Eating out is a popular activity for Americans and annual restaurant sales have reached $783 billion. Thirty four percent of Americans visit casual dining restaurants once a week and as restaurant sales increase, so do the options for hungry customers. There are more Mexican restaurants than Italian bistros, Chinese kitchens, chicken rotisseries and seafood shacks in the U.S. with about 38,000 Mexican restaurants across the United States.
For all the popularity of Mexican restaurants, a Harris Poll finds that pizza is the top comfort food in America. In fact, 41 percent of consumers eat pizza at least once a week according to a 2016 Pizza Consumer Trend Report by Techonomic.
Along with that, meat consumption is also increasing in the United States and Rabobank projects that meat consumption level will reach levels of more than 200 pounds a year per capita by 2018.
As the popularity of pizza grows, there are many ways restaurants can prepare, cook and serve pizza and equipment that makes the job a lot easier. Two key pieces of the operation are a meat grinder and a dough mixer.
Grinding meat is a popular option in restaurants for several reasons. It’s safer and you can avoid contamination often found in prepackaged meat. Ground meats also offer better flavor and grinding meat allows you to control what kinds of meat you use and how much fat is mixed in. Grinding meat also provides a better texture.
But grinding meat means finding the right equipment for the job. When purchasing a meat grinder, you should consider:
- What type of meat you are grinding: common meats can be taken care of with a regular slicer, but tougher meats may require the use of heavy-duty or industrial grinders
- How much you can spend: low end meat grinders cost less, but often lack accessories and are usually manual meat grinders rather than electric meat grinders. Higher cost grinders like industrial meat grinders will cost more in the short term, but pay off in the long term.
- The size of the meat grinder: buying a heavy industrial model for grinding meat means that grinder will take up counter space, but less expensive models are smaller and can be stored easier.
- The extras and accessories offered: depending on the model, a meat grinder comes with many accessories which can aid in preparing meat. These can include a meat tray, sausage attachments, a meat plunger or grinder plates.
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Meat Grinder Experts offers a look at some of the top reviewed meat grinders and their benefits.
Just as important to the quality of a pizza is the dough. The U.S. commercial bakery market is a big business and from an operational standpoint, industrial dough mixers can aid in the pizza-making process. It can take up to a half hour to knead dough by hand and an industrial dough mixer cuts down on that time. Spiral dough mixers are durable, can handle heavier doughs and can be mobile and stored easier.
As the numbers of consumers eating out grows, it’s important for restaurants to have the right tools for the job, especially when it comes to popular foods like pizza. Grinding meat can be done easily with the right meat grinder and kneading dough becomes easier with the right mixer.