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Meat Grinder Arrived-Starting With Hamburger

17 years ago

I just received my slick meat grinder from ebay. I am going to start with hamburger to get the hang of it. I will be grilling them and the butcher verified that chuck would be best. Any tips?

Wizard/Nancy, I know you grind your own hamburger for patties and you enhance your hamburger with jalapenos and cheese, right? At what point do you add stuff?

Thank you for your input,

Cathy

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Comments (22)

annie1992
17 years ago
Cathy, I don't usually grind my own burger but I do grind my own sausage. I add seasonings to taste when I grind the meat. Sometimes I make just enough to cook immediately and sometimes I make a lot then stuff into casings for links and freeze those.

It depends on what you really want to accomplish, but if you can keep the thing in an easily accessible place and if it's pretty easy to clean, I'd grind what I needed and season it just before cooking.

So where's the pictures?

Annie
mustangs81
Original Author
17 years ago
Annie, Thanks for the response. Actually I did some at length reading on the sausage forum weeks ago before I made the investment in a grinder. I'm certainly going to be looking for mentors when I get to sausage.

Also, I have been making the furbabies' food (thanks Peppi) since Noel was diagnosed with diabeties and the suggestions are to grind up the chicken bones. I've been throwing in bone meal but I might venture into using actual bones since this grinder supports that.

The only picture thus far is of the grinder.

