Meat Grinder guys

[nube]

How are you guys making your Ground burger. I havn't done much but I got a comercial grade grinder and it has a disc for med size holes. I tried to double grind to mix the burger and it turns out mushy. Do you guys just grind once and then use a hand mixer?
Do you prefer the large holes for double grind? Just figuring out how you do it.

I also have this attatchment and a stuffing tube and wondered if I ground the meat once and then used this attatchment if it would mix the pork fat more evenly before it comes out? I got lots to learn but want to get into processing my own stuff more and plan on taking a course as well hopefully.

[Lefty-Canuck]

We grind twice using a medium plate.

LC

[FCLightning]

For sausage we grind once, for burger we grind twice with medium plate. I have a fine plate I use for grinding chicken, pheasant, turkey.

For mixing I used to use a rubbermaid tub and both hands, now I use the mixer attachment for the grinder.

[ghostguy6]

I just grind once through a plate with 1/4" holes. What I do is, take your cubed meat and pork fat and mix it by hand then grind. After if it is ground you can hand mix it again if you desire.

And for the love of god man, oil the grinder plates when you store them! I think I need a tetanus shot just looking at that photo.

[vcmm]

Incoming P.M.

[Piker]

I have been grounding for many years and my preference is the plate with the biggest holes for thr venison and the medium one for thr pork. I used to mix it by hand then got a 17 lb. meat mixer and thr texture was perfect. That plate you show I think is to use when you are stuffing. But if I was you I would get a stuffer with metal gears because I tried stuffing with grinder before and the texture was awful. I am talking about lots of grinding over 30 years worth. I started with a hand grinder and some beer, needless to say it was a long job. I am set up for a one man operation now but have a friend with equipment that takes 3 guys to keep it running full.

[nube]

Thanks guys. Going to pick up a few new things and get into doing some sausage this year for the first time.
Looks like I need to clean some rust off the old plate lol
Had it sitting in the shed for years and just had the butcher do my grinding for me but I figure if my daughter gets her Bison we will be making all kinds of goodies and wanted to work with her on that project. Might temp her to take a course with me as well

[omega50]

Sounds like your grinder knife is dull and not trued to the plate.
Spacer plate in pic used for first grind for larger chunks-Some machines allow you to remove the knives and use the spacer plate for stuffing. Center hole in pic centers your feed screw auger.

[The Fisherman Guy]

Originally Posted by omega50

Some machines allow you to remove the knives and use the spacer plate for stuffing.

This is exactly what we do. Our grinder came with a stuffing attachment, which we use to stuff ground meat into storage bags. Sure beats doing it by hand.

[nube]

Originally Posted by The Fisherman Guy

This is exactly what we do. Our grinder came with a stuffing attachment, which we use to stuff ground meat into storage bags. Sure beats doing it by hand.

Kinda the route I am thinking of going. Take the knife off and run it rough the Kidney shaped plate to mix it a bit and to put it in the bags.

[Drewski Canuck]

While shoulders can be a pretty good price some times, you can often buy ground pork at Costco if you get there early on a week day. The ground pork is the cuts from the day before, usually are very good cuts, and are still very fresh, but not very fatty. Price is also very good.

Saves a step, and when mixed in after the first grind on the venison, seems to come out very consistent when mixed up for the second grind before packaging.

Drewski

[lund17]

I started grinding a few years ago as I always had the poorer cuts of meat left over from a side of beef each year, so I started making hamburger for burgers. I just did a batch this past weekend and felt like I finally hit a home run with the family. Go get a course grind plate(10mm), it made a difference for me.

Started with 20 lbs. of round steak (barely thawed) and trimmed out any sinew. Grind beef with a course plate (10mm). Mix burger seasoning (Epicure) and cold water, add to ground beef and mix by hand. Put ground beef into freezer while I change grinding plate to medium (7mm). Got out 6 lbs. of bacon and cut in half. Next I got a hand full of ground beef, a few slices of bacon and made a ball and ran it through the grinder with the medium plate. After grinding, I made a ball of the ground meat and had a couple my kids each on burger press making patties. I froze the patties on a cookie sheet and then vacuum packed the burgers. Got enough patties till spring.

[skidderman]

I have always used course, put through once. I never mix pork with mine. Ruins the meat and the storage time is reduced. A friend of mine cooked a burger with meat he made using a fine put through twice & added pork fat. All I can say is YUK!!!!!!

[Colin_r6]

Anyone use a kitchenaid mixing head unit for grinding critters?

Wife got one for xmas, I was planning on picking up the grinder and sausage stuffer attachment.

Hoping that it is able to handle a white tail..

[kevinhits]

Originally Posted by nube

How are you guys making your Ground burger. I havn't done much but I got a comercial grade grinder and it has a disc for med size holes. I tried to double grind to mix the burger and it turns out mushy. Do you guys just grind once and then use a hand mixer?

Do you prefer the large holes for double grind? Just figuring out how you do it.



I also have this attatchment and a stuffing tube and wondered if I ground the meat once and then used this attatchment if it would mix the pork fat more evenly before it comes out? I got lots to learn but want to get into processing my own stuff more and plan on taking a course as well hopefully.

This is how we roll...lol





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[Andrzej]

Best ground venison

Weight your venison trim, add 25% of that weight in lean pork butt and 12.5% of lean Ground Beef. Have it run twice through a 1/8" (3 mm) grinder plate.

