Burger

[Lost Spurs]

Long story short, I have near a handfull of kids and am looking for opinions on ground burger. For a bit of background, we (my troup) eat a fair bit of ground meat. Burgers on the grill, meat sauce on pasta, taco meat for a couple examples. We do a lot of turkey, some pork and some beef. The ground pork is usually mild as the wife ain't too fond of heat.

The burgers are ground beef.

Tacos end up being ground turkey or beef, depends on what we have. The kids don't seem to tell the difference with good seasoning.

Meat sauce on pasta can be beef, pork or turkey.

I have probably 10 or 12 lbs of ground beef I got from some local folk between Waco and B/CS. I like it, family doesn't. It is a thicker grind and there is some hard chunks you may have to spit out. Probably a bit too course groud.. good flavor though.

I use to get ground longhorn from an old boss. Killer meat but couldn't hold in a patty shape to save your life. Probably 150% lean.


Question, Anybody here ground up brisket. I have a kitchenaid mixer I can get a grinder for. I figure a guy could trim and weigh to get a good 80 or 90 % meat to fat ratio. At that point I could also do sirloin.

This fall I may have access to some deer and hog hunting and may go that route also.

With prices rising on everything nowadays I am looking around to start saving some scratch. Any pointers are appreciated.

@baboon assuming I remember you as the feller at the meat counter, is store ground beef just the left over trimmings or is it a particular cut? Looking at prices, ground beef generally seems cheaper than an actual cut of meat.



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[baboon]

Grinding briskets was just something most meat cutters I worked with did when briskets were on sale cheap! Doing it yourself is the best way to do it. Big commercial grinders can rob you of your yield more so then doing it yourself. When I stopped working company policy was to wash out the grinder after every grind. The problem being if it's washed rinsed then sanitized the sanitizer needed to air dry. I would explain that to people and they generally got pissed off. The old customer is always right might result in getting the shits!

Ground meat had changed over the years I worked. When I started my first time on the band saw was cutting frozen bull meat. It could be mixed or ground straight depending on what was needed. Trim from everything processed was the basis of the ground meat. We use to get 3 part chucks which was the chuck, shoulder/arm & the garbage bag (neck meat). Garbage bags might pile up during a chuck add. They need additional work to get them lean.

At some point "box Beef " what most large chains cut got leaner. Packing house labor is cheaper then a meat cutters & shipping less white meat(fat) made more sense. Packing house also started cranking out more tube beef for retail grinds. I first seen that when Country of Origin labeling started under Bush II. That's when I also seen the imported tubes hit in a big way. You would think we slaughtered enough beef to supply ground beef, but Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Uraguay, Brazil, Honduras & Australia started showing up. And its not just ground beef!

Factory meat processing ships leave one place with livestock that processed along the way. Lamb, grass fed beef & halal beef are pretty common this way.

Some chains got away from labeling ground beef as chuck, sirloin & ground round in favor of the fat to lean ratio. The names were just feel good names as most meat was trim from the days production separated out into 2 different pile 80% & lean trim.

The guy that hired me told me first thing that a meat department was only as good as it's ground beef! I worked for Randall's start to finish no matter how owned them. Really Randall's ceased to exist years ago when they got sued for an EEOC suit and again over their ESOP suit. Now I'm driving 45 minutes to an H-E-B store in Mexia. Not only for their meat, but it's almost like it was when I started out. I doubt I would ever walk into a Randall's for any reason. Safeway & now Albertsons or who ever might own them were nasty stores during Randall's peak.

 

[Lost Spurs]

Thanks that's a lot to ponder. Meat production ships kind of give me the willie's though. Any food processed on the open seas by "workers" seems like a good way to skirt rules.

I may just have to get the grinder attachment and start playing around to see what works amd how it tastes.

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[baboon]

Thanks that's a lot to ponder. Meat production ships kind of give me the willie's though. Any food processed on the open seas by "workers" seems like a good way to skirt rules.

I may just have to get the grinder attachment and start playing around to see what works amd how it tastes.

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You can grind any cheap roast! Pork butts are great ground for sausage. I never was a huge fan of ground turkey or chicken.

 

[MTA]

Are you close to DFW?? I can give you some ground elk and whitetail if you want it

 

[Lost Spurs]

Are you close to DFW?? I can give you some ground elk and whitetail if you want it

Thanks for the offer. I made my escape from DFW 2 years ago for B/CS and avoid the big metros like a plague.

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[TX oddball]

The guy that hired me told me first thing that a meat department was only as good as it's ground beef!

This is a great quote, and I agree. We only buy freshly ground chuck from our local Central Market, it has an excellent butcher dept as well as fresh seafood dept. Use it for burgers, meatballs, meat loaf, Shepards Pie, etc.

 

[Texas45]

Wont buy meat from HEB or WALMART.

