George, I'm a little confused. What do you mean by "plates" with a food processor?

Plates are usually associated with meat grinders. Whether manual or powered they work the same. A screw forces the meat past a rotating blade, and into an extrusion plate. Most grinders come with three such plates: course, medium, and fine.

Food processors, at those I'm familiar with, merely have a rotating blade. Unless you just pulse it, using small amounts of meat at a time, there's a danger of over-grinding (basically, turning the meat into mush) and overheating the meat.

I'm sorry....I might have just assumed you were talking about using a meat grinder attachment for a food processor......that's what I was talking about at least

Ahhh, now I understand.

You're talking about a grinder that goes on something like the Oster Kitchen Center. I used to have one of those.

So, basically, we're talking about the same thing, you with an attachment and me with a descrete grinder.

When most folks say they use the food processor to grind things they mean just that; the actual food processor. And that's the one that overgrinds and overheats.

Something you might want to try: Add the seasonings to the cubes of meat. Then grind. This helps distribute them more evenly through the mix. I was taught that by an old-time sausage maker, and it works like a charm.

Yeah....I should have realized what you were talking about! lol.

Yeah, I may have to give your trick a try. I have found that you get a much better distribution already by adding it to the meat that has been ground and then running it through a couple more times, but your method probably does work better. I use a kitchen aid stand mixer with the meat grinder attachment....works amazingly well and I have most certainly gotten my money's worth out of it.