Looking for a manual food processor, cast iron or stainless, something with a hand crank. Ultimately, I would like to have a single base that I can bolt down to the table and then change out attachments as needed...i.e. food processor stuff for cheese or potatoes and then an attachment for grinding meat. Does anyone know of anything like that? I really only want to drill one set of holes in my butcher block, but I really want to get some manual grinders/food processors.

yep, I found that one over at Ready Made Resources (for $10 more). As far as I can tell, that doesn't grind meat though.

My wife swears she saw Alton Brown with something like what I'm talking about, but I can't seem to find anything via google.

Get one of those old meat grinders from the 50's and 60's. My mom used one and made killer hash, potato cakes.

So here is what I found...just FYI. I'd kind of like something that does all these things together...if something like this exists. Also want to do the fine applesauces, etc.

Food Processor


Meat Grinder's

Large

Small

Food Mill

In all honesty, as with a lot of things, a piece of equipment that does multiple things doesn't do any of them as well as a devoted piece of equipment could do. You probably won't find one that suits your desire of doing all of those things AND does a good job of it. Just my opinion.

My Mom had one of those and my sister has it now.  I'd like to have one but not $200 worth.  One thing I remember not liking is the suction-cup base.  It can really walk around on you if you are using it on a rough wooden table.  There doesn't seem to be any good way to clamp it, either.

The grating cones are exactly the same as the ones on our KitchenAid.

I don't think it would do a very good job on meat.

Maybe a piece of lexan/plexiglass that the suction cups will stick really well to, then clamp that down. That is similar to how my dad mounts his GPS light-bar unit in the sprayer, he just glued a piece of lexan to the dash so the suction cup would stick.

I agree with this.  The best tool I have found for shreading hash browns is the Salad Shooter Pro.  Many other devices are too weak.

I use a meat grinder attachment on a table top mixer for making sausage and hamburger, although a dedicated electric meat grinder would be a touch better.  I used a hand crank unit for a while and it really sucked for making large quantities of burger or sausage.

As far as a food processor, that is what I use to make salsa or chop onions.  It can make mush out of almost anything, so a variable speed model would be a better choice.  

Finally, an electric coffee grinder also works as a spice mill.  If you have spices that you want to make into smaller particle size, nothing works better.