth knowing where that sits before you plan a deer around it.

What you're really buying

An attachment has no motor. It borrows the mixer's through the power hub on the front, which KitchenAid says any household KitchenAid stand mixer has. KitchenAid's guides for both its standard KSMFGA and its metal KSMMGA grinders set the mixer to Speed 4. Neither guide publishes a pounds-per-minute figure or a run-time limit.

The throughput numbers you'll see on third-party listings are the sellers' own. KINGEAGLE claims up to 4 lb of raw meat a minute. Arcbt claims 2 lb in 45 seconds, about 2.7 lb a minute. GVODE claims 2 lb a minute. All three depend on your mixer, your meat and your prep, and none comes with a test method. We list them in the specs as "seller's rate claim" and didn't let them drive the ranking.

What did drive it: material, the plates and tubes in the box, how much of it can go in the dishwasher, and the warranty. On those, the stainless third-party attachments beat the original on paper.

Stainless, aluminum or the KitchenAid original

KitchenAid sells two grinder attachments: the standard KSMFGA ranked here, and a separately named Metal Food Grinder (KSMMGA), whose manual lists 3, 4.5 and 8 mm plates and says its parts can be pre-chilled in the fridge or freezer. The KSMMGA isn't in our catalog, so it isn't ranked. KitchenAid's KSMFGA guide doesn't state the housing material; it does list the housing, grind screw, plates and blade as hand-wash only, with the collar, tray and pusher on the dishwasher's top rack.

The third-party options split cleanly. KINGEAGLE and Arcbt are listed as stainless and dishwasher safe; Arcbt specifies 316 stainless and includes four plates, including a kidney plate. GVODE is an aluminum body with stainless plates, cutters and tray, and its listing says the body is not dishwasher safe: hand wash in water under 122°F. If you want to put the whole thing in the dishwasher after a messy session, that settles it.

Fit matters too. KINGEAGLE says its attachment is not compatible with KitchenAid's Mini mixers and isn't made or sold by KitchenAid.

The four at a glance

From the KitchenAid KSMFGA guide and each attachment's Amazon listing. "Not stated" means the maker or seller doesn't say; we scored those neutral rather than guess.

How much a mixer attachment can realistically take on

Take the sellers' own claims at face value, 2-4 lb a minute, and run one average deer through it: about 52 lb at the Ohio DNR average is 13-26 minutes of feeding per pass. That's about the same as a hand-crank #10 by LEM's rating, with the mixer doing the work. The difference is that a hand grinder can't overheat, and KitchenAid publishes no run-time rating to plan a long session against. Grind in batches, keep the meat and the parts cold, and follow your mixer's own manual.

Getting a clean grind out of a mixer

1. Cut to the feed tube. KitchenAid's KSMFGA guide says to cut food into small strips or pieces sized to fit the feed tube. Forcing oversized chunks is how a small auger stalls.
2. Chill the meat and the parts. KitchenAid's metal grinder manual recommends meat that is very cold or partially frozen, and parts pre-chilled in the fridge or freezer.
3. Trim harder than you think you need to. With no reverse on any of these, every strand of silver skin you leave on is a potential stop-and-disassemble.
4. Run at Speed 4. That's KitchenAid's setting for its grinders.
5. Go coarse, then fine. On the KSMFGA that means the 6 mm plate first and the 4.5 mm plate for a second pass if you want a finer texture.
6. Clean it right away. Wash it before fat and scraps dry on. On the KSMFGA, the housing, grind screw, plates and blade are hand-wash only.

When to move to a standalone

Move on when any of these is true: you're processing more than a deer a year; you're grinding every pound twice; the mixer is tied up for an afternoon at a time; or you're shopping for a mixer mainly to grind meat. At that point a standalone does the job better. LEM's MightyBite #8 is rated at 4-5 lb a minute with a 2-year warranty; its BigBite #8 at up to 7 lb a minute with a 5-year warranty. Both publish a real rate, and neither ties up your mixer. We run the full comparison in KitchenAid attachment vs standalone grinder, and our best meat grinders for home use ranks the standalone options.

Before you order an attachment

Check your mixer

All four attach to the KitchenAid power hub. KINGEAGLE specifically excludes the Mini series, so check your model before ordering any third-party attachment.

Count the plates

KitchenAid's KSMFGA comes with a fine 4.5 mm and a coarse 6 mm plate. KINGEAGLE includes three plates and two blades; Arcbt four plates (coarse, medium, fine and kidney) and three blades. More plates means more textures without buying extras. Note that the KSMFGA's coarse plate is 6 mm, finer than the 10 mm first-pass plate LEM ships with its BigBite grinders, so tough venison trim has smaller holes to get through on the first pass.

Sausage stuffing

KitchenAid sells its sausage stuffer kit (KSMSSA) separately; the three third-party attachments include stuffing tubes. Stuffing through a grinder attachment is slow and tends to trap air. Before you plan a sausage day around it, read sausage stuffer vs grinder attachment.

Warranty

KINGEAGLE lists 36 months; KitchenAid gives the KSMFGA a one-year full warranty. Arcbt and GVODE don't state a warranty on their listings, so we scored them neutral on that metric.

Cleanup

Stainless (KINGEAGLE, Arcbt) goes in the dishwasher per the listings. GVODE's aluminum body is hand-wash only. On the KSMFGA, the parts that touch the meat most (grind screw, blade, plates, housing) are hand-wash. Dry blades and plates fully before storage.

Why a third-party attachment beats the original here

Ranking a no-name stainless attachment above KitchenAid's own deserves an explanation. On our grinder rubric, season throughput carries the most weight, and none of these four has a maker-published rate, so they all score low there. That leaves build, venison handling, cleanup, warranty and value to separate them. The KINGEAGLE is listed as stainless, goes in the dishwasher, includes three plates and three stuffing tubes, and carries three times KitchenAid's warranty. The KSMFGA has two plates, hand-wash working parts and a one-year warranty, and KitchenAid's guide doesn't state its housing material. On published inputs, that's the order.

What the KSMFGA does have is certainty of fit, since KitchenAid makes both halves. If that matters more to you than the spec sheet, it's a perfectly good choice. The full weighting is on our how we pick page.