Here is a link that might be useful: Meat Grinder
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Bought my original 5 pound cast aluminium stuffer (vertical hand crank model) from the Sausage Maker. The newer one holds 15 pounds and is all stainless except the piston. It was bought through Weston Supply and was a second choice, due to the original horizontal model not being suitable for stuffing very narrow 1/2 inch casings. They were quite accomodating when it came to the point where I knew what I needed and they were able to give me options until I found the right one. The cost of the 15 pound vertical model I have now. They also supplied me with the parts to make the custom stuffing tube. Kielbasa is basically just coursly ground pork with 30-40% fat, and lots of garlic and marjorum. Also black pepper can be used. I freeze mine and when cooking, place in a covered corning ware casserole dish with glass cover. Its baked with some water added to the corning up to about half the height of the sauages, and after about half an hour the sausage is flipped over to lightly brown the surface of the meat. I use fresh hog casings for this, and they are usually a bit larger than that used for italian. I make about a 12 to 16 inch length, and coil it for freezing. Many suppliers of sausage seasongs are fairly cheap, but thats usually because they are loaded with salt. Salt is really cheap and added to a spice mix can be more than 70% of the sausage seasoining mix. I like to buy mixes that have no added salt, or just use freshly ground spices and herbs, and add the necessary salt to taste. After mixing, spoon out a tablespoon or two and cook in a small frying pan until done, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed. On a side note, the Cabelas meat grinder is listed as a 400 watt unit, while the NT model is listed as being 600 watts, or up to 1000 watts peak. With a lower wattage for the Cabela, I am not sure if it could handle tough meats, or the skin of pork. My 600 watt NT model does labor on that skin part of the cut, and will sometimes stop and trip the built in breaker. I just reverse a second and switch back to grinding again, and it will continue without a problem. Earl, Nice sources for spices and casings, and the stainless stuffer. My cast aluminium model stuffer looks similar, but is quite heavy. My stainless steel 15 pound model also looks similar to the one from Grizzly. The 15 pound stuffer I have has two gear ratios, slow, for stuffing and fast for retracting the piston nack up to the top. I plan to sell my old 5 pound stuffer for about $30 or so, provided we get decent weather during the late spring early summer garage sales.
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bcskye beat me to it, I was going to say that first you needed to go to Kroger and get some pink slime. (grin) I also grind my own pork and make breakfast sausage, italian sausage, etc. It's easy. I also grind beef and venison if I run out of the ground stuff that I get when I have beef processed. Since Carl retired I have a small Mennonite place do my beef processing, they do a good job and I guarantee they don't have the equipment to process any pink slime. They also let me into the working portion of the facility so I could see it was spotless, in spite of my "surprise" visit. It's run by a father, 2 sons and a daughter and I'm not concerned about what's in my ground meat. Although I don't use much ground meat, the girls do, and when they run out, they raid my freezer. Yeah, go figure. So, if I need a quick batch of ground meat, I put it in the food processor. For some reason I find that I eat less and less ground meat, I was never wild about the texture and now less so. That's one reason I do it in the food processor, it's more minced than ground, if that makes sense. I always have to add fat to my ground meat if I'm going to use it for burgers, it's just so lean that it sticks to the pan. I like butter best for flavor, but use olive oil because it's healthier. anyway, the only tips? The meat works better partially frozen, which has already been mentioned. Don't add too much fat, because you can always add fat after the meat is ground, but you can't take it back out. It's not much trouble, you know what's in there and you have more control over the texture, all good things. Annie
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Taking meat out of the freezer tonight I found a package of short ribs cut on the thin side. Finally it clicked why I bought these so I'm trying the maui style ribs that Dinanna55 mentioned many moons ago. Looks like they were a hit in Hawaii but the place has closed down. Here is one recipe that was linked to in her post and a link to one on epicurious. I'm going to play around with both of them and hopefully come up with something good. They sound different and unique to me tonight. Rib recipe keeps Hawaiian secret safe Azeka's is a ribs and snack shop in Kihei, Maui that has been in business for more than 50 years. The shop's legendary Maui ribs recently inspired Patricia Shorting to e-mail me in search of a recipe. Shorting had a card listing the ingredients -- soy sauce, cane sugar, fresh garlic, fresh ginger and sesame oil -- but wanted to know the proportions. By Times Colonist (Victoria)February 20, 2006 Azeka's is a ribs and snack shop in Kihei, Maui that has been in business for more than 50 years. The shop's legendary Maui ribs recently inspired Patricia Shorting to e-mail me in search of a recipe. Shorting had a card listing the ingredients -- soy sauce, cane sugar, fresh garlic, fresh ginger and sesame oil -- but wanted to know the proportions. Azeka's website, azekas.com, says the shop came up with a special marinade for barbecued beef short ribs in 1976, and it quickly became a favourite of Maui residents and visitors, solely through word of mouth. "Don't forget to try the ribs at Azeka's Market!" people would say. The marinade is based on an original recipe of Bill Azeka's mother, and the shop treasures the formula so much, it trademarked the product. The chances of getting hold of the secret recipe are, well, nil. So, if you want to taste them, go to Hawaii, or they'll ship them to you frozen and you can cook them yourself. The other option, of course, is to come up with a recipe that resembles the tasty morsels of ribs served at Azeka's. The place to start is with the meat. As noted, the cut used is beef short ribs, which may come as a surprise to some. Most associate short ribs with thick, five-centimetre-wide pieces of meat that require long, slow cooking to make them tender. For Maui-style ribs, however, the short ribs are thinly cut, one-centimetre-thick, long strips that become tender by deliciously marinating the meat, not slowly cooking it. The result is short ribs that take 10 to 12 minutes to cook, not two hours. As for the marinade, the key balancing act is between the salt from the soy sauce and the sweetness from the cane sugar (sold at some supermarkets and Asian markets). In a first go-around, I used three parts soy to one part sugar. It wasn't quite right for my taste, so I opted to go with two parts soy to one part sugar. 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Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill to medium heat. Remove the meat from the marinade; discard the marinade. Lightly oil the surface, then grill the ribs 5 to 6 minutes per side, until cooked through but still juicy. Adjust the heat downward if they're darkening too quickly. Note: At some supermarkets, unmarinated, thinly cut short ribs are labeled Maui-style short ribs. Eric's options: After marinating, these ribs could be frozen raw -- something you may wish to do with half the ribs if you're only feeding two. Thaw them overnight in the fridge the day before you intend to cook them. © (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. The link below has the recipe from epicurious. I've always had good success with the recipes from that site. If you google there are many more but they all have the same basic ingriedents. I'm going for it!! David
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Agreed. So, little did I know, Annie posted Elery's recipe a few days ago on another thread and I am pasting it here, in the hopes she doesn't mind: Elery's Hot Dog Sauce 1 lb. ground beef or venison 2 tbls oil 1 large yellow onion, diced 3/4 cup flat beer (open and let it sit if necessary) 1/4 cup water 2 Tablespoons chili powder 2 Teaspoons oregano 1/2 tsp dried chili flakes (or less, if you're a wuss like me) 1/4 teaspoon cumin Salt & Pepper To Taste Saute onion in oil in a 2-quart pot until soft, about five minutes. Keep stirring to make sure they donÃ¢ÂÂt burn. Add meat and cook until completely brown, then break it up by mashing with a potato masher. This breaks the pieces into small chunks which won't fall off the bun. Add chili powder, oregano, chili flakes, cumin (if using), salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Add beer and water. Simmer on low heat for approximately one hour, stirring occasionally. Serve over hot dogs or just put it on a bun like sloppy joes. OK, now the changes. We use the oil because our grass fed beef is so lean it sticks to the pan, as does venison if not mixed with pork or other fat. If your meat is fattier, you might not need the oil at all. Elery likes to add more dried chili flakes, his preference is a big heaping spoonful but if he does that the kids in the family can't eat it. I can't either, LOL. ed note: I may be more of a wuss than Annie, but I will try this one next. This post was edited by kitchendetective on Sun, Nov 24, 13 at 11:41
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wizardnm
17 years ago
Cathy, I used to have a grinder just about like that. Then I got the grinder for my KA, which I've used a lot. Not sure what ever came of the other grinder but I no longer have it.

