How to Grind Your Own Meat For Hamburgers
Finding lean cuts of ground meat at the grocery store is difficult. Grinding your own meat for hamburger patties or to prepare beef lasagna offers another way to ensure you are eating quality protein cuts. In this article you will learn of an easy way to grind your own beef at home using a Electric Meat Grinder.
What Beef Works for Hamburgers
Chuck roast is the usual go to meat ground for patties. Do not use fine dining meat cuts. Cuts of beef like chuck roast contain a 80% protein and 20% fat ratio, which is the optimal amount of fat that will keep your burger juicy and full flavored. Other possible meat cuts for ground meat include:
- Top rounds
- Bottom rounds
- Chuck roast
- Sirloin roast
- Brisket
- Shoulder
Equipment
- Electric Meat grinder with meat grinding attachments.
- Chef’s knife or breaking knife and cutting board.
- Mixing bowls or containers.
- Patty paper (if needed)
Grinding The Meat
1. Choose what meat cuts you will be grinding (e.g. chuck roast, brisket, or a blend of the two). Then, trim to remove extra fat or silver skin.
2. Cut your meat selection into 1 in chunks and freeze for up to 30 minutes. This will make the meat easier to grind.
3. Select your grinding plates and be sure to freeze them, and the cutting blade, with the meat. Colder tools makes grinding the meat easier.
4. Assemble your grinder, including the frozen blade and grinder plate.
5. Place the frozen cubed meat in the hopper, or plate atop the grinder used for holding the meat.
6. Push the meat through the grinder using the food pusher. Never use your hands.
7. Gently form the meat into patties and place them in an airtight container with wax paper between them. Loosely cover and refrigerate until you’re ready to use them.
8. Once you’ve finished grinding your meat, turn the machine off and remove the grinding attachment. Clean the hopper, grinder plates, and blades thoroughly in warm, soapy water after every use to ensure that your machine stays clean.
Tips for Fresh Burger Patties
- Keep everything very cold. Place the grinder attachment and the meat in the freezer for 30 minutes before grinding. As the meat warms, so does the fat and this can make things messy. The colder the better.
- Run it through twice. You’ll run the meat first for a coarser grind, then switch the attachment out for a finer one. This creates the perfect consistency!
- Don’t push too hard. When feeding the meat through the tube or you’ll be wiping up ground beef splatter.
- Work in batches. Divide things and work in batches.
- Play with seasonings. The bonus to working in batches is that you can also think about how you want to use the meat. Try taco seasoning in one batch. Try our Spicy Garlic Burger Patty Mix in another. Garlic powder, onion powder, and dried herbs are easy things to mix in. Just make sure you never over season as when you form the burgers you should salt season the outside before grilling.
- Clean-up. When done grinding, run a few slices of white bread through the grinder. This helps get out a lot of the build-up before you start the deep clean.
