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Made in the USA

February 18th, 2008 · 16 Comments

When I was growing up anything with the label “Made in the USA” caused envy in one’s peers . People spent their last rubles to buy an imported pair of jeans or a bottle of shampoo with a foreign sticker on it. No one cared that these labels and stickers were probably stitched on in Hong Kong or sometimes in some “shadow” factory around the corner. Recently I read an article in Consumer Reports magazine about the labeling laws and loopholes that allow manufactures some shenanigans to disguise the real origins of their products.
I, of course, do not own any real made in America items passed to me from my grandma mostly due to the lack of an American grandma. All I hear is how “American” used to mean quality and now it doesn’t even mean that it was made in the USA for sure. I did, however, buy a real bone fide made in America item, which I will probably pass on to my daughter. This item may not be familiar to many of you who think that ground beef, turkey or chicken come in styrofoam tray or some round slug, that will probably be recalled 6 months after you ate it. No, the real ground meat (shut up, Chimpo) is made by using a meat grinder (I said shut up, Chimpo).

Presenting the Real (Made in America) Rival” Grind-O-Matic:

The surprising part is that I purchased it on Ebay brand new, still in oily paper from way back. It must have been sitting in someone’s attic for 30 years.
You can start envying me now.

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    Eat my beef!
    So many thoughts….

Tags: Behind the Iron Curtain · Nostalgia · Russian Accent · Shopping

16 responses so far ↓

  • 1 logtar // Feb 18, 2008 at 11:43 am

    I do envy you, that looks sweet! (Shut up Chimpo)

  • 2 emawkc // Feb 18, 2008 at 1:17 pm

    I’m pretty sure you can also use those to pack sausage (I said shudup, Chimpo!).

  • 3 meesha.v // Feb 18, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    packing sausage requires a special attachment. maybe I should just ban Chimpo from commenting on this post.

  • 4 Chimpo // Feb 18, 2008 at 1:40 pm

    I will save my remarks for when I’m viewing this from a place that doesn’t block image hosting sites. I am rather proud that I have my own tag with exclusively meat related posts.

  • 5 midtown miscreant // Feb 18, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    How much meat can you pack in that thing at once? STFU chimpo.

  • 6 meesha.v // Feb 18, 2008 at 7:16 pm

    You can stuff all the meat you got and then choke it full of chicken. It’s a quality product.

  • 7 Donna W // Feb 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm

    But I have a Dazey churn manufactured in the ’40’s or ’50’s, made in America. It doesn’t take meat. It takes cream.

    Take that and run with it.

  • 8 meesha.v // Feb 18, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    Well, I actually use the grinder. If I started churning butter my kid would probably have me committed.:-)

  • 9 Spyder // Feb 18, 2008 at 11:37 pm

    My family would use that to make mooseburger.

    Hey Chimpo, you still handgrinding your meat?

  • 10 travel // Feb 19, 2008 at 7:17 am

    My mom’s was all made of some sort of dark metal, I think iron, and had a clamp for attaching to the counter. Sturdy devil. Lots of venison ground up in that thing.

    Bet you’d love my original milk shake mixer.

  • 11 meesha.v // Feb 19, 2008 at 7:38 am

    I had one of the cast iron meat grinders with the clamp before, they are more prone to rust and the clamp doesn’t fit my counter,but it can handle some heavy duty grinding.

  • 12 Heather // Feb 19, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    I remember helping my dad process a deer he killed. This included one of those damn self-cranking meat grinders. I cringe when I remember how many hours I spent cranking deer meat. It was a pain in the ass.

    Thankfully, Kitchen Aid makes an attachment.

  • 13 Ambitious Fledgling // Feb 20, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    OMG I don’t know what was more funny.. the post or the comments.. rofl

  • 14 Edward // Feb 24, 2008 at 10:47 pm

    Meesha, I know you have expressed your love for the unions on this blog before. I share your disdain. I’ve come to the conclusion that the unions, despite the fancy stickers they display on their “American” vehicles that expressly forbid their attachment to “Foreign” vehicles, are ultimately responsible for the outsourcing of much of the manufacturing that has taken place over the last couple of decades.

    Americans bitch about the quality of products that are available to us and then feel sorry for the over-paid assholes who strike because they think their above living a “middle class” life style.

    My two cents

  • 15 Edward // Feb 24, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    P.S. Didn’t mean to drag the light-hearted feel of this post to the ground but it pisses me off!

  • 16 meesha.v // Feb 24, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    I agree, unions are for the large part guilty for pushing manufacturing out of this country. Together with consumers (often union members) who demand cheaper prices and don’t care so much about quality.

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