But yes, I do like to grind my own meat and mostly use chuck when it's for burger. I'll use something leaner for a few things. But as far as I am concerned chuck has the best all around flavor.
I like to add fresh garlic and onion to my burgers. So if I'm grinding, I just slip in a hunk of onion or a clove of garlic for every pound. I don't remember ever using jalapenos but you certainly could. I save the cheese until after the burgers are cooked.

I grind pork to go with beef for my meatloaf too. I have to pass it through twice to get it fine. But it's kinda nice to grind beef course for chili and spaghetti sauce and when I make my pasties.

You'll find many uses for it. Have fun!

Nancy
lindac
17 years ago
I'm jealous!
annie1992
17 years ago
Oooh, Cathy, that's nice. Did you get the sausage stuffer too?

Nancy, I never thought of grinding the onion right up into the burger, that's a good idea. Because Carl grinds my burger for me, I don't bother grinding my own, but that would work well with venison and other things too.

Annie
pkramer60
17 years ago
I have the KA attachement for meat grinding but have yet to use it for that.I bought it to use the strainer for tomatoes!

I realy need to go play with it.
craftyrn
17 years ago
Nice Cathy-- you'll love it.

We use ours alot--
As Nancy said-- we prefer chuck for hamburgers & I often grind onion-- pepper-- even cooked bacon into it.

You can also grind chicken & turkey for a "lighter" patty.

And make your own sausage-- for that we prefer pork shoulder butt-- we almost always make our own Polish , Italian & Breakfast sausages now-- much easier to control the fat contend & know it's fresh.
Annie recommended a good source -- Michael Ruhlman & Drian Polcyn's " Charcutterie"-- lots of good methods, recipes etc--
lakeguy35
17 years ago
Bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries please! Dont' know if you have any left.... that Head Country seasoning is great for burgers.

I REALLY need to try grinding some meat for burgers. I've yet to take this on yet. I think some have mentioned using there FP for the task...don't have a meat grinder here yet. Mmmmm, then there is the whole sausage thing...

David
annie1992
17 years ago
David, I used the food processor to chop pork for that last batch of italian sausage and it works well, but needs to be done in small batches so it does take time.

Diane, you're right. Larry Engelhardt gave me that book, "Charcuterie" and I've used it a lot. The recipes are good and the instructions are clear, I've made sausage, pancetta and corned beef with instructions from that book and they've all been very good.

David, I just ran out of that seasoning, Elery loves it. I just ordered some more on line, burger season is coming...

Annie
partst
17 years ago
I also have the KA attachment that has never been used and I found several chuck roasts in the pantry freezer that I had forgotten about so maybe I will grind one up for burgers on the grill. Do you grind up the fat also or toss it?

Claudia
compumom
17 years ago
Cathy, you're amazing! You must cook for an army, LOL!
Enjoy!

David, we had burgers tonight seasoned with Head Country, thanks buddy!
mustangs81
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks everyone for the great tips. I did a test run making hamburger patties. I have a gadget that forms and stores patties, it's a perfect partner for the grinder. I had some 3 alarm cheese that I ground up with the chuck-I didn't have Nancy's note in time.

Nancy, I guess it was the butcher who did the jalapenos and cheese and all this time I was giving you the credit. I thought of the onion too late. I have a lot of Florida sweet onions, I'll press a thick slice into each patty before grilling.

