******
- Verified Buyer
My Mom used to take inexpensive round steak and pound the heck out of it with a sharp, heavy knife until it was well-macerated, then cut it into roughly 2" cubes, dredge them in butter, salt and pepper them, and fry them in butter. Well, margarine, it was the 1960s and we didn't know better. Anyway, she called it "cube steak" and it was one of my favorite ways to eat beef. But I hated the long, tiring process of hacking away at the meat when I was old enough to prepare it on my own. My arm would ache with the effort. But it was the only way to get the steak really, really tender.Fast forward to my adult years, and every once in a while I'd get a hankering for my Mom's version of cube steak and endure the hassle of hacking the heck out of the meat to get it to the proper consistency. And the noise! I once had a downstairs neighbor bang on my door complaining about the pounding. But there was no other way. Even store-bought cube steaks weren't tender enough for me. I'd have to hack away at those, too.Then, recently, I decided to check Amazon to see if there was something that would automate the process. So many choices! I decided on the Weston because of many positive reviews raving about the sturdiness of the gadget, how fast, easy, and efficiently it cubes meats, and, vitally important, how easy it is to take apart and clean. I am a gadget freak, but I've learned that if something is a pain to clean, it will end up shoved to the back of my bottom cupboard, never to be seen again.The reviews turned out to be perfectly true, and then some. Clamp the Weston to the edge of my counter, and it's rock-solid. Run the meat through the grinder two or three times, and it's so well-cubed that you can see peeks of daylight through it. Just what I want! Instead of chopping away for 10 minutes, it's done in seconds. I buy several packages of round steak and cube the lot, then vacuum seal meal-size portions and freeze. Saving 50 cents a pound or more over commercially-prepared cubes steaks is making the Weston pay for itself - and I was never satisfied with their consistency, anyway. I love being able to make my steaks as heavily cubed and tender as I like them.The Weston lives up to its claim of easy clean-up. Loosen a few hand-tightened screws and the whole top comes off. The rollers and guide blades slip right out and the remaining bottom and base are easy to wipe down. Meat residue seems to rinse right off of the rollers, but I squirt some dish soap on them and just twirl them around under running hot water. I suppose you could use one of those skinny bottle brushes, like they use for baby bottles, but I haven't felt the need to bother. I believe the removable components are dishwasher-safe, but I don't have a dishwasher so I can't testify to that. The heavy metal parts are coated with what seems to be a very durable painted finish. I haven't had the slightest hint of peeling, and so far I've used, and washed, my Weston more than half a dozen times.I plan to give the Weston a try with boneless pork chops and chicken breasts, too. Some people have reported great results with game meats like venison that tend to be very lean and tough. Even with tender cuts like chicken, I imagine marinades and rubs will be much more effective with the greatly increased surface area that results from cubing. All those little nooks and crannies for the good stuff to get into!You can also buy alternate grinders that will create strips for jerky. With proper care, this sturdy machine should last for years, maybe a lifetime.We purchased this Weston Manual Heavy Duty Meat Cuber Tenderizer to make cooking meals easier and without the mess of pounding meat to tenderize. We are very happy with this device.It has heavy duty aluminum construction and stainless steel prongs and it is very easy to use. We set it on rubber grip pads to protect our granite countertop and to keep it from slipping when cranking the manual handle. It includes two clamps to clamp the device to your countertop, which we use on occasions when we have many pieces of meat to tenderize. Otherwise, for a few pieces, the grip pads suffice.To use, simply drop your meat thru the top while cranking and catch your meat below. It is easy to disassemble for cleaning and we let it air dry overnight before reassembling for storage.This is great for tenderizing boneless chicken breasts for chicken parmesan and boneless pork chops for Jagerschnitzel, among other great recipes calling for smaller sized tenderized meats.Needing to eat low sodium I needed a way to tenderize chicken breasts and pork loin.This tenderizer is the perfect tool. I tenderize my own meat to avoid the problem I faced with commercially tenderized meat - frequently a salt solution is added to store tenderized meat.I am able to tenderize pork for schnitzel and tenderize chicken breasts so that I can cook a delicious chicken sandwich.Clean up can take a while but that is a minor inconvenience. Please clean the blades carefully as directed by the manufacturer. The individual blades are sharp.Product arrived in good condition. Shipping/delivery was fast.I'll start this review by first stating that my previous meat cuber was a commercial electric Hobart machine that I purchased 25 years ago to cube primarily moose and caribou and occasionally beef and pork steaks. It was heavy (50+ lbs) and did a great job cubing steaks, but due to its weight and size, we didn't use it very often. I sold it but still wanted to make an occasional cube steak so purchased the Weston.Overall, this machine did a good job but I spent a considerable amount of time fine tuning it before I first used it. It is made in China and although it is neither heavy duty nor of commercial quality, it will get the job done for occasional household use.Upon unpacking and assembling the Weston a few things became apparent:First, the allen wrenches necessary for assembly were included as were all of the screws and lock washers needed.. Nothing was missing and the booklet with assembly and operating instructions was understandable.