What does and doesn’t make it into your grind pile?

[5MilesBack]

Most of my elk makes it into the grinder as well. I love steak......but a steak without a bunch of fat and marbling isn't much of a steak IMO (think prime ribeye). Even a bull that's been feeding on grain all summer would still probably be ground.

 

[cmankingsley]

I trim all fat but don’t worry to much about silver skin. Add 10-15% beef or pork fat whatever the butcher has on hand. Grind twice. I have tried it with bacon and pork butt instead of just fat and didn’t like it as much.


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[justin davis]

I trim all fat and as much silver skin as possible. I’m pretty picky when doing it. I don’t add fat to burger.

 

[gburk]

I trim all fat but don’t worry to much about silver skin. Add 10-15% beef or pork fat whatever the butcher has on hand. Grind twice. I have tried it with bacon and pork butt instead of just fat and didn’t like it as much.


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Agree.. I trim all fat, but silver skin removal is a losing battle i don't fight. I've gotten feedback from my pickier consumers that medium grind burger was a little too "rough" for their liking, so this last time I ground medium and then fine.

But i didn't like how that turns the finished product into a pink almost homogenous color - even when keeping the mixture near freezing. Next time I will try just grinding with the fine plate, one time. Have you experienced this?

 

[TheCougar]

Agree.. I trim all fat, but silver skin removal is a losing battle i don't fight. I've gotten feedback from my pickier consumers that medium grind burger was a little too "rough" for their liking, so this last time I ground medium and then fine.

But i didn't like how that turns the finished product into a pink almost homogenous color - even when keeping the mixture near freezing. Next time I will try just grinding with the fine plate, one time. Have you experienced this?

Nope, but I’ll try it. I keep visualizing that pink goop from the McDonalds chicken nuggets a few years back.

 

[gburk]

haha not quite that bad but you get the idea. Double grinding would certainly be a bad idea for some sausages where fat particle size is important but for burger it may only be an aesthetic offense. Anyways i'm going back to single grind next time.

 

[cmankingsley]

Agree.. I trim all fat, but silver skin removal is a losing battle i don't fight. I've gotten feedback from my pickier consumers that medium grind burger was a little too "rough" for their liking, so this last time I ground medium and then fine.

But i didn't like how that turns the finished product into a pink almost homogenous color - even when keeping the mixture near freezing. Next time I will try just grinding with the fine plate, one time. Have you experienced this?

I have been grinding it twice through the medium plate. Seems to come out about right. I Grind meat and fat separate first grind. Then mix and grind into the bags. Gets the fat mixed in a little better on the second grind.


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[CREillY]

For deer I used to be very meticulous and remove all silver skin, fat etc. I've slowly become less picky with my grind pile. Now I just remove all the fat, glands, some of the thick silver skin, and cut off the ends where the connective tissue comes together on the shanks for example.

In fact we did a taste test last fall comparing perfectly clean meat and my choice of grind ^ and my buddy looked me dead in eyes and said "I've been wasting so much time. I can't tell the difference". These are MN farmland deer, so I don't know if that makes a difference.

 

[stumpknocker]

Y'all are wasting your time and venison! but you probably know that...

My family runs a slaughterhouse that exclusively processes for red deer farms and also does whitetail during season. All but tallow and glands goes into grind (deer were brought to us whole and dirt is non-issue). Tallow will spoil even when frozen and gums up the grinders. Tallow is waxy and hard and only on a few places that you learn real quick. Silverskin was a non issue with their commercial grinders. Run through twice. Quick work.

Now at home, I trim off some silverskin to make grinder run better. My rule is if you can see red through it, leave it. Which means vast majority left alone. Less meat waste and gets you back hunting faster.

I killed and processed 3 whitetail solo over last week and can't imagine the time commitment (and waste!) of what some of yall are saying. You know people pay high dollar for collagen supplements these days... leave it in there....

 

[stumpknocker]

For deer I used to be very meticulous and remove all silver skin, fat etc. I've slowly become less picky with my grind pile. Now I just remove all the fat, glands, some of the thick silver skin, and cut off the ends where the connective tissue comes together on the shanks for example.