Annie, There are some thingies included that I haven't gotten to yet so I might have the stuffer. I am definately going to make breakfast sausage. TeresaNC has a recipe that I have noted to try. I'll check on your recommended book too.

David, The Head Country was the first thing I grabbed when I grounded the chuck tonight, thanks for the gift.- You would be a perfect candidate for a meat grinder. I was happy with it's performance. I got it at a good price ($70 no s&h) on eBay, never used.

Ellen, I'm just cooking for the two of us and DD's family on Wednesdays. Raymond can't believe how much attention to home cooking I'm doing. I think it's a diversion from the dreaded yard work.

Claudia, That's my question too--how much fat do you trim? I cut out just the big pieces.

Tomorrow is grilled hamburgers. I'll report back.
teresa_nc7
17 years ago
You need to have some fat in the ground beef, especially when grinding it for hamburgers. The fat is where the flavor is, dontcha know? For burgers, a good ratio would be 80% lean beef and 20% fat or 85%/15%. And I've always heard that you should not compact the meat too much when forming your burgers - that's what I have heard....I didn't say I was good at it.

For anyone who has a Kitchen Aid mixer, I would highly recommend that you get the grinder that will fit on it. There is money to be saved in making your own sausage and ground beef. You can take advantage of the sales on chuck roasts (are there still sales on meat???) and you know what is in your own ground meat.

Cathy, yep, I'd rather cook/bake/grind than do yard work any day! LOL!

Teresa
gardengrl
17 years ago
Wait, there's a sausage forum??

Cathy, when's the BBQ? Count me in! :-)
earl
17 years ago
Cathy,
When you get into making sausage with your new machine checkout the link below. You will be dreaming of sausage.

For sausage making supplies check this site. They have good prices. or do a google search on Sausage Making Supplies

http://www.butcher-packer.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: Len Poli sausage recipes
annie1992
17 years ago
Earl, that's where I get my sausage making supplies, it's right here in Michigan, in Detroit. Their products are good and their customer service is great. I highly recommend them too.

Annie
jimtex
17 years ago
The Len Poli site is excellent. Here is another to visit for a lot of bare bones basics about why you do what with various types of sausage. I've never ground my own hamburger but I never thought about grinding other things with the meat. I'll be giving it a try this weekend.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sausage making
mustangs81
Original Author
17 years ago
Teresa, I'm glad that you are looking out for me. I think I left ample fat. My first sausage will be with your patty recipe.

Earl, Thanks for chiming in with that link. Actually I have read some of your sage advice somewhere??

Kathy, I'll have to practice some more first. I'm still working on mastering my new Weber. That's going well thanks in part to Lakeguy's Grill book and other grill accessories.

Annie, Thanks for the recommendation.

Jim, I'll check out that link as I'm sure bare bones basics is what I need...ESPECIALLY SINCE I RUINED MY GRINDER THE FIRST DAY OUT!! Yup, I put the workings in the dishwasher. I am diligent about reading directions but in my haste to clean before grand babies came over, I didn't inform myself about cleaning the grinder.
annie1992
17 years ago
Cathy, you didn't put the whole darned grinder in the dishwasher, did you? Tell me you didn't.....

If not, what went in there that couldn't go in? Did it melt or what?

Annie
mustangs81
Original Author
17 years ago
Annie, Just the head, feed screw, cap, cutting plate, and hopper. The parts were so pretty and shiny going in and oxidized coming out. I scrubbed the roughness out, dried well, and rubbed with shortening. I'll check tomorrow to see if there is a degradation in the performance.
Lars
17 years ago
I got my KA meat grinder back almost 20 years ago, and originally I got it for beef, but I ended up using it much more for pork, ham, and turkey. I've tried grinding vegetables in it for deviled ham, but that didn't work too well. It also does not work for nuts, but it's great if you want to make your own sausage. And if you're grinding beef for hamburgers, you shouldn't make them too lean, or they will be dry and tough - at least mine were.

Lars
annie1992
17 years ago
I agree, Lars, if the burgers are too lean they are dry. I have to add fat to my homegrown burger to make an acceptable burger.

Cathy, I think your grinder is OK. I base that on the fact that I put all the parts to my Squeezo in the dishwasher and the metal grinding mechanism came out oxidized, just like you mentioned. I wiped it off and have used it many times since then and it's just fine.

Annie

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