Lean meat grind poll - what do you do?

[justinspicher]

This year is did a double grind with the fine plate for my elk. Nothing was added. We just made sure to clean it well and trim the fat, tendons and silver skin as best we could.

 

[butcherboy]

Here’s one I did today for a friend of mine.

 

[InkedElkSlayer]

Double grind. First grind with course, second with fine. This seems to mix in the beef fat better and more consistently.

I do around 7% beef fat.

** We are very picky about our fat. None of that yellow adiapose shit, or the fat with glands in it. We go to the butcher a week or so before we grind and have him keep all the excess fat he trims off the ribeye steaks. It’s super good, solid white beef fat.

 

[BoilerBowHunter]

Single grind through a medium sized of three plates. Definitely not a fine size. Grind right into bags.

I’ve also used a hand grinder a fair amount in the last two years which has even more of a course grind.

With ground meat I’m always just browning it, and I can break it up more in the pan if needed.

 

[butcherboy]

The first picture in my post is with the beef fat mixed in prior to the first coarse grind. All kidney fat. I coarse grind the fat first into a box with a clear plastic trash bag in it. Twist the bag up tight, close the box and store it in the freezer till I need it. I pull it out and let it thaw a little while processing. When I’m ready to grind I use a big plastic scoop that I know almost exactly how many pounds of fat it will hold and I add that to the meat according to how many pounds of grind there is. Coarse grind once then fine grind once and then into the stuffer.

 

[menhaden_man]

The first picture in my post is with the beef fat mixed in prior to the first coarse grind. All kidney fat. I coarse grind the fat first into box with a clear plastic trash bag in it. Twist the bad up tight, close the box and store it in the freezer till I need it. I pull it out and let it thaw a little while processing. When I’m ready to grind I use a big plastic scoop that I know almost exactly how many pounds of fat it will hold and I add that to the meat according to how many pounds of grind there is. Coarse grind once then fine grind once and then into the stuffer.

Looks great.

 

[InkedElkSlayer]

The first picture in my post is with the beef fat mixed in prior to the first coarse grind. All kidney fat. I coarse grind the fat first into box with a clear plastic trash bag in it. Twist the bad up tight, close the box and store it in the freezer till I need it. I pull it out and let it thaw a little while processing. When I’m ready to grind I use a big plastic scoop that I know almost exactly how many pounds of fat it will hold and I add that to the meat according to how many pounds of grind there is. Coarse grind once then fine grind once and then into the stuffer.

Yep. Looks familiar. I forgot to add in about coarse grinding the fat and keeping it frozen. The meat pretty much can’t be too cold either.

 

[Jethro]

@butcherboy whats your fat meat ratio?

 

[cnelk]

Double grind for burger.
Large plate then small plate.
No fat added

 

[5MilesBack]

I single grind through a small plate. Never seen a need to do more than that, seems like it would turn to mush.

 

[butcherboy]

@butcherboy whats your fat meat ratio?

This one was around 8% fat. Had 70lbs of meat. My scoop will measure out 3 lbs of ground fat when it’s full. I did one full scoop and 3/4 scoop. So about 5lbs of fat give or take.

I use bacon ends and pieces for my personal stuff. I use rendered pork fat and beef fat for a lot of my cooking instead of vegetable or corn oil.

 

[Kpence93]

Using a 1/2 hp no.8 grinder it seems to bog down a lot more going through the fine plate to do a single grind but the course plate is comes out rather large and chunky. Is this due to the grinder size and quality or just the style of plates it has with it. It is one of the cabelas commercial grinder?

Never in my, my father's or my grandfather's lives did we ever grind twice. Never saw the need and too much more work. I worked nights at a butcher/processing shop in high school during the hunting seasons and never seen them grind anything twice.

Using a 1/2 hp no.8 grinder it seems to bog down a lot more going through the fine plate to do a single grind but the course plate it comes out rather large and chunky. Is this due to the grinder size and quality or just the style of plates it has with it? It is one of the cabelas commercial grinder?

 

[ATC LLC]

Single grind but I have a medium plate that does well for us, we do pay close attention to trimming as much silver skin and tendons as we can

 

[180ls1]

Can someone explain why the double grind?

I grind almost everything, thinking of upping the added fat as well.

 

[Pilsner]

Grind with fat for burger
If for sausage I toss once ground meat + fat + seasoning into stand mixer bowl and then grind a second time.
I have no use for ground game meat without at least 5-10% fat added.

 

[menhaden_man]

Butchered six deer so far this season, wound up single grind straight with a fine plate into bags. Then did some with 20% beef fat, course then fine to help mixing. And did more for sausage, Boston butt mixed in once course then fine into bags.

We eat a lot of single fine ground with nothing added - kids love deer tacos a few nights a week and that cooks well with a little bacon fat then water and seasoning.

 

[HiMtnHntr]

Double grind, course then fine, add 10% beef suet after the course grind. Use a stuffer into 2 lb bags. Looks very similar to what Butcherboy posted above. Makes fabulous burger. We put up 9 animals this year- elk, deer, antelope.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Trim off anything bloody, most of the silver skin, interstitial tissue, and all large pieces of fat. Don’t add anything to it. Single grind it. Bag it up. Freeze it. Thaw it. Cook it. Eat it.

To me, the point of hunting deer is to eat venison. It’s healthy, lean, minimally processed, etc. And I like venison. I see a lot of preparation techniques that seem to be trying to make venison more like beef or pork. If I want to eat beef or pork, I will buy beef or pork. Except for the fact that I love hunting more than anything else, beef and pork are far cheaper than venison. Seriously. I could eat beef and pork for the next decade just selling all but one of my deer rifles (without counting the ammo or the time spent hunting).

Of course, if you don’t like venison and want it to taste like beef or pork (with the nutritional value of beef or pork), then by all means mix it with beef or pork fat.

 

[Tod osier]

Can someone explain why the double grind?

They like to waste time, maybe?!?! With a small grinder you may have to do coarse then fine to break things down, that is the way my grandfather always did it.

A lot of people do a double but I haven't ever seen anyone say that they do a double because a single grind with a fine plate isn't good enough. I grind all but the thickest tendons and I've never had an objectionable piece in hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) of pounds of deer, elk, antelope grind.

 

[swavescatter]

Double grind here, mostly for the mixing. I'm using the 1.5HP MEAT! grinder and usually chop up the beef fat and freeze it. Coarse grind goes great, but the auger really slimes up and requires cleaning/pushing for the fine grind.

I think next time I'll use the tip here to fine grind with frozen fat first, then just mix with coarse.