In fact we did a taste test last fall comparing perfectly clean meat and my choice of grind ^ and my buddy looked me dead in eyes and said "I've been wasting so much time. I can't tell the difference". These are MN farmland deer, so I don't know if that makes a difference.

This ^^^
If in doubt, sample as you go

 

[cmahoney]

I cut off the thick silver skin and feed it with any other trimmings to my dog. Hardly anything goes in the garbage.


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[Ucsdryder]

There are other cuts that make great steaks - eye of round is as good as backstrap, flatiron steaks are good, and top and bottom round make a good steak, but may require tenderizing with a meat et.

I kept the eye of round of my elk this year. Going to jaccard it and try cooking it like I cook my backstraps. Might try to pound it and make chicken fried steak with them. I assume they’re not as tender as backstraps?

 

[Sccritterkiller]

I usually do one grind no fat...package and feeeze...I only add fat to my burgers ..Then I will just run it thru the grinder again with some fat before then they go on the grill. I dont like to add fat because it will go bad before the meat even in the freezer..

 

[HighUintas]

I use a LEM big bite 8. I've only ground elk and I don't add any beef or pork fat or meat. Elk only. I only grind once.

Last year was the first time I ground my own. I went overboard on trimming fat, sinew, silver skin, etc. All of it tasted amazing. But, it was very time consuming trimming and I'm sure there's tons of nutrients lost by trimming out all the day an connective tissue.

This year, since it's elk, I decided to test my grinder and see how good the elk tallow tastes mixed in. I want all the good stuff the elk has to give. So I trimmed the largest chunks of tallow and tendon off so that I didn't get a frozen pound of 50/50. All of this has tasted amazing too!! No gamey flavors at all. You do get the slick mouthfeel from the tallow, but it still tastes good.

Everything that wasn't big enough to use as a roast or cut into steaks went to grind.

I saved all the tallow I cut off so that I can use it for something... Not sure what yet.

And my grinder handled everything I threw in very well. It never bound up even though I got a couple of large tendon pieces in there.

 

[Jn78]

I kept the eye of round of my elk this year. Going to jaccard it and try cooking it like I cook my backstraps. Might try to pound it and make chicken fried steak with them. I assume they’re not as tender as backstraps?

That cut is pretty darn tender - I don't know if I could tell a difference between eye of round and backstrap in a blind test. I prepare it the same way I prepare backstrap - salt, pepper, and then grill on high heat, or sear in a cast iron pan and finish in the oven at 325 until internal temp reaches about 130. I don't even cut it into steaks before cooking - I just cook it whole and slice it after it is cooked.

 

[TheCougar]

I’ve got some meat that is water logged from the cooler. Looks kinda brown/pink. I doubt it has any difference in flavor or texture, but it isn’t aesthetic pleasing. Assuming that is safe for the grind pile?

 

[Michael54]

I’ve got some meat that is water logged from the cooler. Looks kinda brown/pink. I doubt it has any difference in flavor or texture, but it isn’t aesthetic pleasing. Assuming that is safe for the grind pile?

Yea the water just pulled out the hemoglobin. As long as the meat didn't get warm grind it.

 

[Ucsdryder]

I’ve got some meat that is water logged from the cooler. Looks kinda brown/pink. I doubt it has any difference in flavor or texture, but it isn’t aesthetic pleasing. Assuming that is safe for the grind pile?

Eat away!

 

[MeatBuck]

No bloodshot. No fat. No silver skin. No rind.
Everything else goes in the grind.

 

[TheCougar]

So with the LEM grinder, is it normal to really have to work to feed the grinder on the second pass? It was really slow pushing the rough grind down the throat and filling bags. Not sure what I’m doing wrong, or if this is normal. I used the medium plate on both passes. The first grind went really fast - ground as fast as I could feed it. The burger doesn’t feed very well and I had to use the tamper to push it out a bit at a time into the bags.