NTM: Grinding Hamburger Meat

I mentioned last friday that I purchased the food grinder attachment for my KA stand mixer.  I knew the first thing I was going to do was grind up meat to make my own hamburger meat.  I must say that prepping for this first grind left me a bit confused.  I didn’t find all that much information on the internet to help me in my journey.  Or at least not a good pictorial like I wanted.  There was a decent one at instructables, but it had information different from other websites I visited.  After much thought, I purchased a huge pack of chuck roast at Sam’s Club, attached the grinder to the KA and prepared for the first grind.  Seriously, why  not just dive in feet first?  I don’t often do that.  It was time.

Step 1: I trimmed the chuck roast of as much fat as possible. Next time, I’m definitely purchasing a leaner cut of meat. Then, the roast was cut into small cubes or strips. After everything was trimmed, cut, and cubed, I placed the meat (covered with aluminum foil) into the freezer for 40 minutes. I didn’t want the meat to freeze. The purpose is to firm the meat so that it goes through the grinder easier. Or so I read. And trust me, I found out this was ESSENTIAL.

Be sure to check your meat in the freezer in 10 – 15 minute increments. 40 minutes might be too long for you or not enough. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the 5 and 1/3 pounds of chuck roast I purchased made about 4 lbs of ground meat after trimming.

Step 2: Once the meat is nicely firmed, it’s time to begin the grind. For hamburger meat, use the coarse blade of the KA food grinder. Place strips of meat in the tube of the food grinder. Turn on the KA.

Step 3: Using the plastic food stomper (or at least I think that is the term), push the meat down the tube towards the grinding, twisted metal at the bottom. This is what will churn up the food (or so I think).

Step 4: Marvel at the fact that you’re grinding your own hamburger meat (or whatever it is you choose to grind up).

Step 5: Continue to place food in the food grinder and push it down with the stomper to grind up all the meat until none is left.

Step 6: HA! Look at that, you’ve finished grinding everything. But you’re not finished yet.

Step 7: Season your meat however you wish. Mix it well into the ground meat. Then, place it all back into the freezer to firm back up (after the next step). Grinding the meat will warm it up enought to where it is no longer firm enough to do the second grind. The second grind is needed to help distribute the fat better through the meat as well as to tenderize the meat more. It has the added benefit of distributing seasoning throughout the meat well too.

Step 7 continued: Place your ground meat onto freezer paper, roll the freezer paper around it and press all along the meat well.

Step 7 continued, again: This will roll your meat into a nice log shape, making it easier to cut into segments, once firmed in the freezer, to place down the food grinder tube. Be sure to go back after the first grind and firm the meat up by placing it in the freezer for a bit before regrinding it. I didn’t think to do this with my first batch and it gunked up the grinder. I firmed up the rest, and the grind was much easier.

As well, you can do this butcher paper trick to shape the meat for permanent freezing.

Step 8: Once the meat is firmed up again, place it all back through the grinder. Since there is a bit of a time delay between the two grinds (30 – 40 minutes) I washed my food grinder well so that the dirty food grinder didn’t just sit there, exposed to the elements. As my second grind completed, I segmented the meat into 1 pound batches. The batches became kibi burgers (yet to be shown) and meatloaf.

If anyone reading out there has suggestions, tips, or sees that I did something really wrong, please let me know.  This was my first attempt and by no means an expert tutorial.