The Late Night Gourmet
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- 30 Mar 2017
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I started this out as a reply to a post from @detroitdad, then decided it was best to have as a separate post (and, I'm guessing @morning glory would have done this anyway, so this saves her the trouble).
Here's the meat grinder I have:
It was a bargain when I got it at $79.99, and it's an absolute steal now at only $49.99 at the Web Restaurant Store (with free shipping in the States, and I think also in Canada).
With this beauty, you can grind through a pound of meat in about a minute (no exaggeration). Here are the things you need to do:
Some considerations:
...............................Smeared Grind..................Proper Grind
Please let me know if you have any questions. I will update this post if I think of anything else.
Here's the meat grinder I have:
It was a bargain when I got it at $79.99, and it's an absolute steal now at only $49.99 at the Web Restaurant Store (with free shipping in the States, and I think also in Canada).
With this beauty, you can grind through a pound of meat in about a minute (no exaggeration). Here are the things you need to do:
- Whatever meat you want to grind needs to be cut in chunks and placed in a zipper bag in the freezer. I like to make the pieces as flat as possible in the bag, so breaking them apart is easier. Try to separate them as much as possible, but you will still have to break them apart when you're ready to grind it. The meat shouldn't be rock hard, otherwise the grind will prove difficult. At least 2 hours in the freezer should do.
- Make sure all parts of the meat grinder (except the part with the motor) are in the freezer when not in use. The more you explore the world of meat grinding, the more likely you'll hear the phrase "cold is your friend". Anything that warms up the meat will cause "smearing" (see bottom of this post), which creates an unpleasant texture. Warm meat grinder components will will cause the meat to thaw somewhat, particularly when you get to the end of the bag.
- Wash all surfaces (counter-top) and the exterior of the meat grinder thoroughly after use. No matter how careful you are, there is bound to be a speck of raw meat that flies somewhere you don't expect. Better safe than sorry.
- After washing, place the meat grinder components (except for the part with the motor) in the freezer. When I started out, I would often plan an awesome sausage I wanted to make, I'd have all the meat ready and all the seasonings...then, I'd realize that I'd forgotten to freeze the meat grinder components. It's seriously not worth trying to do it anyway with room temperature components. If they're in the freezer all the time anyway, they'll be ready whenever you're ready.
Some considerations:
- You will generally want some fat in the meat. When I started out, I thought, "Wow: I get to make fat free sausage!" Then, I fried it up, and got a crumbly, unpleasant mess. Some fat is important to keep the sausage moist and hold the meat together. It also adds a lot of flavor. If you have chicken, you can even throw in the skin! The result will taste like fried chicken when you cook it in the pan.
- Fat-free ground meat is doable if you add vegetables to add moisture. I do make fat free ground chicken breast, and then mix in chopped mushrooms (which add an awesome umami character) and peppers (sometimes pickled, sometimes not). These will keep the patty moist, and add some color. You don't get the extra flavor bump that the fat adds, but you will still enjoy it.
- Don't try to save money with a hand-crank grinder. My first grinder was a hand-crank type grinder. It worked, but it took so long to grind. The meat and the components would start to near room temperature, which isn't bad because it's unsafe. It's bad because the meat at the end of the grind always had some smearing.
- Use the scraps from trimming meat for your sausage. I forgot that this is what I often do. I bought a massive amount of chicken breasts because my kids decided to start cooking things themselves. I trimmed off the fat and less-than-perfect angles to create perfectly-shaped cutlets. Then, I took the smaller cutlets and chopped them up to use in the sausage. The above direction to cut the meat into chunks assumes you're buying meat exclusively to make sausage.
...............................Smeared Grind..................Proper Grind
Please let me know if you have any questions. I will update this post if I think of anything else.
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Should this have the 'Review' prefix to the title, perhaps? Its a good detailed report.
The wife is requesting ground chicken patties for my first experiment.