Ground meat questions.

We process and grind all of our meat all at once. We get together with all the other family/friend hunters a few days after the whitetail opener and use a friends garage. A couple guys on the band saw, 4 or 5 guys cutting steaks and trimming silver skin/tallow, a couple guys running the grinders, and the wives all chat and wrap/paper and label everyones meat. Takes us about half the day to fully butcher and package about 12 deer. If you’re in far northern Minnesota during whitetail season and want to join, bring your deer and a cooler and come have some fun!
 
Used to do it all at once. Got a smaller grinder for the kitchen and now I do it in batches as needed.

I’ll seal my chunked game meat in 1-5lb packages, cubed, ready to grind. If I want burgers I can add bacon and whatever else I want. If I want sausage I can add desired fat, or if I want it straight I can do that. For example tonight I’m doing a taco dish where I don’t want any grease, I got a 1lb package out that I won’t grind with anything. It works for how I eat venison currently. You can also adjust your grind size. Nice and course for chili, fine for tacos.

On top of that it’s less handling of the meat as well, keeps well unground. If you don’t want to grind it for a stew or something, it’s all ready.

Smokehouse chef makes an all stainless meat grinder for a mixer that is pretty nice. I have a big cabelas grinder for times when a lot is needed but now a days I mostly do in batches on the little mixer grinder.


It all depends how you like to eat your meat.
 
Used to do it all at once. Got a smaller grinder for the kitchen and now I do it in batches as needed.

I’ll seal my chunked game meat in 1-5lb packages, cubed, ready to grind. If I want burgers I can add bacon and whatever else I want. If I want sausage I can add desired fat, or if I want it straight I can do that. For example tonight I’m doing a taco dish where I don’t want any grease, I got a 1lb package out that I won’t grind with anything. It works for how I eat venison currently. You can also adjust your grind size. Nice and course for chili, fine for tacos.

On top of that it’s less handling of the meat as well, keeps well unground. If you don’t want to grind it for a stew or something, it’s all ready.

Smokehouse chef makes an all stainless meat grinder for a mixer that is pretty nice. I have a big cabelas grinder for times when a lot is needed but now a days I mostly do in batches on the little mixer grinder.


It all depends how you like to eat your meat.
I hope to get to that point at some point. Much of my antelope trip is frozen in 2-3lb packs that still need to be cleaned. I have the kitchenaid brand grinder for our mixer. Haven't used it yet. But I've heard it does fine for small batches.

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Grind it all at once. Use cheap fatty pork shoulder roasts for your fat. I mix about 20% because you are getting some pork meat in there also. I grind it once mixing as I go, stir it good by hand, then grind it once more before packaging. I have not had ANY go bad on me in the freezer. In my opinion it is just a pain to do what you are thinking of. Get it all taken care of at once.
Second this with the pork shoulder roasts being cheaper to get now than fatback. I mix fat and pork, use the ground for tacos and meatballs and sausages.

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all at 1 time put in 2# tube/bags straight outta the machine. stacks great in freezer, never had any go bad.
elk always straight up, deer with beef fat sometimes as I get it free
 
never could understand why folks take perfectly good, lean, meat and add fat to it??????????????
I gotta be honest with you... I was a pure deer guy until my buddy in south Texas convinced me to grind a portion of my buck with beef brisket. It's pretty amazing. God bless Texas.
 
I gotta be honest with you... I was a pure deer guy until my buddy in south Texas convinced me to grind a portion of my buck with beef brisket. It's pretty amazing. God bless Texas.
Bacon ends are good too. Only for burgers though.

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Grind it all at once. I have a family of 5 so we do 2 lb packages. About 10% beef trim is a good mix for burger and will make a nice patty. Beef makes a good flavor and is safer to cook on the rare side. Some I grind straight and some I add fat to. Get some large mixing bowls to stash cubed meat in the fridge or coolers until you are ready to grind.
 
Question: When adding fat to the grind. Do you first grind your meat. Then grind your fat. Mix by hand. And then run it all together through the grinder to bag or wrap? Thanks

Joe S
 
Question: When adding fat to the grind. Do you first grind your meat. Then grind your fat. Mix by hand. And then run it all together through the grinder to bag or wrap? Thanks

Joe S

I grind it all together, drop in two to four chunks of venison then a small chunk of fat. I'm usually in the 10 to 15 percent range for venison to fat ratio.
I pay attention to the pile in the meat lug, so that if one spot has too much venison or too much fat I will mix it around lightly as I grind. After a while you will get a good feel for it and the grinder will do most of the mixing for you. As far as packing goes, I use a sausage stuffer and ground meat bags.
One thing I will add since Christmas is coming up is for those of you cooking a prime rib for the holiday, the trim scraps from that work excellent for burger.
 
Question: When adding fat to the grind. Do you first grind your meat. Then grind your fat. Mix by hand. And then run it all together through the grinder to bag or wrap? Thanks

Joe S

This is basically what I do. Make sure you keep everything real cold. Also, as mentioned, keep all your beef scrap from rib roasts, briskets, etc...
 
Thanks guys. I was gifted my fathers LEM equipment a few years ago. Finally cleared out all processed meat and killed a buck Friday. Gonna start doing my own work!
 
We process and grind all of our meat all at once. We get together with all the other family/friend hunters a few days after the whitetail opener and use a friends garage. A couple guys on the band saw, 4 or 5 guys cutting steaks and trimming silver skin/tallow, a couple guys running the grinders, and the wives all chat and wrap/paper and label everyones meat. Takes us about half the day to fully butcher and package about 12 deer. If you’re in far northern Minnesota during whitetail season and want to join, bring your deer and a cooler and come have some fun!

I live in Alberta, but you make me want to come shoot a deer in your neck of the woods. friends, family and hunting. doesn't get any better.
 
Thanks guys. I was gifted my fathers LEM equipment a few years ago. Finally cleared out all processed meat and killed a buck Friday. Gonna start doing my own work!

Those LEM grinders are the best. I know we have a 3/4 hp one and it just eats white tail and pushes it out easy. Enjoy the processes and a full freezer!
 
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