All my meats come from one of several “meat markets” mostly Granzens. Some Dzuks.


Quality is much better and meat actually has a little flavor unlike the “chain store” variety.


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[Axxe55]

Thanks that's a lot to ponder. Meat production ships kind of give me the willie's though. Any food processed on the open seas by "workers" seems like a good way to skirt rules.

I may just have to get the grinder attachment and start playing around to see what works amd how it tastes.

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We have a grinder attachment for our huge multi-use mixer. It works, sort of alright, but not so much that you would want to grind a lot of meat up. I mainly use it for making a more artisan type of burger, or for mixing up a fattier type meat with the really lean ground meat we get from the processed beef we have butchered. Much of that ground beef is so lean, it makes very poor burgers.

 

[Winginit32]

I tried the plant based beyond burger in a healthy style with lettuce buns yesterday. Actually wasn’t bad but I think you could still taste the difference of meat vs not meat. Off that I think ground brisket would make a great burger. Sprouts has good pricing and brisket selection sometimes.

 

[baboon]

We have a grinder attachment for our huge multi-use mixer. It works, sort of alright, but not so much that you would want to grind a lot of meat up. I mainly use it for making a more artisan type of burger, or for mixing up a fattier type meat with the really lean ground meat we get from the processed beef we have butchered. Much of that ground beef is so lean, it makes very poor burgers.

a good grinder ain’t cheap! Buying a lean roast like a bottom round benefits greatly when bacon is ground in with it. Boxed bacon ends & pieces are fairly cheap!

80% makes a great burger for the grill, while leaner is best if you eat a rare burger.

 

[1911'S 4 Me]

a good grinder ain’t cheap! Buying a lean roast like a bottom round benefits greatly when bacon is ground in with it. Boxed bacon ends & pieces are fairly cheap!

80% makes a great burger for the grill, while leaner is best if you eat a rare burger.

Baboon, if you grind your own roast can it be frozen, and how long should it last?

 

[baboon]

Baboon, if you grind your own roast can it be frozen, and how long should it last?

Sure it can be frozen! As far as freezing it all depends on how its wrapped. Freezer burn is the problem, but if you use the ground meat in tacos, spaghetti sauce it les noticeable.

I would venture to say people who hunt or have a calf butcher keep ground meat for up to a year.

 

[m5215]

If ground meat is vacuum packed how long can it last in the freezer?

 

[Mowingmaniac 24/7]

Wing32,

You are from the 'Ukraine'...yes?

 

[Winginit32]

Wing32,

You are from the 'Ukraine'...yes?

Why would I be from Ukraine?

 

[baboon]

If ground meat is vacuum packed how long can it last in the freezer?

If the vacuum stay tight until thawed!

 

[Winginit32]

If ground meat is vacuum packed how long can it last in the freezer?

I’d say about 6 months?

 

[satx78247]

Long story short, I have near a handfull of kids and am looking for opinions on ground burger. For a bit of background, we (my troup) eat a fair bit of ground meat. Burgers on the grill, meat sauce on pasta, taco meat for a couple examples. We do a lot of turkey, some pork and some beef. The ground pork is usually mild as the wife ain't too fond of heat.

The burgers are ground beef.

Tacos end up being ground turkey or beef, depends on what we have. The kids don't seem to tell the difference with good seasoning.

Meat sauce on pasta can be beef, pork or turkey.

I have probably 10 or 12 lbs of ground beef I got from some local folk between Waco and B/CS. I like it, family doesn't. It is a thicker grind and there is some hard chunks you may have to spit out. Probably a bit too course groud.. good flavor though.

I use to get ground longhorn from an old boss. Killer meat but couldn't hold in a patty shape to save your life. Probably 150% lean.


Question, Anybody here ground up brisket. I have a kitchenaid mixer I can get a grinder for. I figure a guy could trim and weigh to get a good 80 or 90 % meat to fat ratio. At that point I could also do sirloin.

This fall I may have access to some deer and hog hunting and may go that route also.

With prices rising on everything nowadays I am looking around to start saving some scratch. Any pointers are appreciated.

@baboon assuming I remember you as the feller at the meat counter, is store ground beef just the left over trimmings or is it a particular cut? Looking at prices, ground beef generally seems cheaper than an actual cut of meat.



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Lost Spurs,

IF you can find an independent slaughterer/meat cutter, that's often a good place to buy meat.

When I lived in NETX, I bought most all of my meat from THE COUNTRY MERCHANT outside of Pittsburg.
(Sadly David was killed in a traffic accident a while ago, so IF I went back to NETX to stay I would have to find another butcher/game processor.)

yours, satx

 

[seeker_two]

Long story short, I have near a handfull of kids and am looking for opinions on ground burger.


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Am I right to be a little nervous here?.....or am I just watching too much CRIMINAL MINDS?

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