Meat grinding tips
- Thread starter Moose67
- Start date
Trim as much sinew away as you can. I tend to grind my meat in strips, rather than cubes. Don't know why, it just works for me. If you keep both meat and grinder as cold as possible (almost on the point of freezing, where the meat's concerned) it'll be a lot easier too. Biggest tip is probably just to remember 'crap in, means crap out' 
HonestJohn
Well-Known Member
As above, only grind pure meat, and cut it into pieces the grinder can handle, not all grinders are born equal.
Most butchers will refuse, I would think? Very few actually deal in venison, and I'm pretty sure (for my part) that I wouldn't be putting myself to the trouble of a machine clean down for the sake of a few quid.
Sort your pile of trim into three grades:
Grade 1: Predominantly clean lean meat scraps, without fat, sinew or membrane. This is your best quality mince, and should be run through the mincer first.
Grade 2: Poorer quality meat scraps with a proportion of fat and sinew. All the little fiddly bits that aren't worth trimming down any further. These are for your burgers and sausages. It's going to be run through the mincer twice anyway, so that'll take care of the sinewy bits.
Grade 3: "Pet food grade", all the really stringy bits, silverskin, etc. The stuff that most people would chuck to their dogs. It's actually got the best flavour of the lot, as all the sinew breaks down into gelatine during cooking and you get a really rich flavour with a thick sauce. But it does need cooking for longer than grade one. When I'm butchering a carcass for sale we keep all the grade three mince for our own consumption.
As others have said, chill the meat down to almost frozen before mincing.
Avoids cross contamination from your product to theirs maybe, but what about cross contamination from their product to yours?
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Stick mincing head and plates, cutter, worm screw as a whole into freezer for couple hours .... I also do strips as it feeds in without having to us plunger and you just repeat
I put bowl of meat ready to mince into freezer also for an hour tops ..to cool down ... then do clean up chopping boards work tops etc so starting next stage, your mincing with clesn set up
After an hour meat shiuld be well chilled not frozen and with frozen mincing head it keeps things colder for longer
Paul
I put bowl of meat ready to mince into freezer also for an hour tops ..to cool down ... then do clean up chopping boards work tops etc so starting next stage, your mincing with clesn set up
After an hour meat shiuld be well chilled not frozen and with frozen mincing head it keeps things colder for longer
Paul
Agree on strips though mind that some home mincers will struggle to pull a big strip through the mincer without jamming. Not an issue on commercial spec mincers.
For cleaning, to help get the die out from the head you can undo the locking collar, and then run the mincer for just a second which will push the die out and save you trying to prie it out.
Soak the whole grinder unit in cold water to start for cleaning, which will loosen off the meat. Flush out as much as possible (spray head on sink is great for this). Use a good pipe cleaner and hot soapy water to clean inside.
For cleaning, to help get the die out from the head you can undo the locking collar, and then run the mincer for just a second which will push the die out and save you trying to prie it out.
Soak the whole grinder unit in cold water to start for cleaning, which will loosen off the meat. Flush out as much as possible (spray head on sink is great for this). Use a good pipe cleaner and hot soapy water to clean inside.
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