Grind your own Hamburger meat w/ Food Processor

[DennisLinkletter]

Home chopped/ ground burgers are the bomb! I will, never go back to buying even the best store ground (for safety too)

I've been chopping meat for burgers in a food processor - pulse mode.

Great texture and such a different mouthfeel from store ground beef..

My current combo is two parts cheap sirloin for texture and as a binder.. low fat ok.

One part brisket for it's super grassy bit sour taste.. has odd texture in mouth if used too much.

One part Ox-Tail  for it's rich, nutty, gamey savoriness

 

You can also try this using chuck instead of the sirloin and tri tip instead of the brisket...

We've tossed smoked pork fat from my bacon too.. Kids loved it, wife not so much.

 

This is great raw for those of you who are not afraid to eat beef with the moo still in it!

 

Cut into 1-2" cubes, mix them up in a bowl then lay them out on a tray and firm them up in a freezer for 15-30 minutes.

You want to process about two fistfuls at a time (30-40% of the bowl max)  do 1 second pulses until you get the texture you want.. we like it with small lumps, absolutely not till creamy.. LOL

Remove the batch quickly with a spatula (sharp blade in there;-) and repeat ASAP to prevent the meat from warming up.

 

PS never add salt directly into the mix...makes it tough and chewy

 

You can also concentrate the flavors by removing the water by putting the meat on paper towels in tuperware and changing the towels every time they are full... 

 

Remember to lessen the fat ratio for the very rare burgers and use more if you like them cooked more..

[CeramicChef]

Dennis you are The Man! All I have to do is source some ox tail and I'm in bidnez. I'm gonna talk to my butcher today.

[DennisLinkletter]

Just in case.. While standard here, it may not be there.. Oxtail is the culinary name for the tail of cattle not ox.

It has super concentrated cow flavor..

[Poochie]

I've seen those locally. Doesn't look like much meat on them, but I've never scutenized them

[tony b]

Only eaten them at the local Caribbean restaurant. But, my butcher supplies their restaurant, so I can get them if I want. 

[MadMedik]

Sounds  good..i have been wanting to do this but have never gotten around to doing it.   I will do it......

[tinyfish]

Thanks Dennis, now I need to buy a food processor.

[DaveyR]

Thanks Dennis, now I need to buy a food processor.

 

Tinyfish i am not sure if you ended up buying one but i just purchased http://smokehousechef.com/the-original-stainless-steel-meat-grinder-attachment-for-kitchenaid-mixer-plus-sausage-stuffing-kit/for doing my own ground meat. 

 

I have the kitchenaid anyway and very important for me it can just be thrown in the dishwasher.

 

Davey

[MacKenzie]

tinyfish, perhaps you could use one of these instead of the food processor. I've had one for  maybe 5 years and it works like charm at grinding meat, grating cheese, shredding potatoes, and much much much more. It had a stuffer but I have not used that because I have a dedicated stuffer. The stainless steel is thick and heavy, I think Dennis built it. It is not cheap but has tons of power and I expect it to last umpteen years. There are no gears to strip either. They are not available in many places and I bought mine from this site. Excellent service. It's funny many years ago I bought a Braun and all the attachments and found that they didn't work all the well and vowed never again to buy all the attachments. Needless to say I broke down and very glad I did. I do have most of the attachments including the pasta roller and cutters, awesome. Can you tell I'm a fan;)

 

http://www.aviva.ca/shop/products.asp?itemid=6345

[tony b]

That mixer does look like Dennis designed it, MacKenzie! Price point is about the same, too! 

[MacKenzie]

You are so right, it's right up there with the KK for build and functionality.

[tinyfish]

Its so easy to spend money.

[wilburpan]

I’ve been grinding my own beef to make burgers over the past year. I use the meat grinder attachment that mounts on a KitchenAid mixer. What surprised me the most was how fast and easy it was to do that, even taking clean up time into account.

 

For four burgers to feed us for dinner, I’ll buy about 1-1/2 pounds of chuck steak, eyeballing the steaks to find ones around 15% fat, and slice the steak up into strips about 1†wide. I’ll set up the meat grinder attachment, turn on the mixer, and feed the strips through until they are ground. Then I’ll divide the pile of ground beef into four parts, make four burgers, and grill. 

[MacKenzie]

A grinding tip set the cut up meat is the freezer for a little while until it partially freezes then grind.

[tony b]

And, put your grinder in the fridge to chill it beforehand as well.