Then you can used it for:

Faux filet mignon


Pizza steak




Stuffed Paprika

[cgrif]

Good morning mr.nube,

We usually only grind once with a fine (1/4") plate when making patties. We have not used the grinder to stuff anything in years. We have a LEM 20# stuffer that we find way cleaner and 10 times faster. When we do make patties out of any game meat, we always mix in either fatty beef or pork just to give a little moisture. We use our tub mixer to blend the game/pork and then fill the stuffer. This is just what we do. I think that if you talked to 100 people who process their own meat you would probably get 100 different ways of doing it. The cool part is, almost all the 100 ways make delicious dishes. If you want I'll take pics of our set up and send them to you.
Also, a couple years ago we chatted about smokers. I said I would get pics for you but never did. Sorry. If you are still interested I'll show you my home made smoker and all the features. It works great, can smoke 300lbs at a time and is good for both hot and cold smoking, plus it looks nice (not a rusted fridge in the yard). Anyways have fun with the meat grinding and good luck on catching a bison!

Cory

[sns2]

Bud, I know you like nice things, and I don't think you are planning on stopping hunting anytime soon, so I would give you a few recommendations...

1) You and your daughter absolutely should take the sausage making course at Butchers and Packers. It is free and it is close to the Park. I took my son when he was young and they were so nice to him. We had a great time and learned enough that we were ready to start on our own. They even send you home with some samples. They sell equipment, so it is really a sales pitch to a captive audience, and that is fine because they sell good products anyhow. Some better than others, but generally good stuff.

2) Go to Cabelas on Boxing Day and buy what you will need there. I have bought equipment from Butchers & Packers, CTR, Princess Auto, and Cabelas. I will unequivocally say that Cabelas stuff is tested and they stand behind it. They sell thousands and thousands while the other places sell dozens. I am sure it is all made in China anyhow, but Cabelas isn't sourcing garbage, while Princess Auto is in my opinion sourcing the absolute cheapest they can find, or very close to it. I have bought stuff there that has gone back to the store very quickly. If you go with Cabelas you are safe.

[PartTimeHunter]

Originally Posted by cgrif

Good morning mr.nube,

We usually only grind once with a fine (1/4") plate when making patties. We have not used the grinder to stuff anything in years. We have a LEM 20# stuffer that we find way cleaner and 10 times faster. When we do make patties out of any game meat, we always mix in either fatty beef or pork just to give a little moisture. We use our tub mixer to blend the game/pork and then fill the stuffer. This is just what we do. I think that if you talked to 100 people who process their own meat you would probably get 100 different ways of doing it. The cool part is, almost all the 100 ways make delicious dishes. If you want I'll take pics of our set up and send them to you.
Also, a couple years ago we chatted about smokers. I said I would get pics for you but never did. Sorry. If you are still interested I'll show you my home made smoker and all the features. It works great, can smoke 300lbs at a time and is good for both hot and cold smoking, plus it looks nice (not a rusted fridge in the yard). Anyways have fun with the meat grinding and good luck on catching a bison!

Cory

Share this smoker plan with the rest of us please

[cgrif]

Hello, I don't really have a plan as I just built it from scratch. The foundation is 5' x 4' and is basically a mini grade beam garage pad with 16" beam height and a 14" lower opening for me to slide in the wood chip pan. Next I formed the floor and sheeted it on both sides with fire rated/mold resistant 1/2" dry wall. The floor has a 16"sq opening to the basement let's call it. All faces of the floor are sheeted with the above mentioned dry wall. I then framed the 2x4 walls and made trusses for the shanty roof. The walls and roof are sheathed with 3/8" and 3/4" OSB respectively. The walls are insulated with FR material and then clad with 22 ga flashing. The roof vent is a garden variety 4" vent pipe and a slide damper to control venting. The hanging rails are just clothes hanger rails with stainless shower curtain hooks to hang whatever. The rails are spaced to also act as a shelf for stainless racks I sometimes use(not shown). The temp gauge is a 10" Turkey temp gauge I found at peavy mart, and it works accurately. The wood siding was picked up at Totem and was fairly cheap as not much material was needed. I estimate the total build cost to be around $400. The special dry wall sheets were the most expensive item at $57/sheet. 1-1/2 sheets were required. Not much else to tell. It holds heat very well, and I can smoke +\- 250 lbs of sausage per batch and achieve even smoke and heat exposure. I would say the capability and performance through design is more good luck than good management, but I'll take it. Now I'll try to post the picks. This might take a bit, as don't really know how to do that.

[cgrif]

Having trouble. Will post one at a time I guess.

[slopeshunter]

^^ very nice!

[cgrif]

I'll post pics this way, and after this I'm done with posting pics. Kind of a pain. If you folks don't mind a bunch of posts I'll carry on.

[cgrif]

Again

[cgrif]

Another

[cgrif]

Summer sausage

[cgrif]

Let's eat

[DRhunter]

Looks great Cgrif, I am in the process (long process, ha) of building a smoker out of an old stand up freezer, so I may bug you on a few how to’s once I get back to that project!


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[kingrat]

Originally Posted by cgrif

Good morning mr.nube,

We usually only grind once with a fine (1/4") plate when making patties. We have not used the grinder to stuff anything in years. We have a LEM 20# stuffer that we find way cleaner and 10 times faster. When we do make patties out of any game meat, we always mix in either fatty beef or pork just to give a little moisture. We use our tub mixer to blend the game/pork and then fill the stuffer. This is just what we do. I think that if you talked to 100 people who process their own meat you would probably get 100 different ways of doing it. The cool part is, almost all the 100 ways make delicious dishes. If you want I'll take pics of our set up and send them to you.
Also, a couple years ago we chatted about smokers. I said I would get pics for you but never did. Sorry. If you are still interested I'll show you my home made smoker and all the features. It works great, can smoke 300lbs at a time and is good for both hot and cold smoking, plus it looks nice (not a rusted fridge in the yard). Anyways have fun with the meat grinding and good luck on catching a bison!

Cory

x2 we do exactly the same except our lem stuffer is 15 lb i think.

[nube]

Great info guys thanks