- Second, the steel blades were not sharp - they were dull/rounded on each tooth. Cuber blades should cut meat and not simply punch slots into it.- Third, the upper and lower housing, the chute on top of the upper housing and the left and right support legs appear to be made of “pot” metal. The base made of cutting board type plastic.- Fourth, when I removed the blades and white plastic blade spacers so that I could sharpen the blades I noticed that the spindles/axles, that the blades were mounted on, were aluminum.- Fifth, there are two tinned cast iron gears, one on each end of the spindles. The gears are secured to the spindles with a set screw. One gear was loose/wobbly due to a loose set screw.- Sixth, once assembled the cuber will not fit back into its box for storage. I'll need to find or make a box to store it in and toss the package box.Before using, I removed the 31 blades so I could sharpen the teeth (15 on one spindle and 16 on the other). Each blade has 12 cutting teeth. Total cutting teeth = 372. After disassembly I used an 8” file to sharpen both sides of each tooth then honed each with a diamond knife sharpener. That took a while!There was some lateral movement, left to right, between each blade assembly and the housing, allowing the blade assemblies to shift randomly a bit more than one-eight inch left to right to left. I added a nylon washer between the blade assembly and plastic bushing near the gear-end of each spindle to eliminate this movement. I then assembled each spindle, now with sharpened cutting teeth, aligned then secured each gear to its spindle, using loctite where the gear rests on the spindle and on the set screw that secures the gear to the spindle. The gears are in a separate “compartment” of the housing than the cutting teeth so I've no concern getting any loctite on the food.Once the loctite had dried and everything was back together I attached the handle and gave it a few turns. There was significant wobble/”slop” where the spindle bushings (nylon/plastic) nested into the top and bottom housings. When the handle was turned I could see the spindle rotation was not concentric. There are four of these bushings - one near each end of the two spindles. Some of the wobble was inside by the bushings between the bushing and the spindle. The remainder of the wobble was on the outside of the bushings where the bushings nested into the housing. To eliminate some of that wobble I made three wraps of electrical tape around the outside of each bushing. That eliminated 50% of the wobble.The chute opening of this cuber is 4.75 inches by 1.25 inches thus will handle steaks cut 4.75 inches wide and 1.25 inches thick. The steaks can be longer than 4.75 inches but not if you want to turn the steak 90 degrees and run it through again. The cube steaks will come out wider and longer but thinner than the meat going into the top.I cubed pork loin steaks and beef eye of the round steaks, passing twice through the machine (rotated 9/ degrees on second pass through) and the cubed steaks came out looked very good.Having meat sliced at consistent thickness makes the dehydrating process very easy.Works great. But with most kitchen gadgets, cleaning is ?greatEasy to use, works excellently. Wonderful addition to our kitchen!This thing will work, the question is, is it really worth it ?Looking at the price of this thing, you can buy a well made japanese knife with a good quality cutting board made out of wood for the same price.I am sorry, cleaning this thing is not worth it AT ALL. The circular blades are sharp enough to cut through the meat due to the way the blades are placed in a scissor manner. The blades are also places very close to each other, making it almost impossible to clean it easily.My recommendation for you, buy a good quality knife, sharpen it and freeze your meat a bit before cutting it. You will gain some skills using a knife and you will save money and a headache from using this thing.Will make thin slices of beef ready for jerky. Would be better if they were a bit thicker slices. This machine does NOT like fat and it will get stuck inside the rollers then you have to dismantle and clean before it works again. I suppose you get what you pay for.1 unit: Did look promising. Started to wash it and assembling it for the first time the I realized there’s no handle and the item is used. Not impressed. Amazon sent another unit next day shipping to replace this one.2nd unit: box came really beaten, all the parts were there this time. We were able to use the unit and and wow ! Big time saver. Really nice clean cut.I do like the product but bought it for the cuber not the tenderiser opened it up read the instructions to find out the cubing blades are sold seperate didn’t have a choose on sale or didn’t say they were seperate as advertised cuber first then tenderiser so it cost me another $150 for the blades so in that department not happy JanI enjoy making beef jerky and this machine is a great time saver. The people who make this unit Weston Prago Single Support Jerky Slicer are top-notch to deal with. Can't say enough about their customer service
