Grind beef once or twice?

[sudsmaster]

I recently started putting my KA food grinder attachment to work.

 

I've been grinding better cuts of meat to make ground beef for recipes like spaghetti sauce or burgers.

 

So far I've been using the finer of the two grinding blades for this. But recently I read the fine print on the attachment leaflet and it says to grind raw meat twice with either blade.

 

I guess I'll have to give that a try.

 

Does anybody else here grind their raw meat twice before cooking it?

 

 

[mattl]

Yes, a while back I used to grind my own hamburger and 2 times was the charm.  First grind was too coarse and lacking, the second produced a nice quality hamburger.  I think I used the finer disk.

 

[maytagbear]

For chili

try grinding it once, with the coarser disc.

Hamburgers and meatloaves, twice with the finer disc.

Works for me.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[tolivac]

I grind the meat only once-want SOME texture instead of pink slime.

 

[toploader55]

I haven't had to or needed to grind beef/ meat in years but...

I was taught Grind first with the coarse (Larger Hole) Grind Plate, then switch to the more Fine (Smaller hole Medium) grind plate.

When I made Sausages years ago, I ground twice with the Coarse Plate for that Sausage Consistency.

Second Grind with Medium plate for Hamburg/ Meatloaf.

The Standard for Grinders back then used to have 3 plates. Coarse, Medium and Fine.

I don't think I ever used the fine because the Food Processer came on the scene.

The fine plate was used for Wursts and Pates.

I hope this helps and makes sense.

 

[vacerator]

most meatball

recipes say grind twice. Personal preference. I buy 90% lean ground beef, ground pork, and ground veal in equal portions. About 3/4 of a pound each. I use 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs for that amount, 1/4 cup parmesan, and 1/4 cup Italian parsley.
I don't over work the mix, and add just enough Lumbrusco wine or milk and a touch of olive oil to bind it together. Of course garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper, and pine nuts or fennel to change it up.
I bake them, and they have a good texture. Adding an egg makes a firmer meat ball.
I have ground my own meat on occasion in the Cuisinart with the blade. Too little, and the texture is chunky. Too much, and the fat begins to melt out of the meat, and the texture is more like scrapple.

 

[sudsmaster]

The KA food grinder comes with just two plates, which it calls coarse and fine. I suspect the "fine" for the KA is more like the medium for a traditional hand crank grinder.

 

Re-reading the instructions, I could also see that I was running the food grinder too slow, at setting "2" instead of "4". So I'll change that next time.

 

[norgeway]

When I can get

Chuck roast on sale, I buy 15 or 20 pounds and grind it with my old Kitchen Aid, then package it in 1 pound bags and freeze it., Much better than store bought!But I only grind it once.

 

[sudsmaster]

I ground about a pound of the bottom round this afternoon.

 

Froze it first, but a bit too long. A brief defrost in the Panasonic got it to the semi-frozen state and it went through the grinder OK. Looked pink instead of red, probably because it was more frozen than it needed to be. Ran it through the fine disc twice, made for a nice burger. Used the rest for some pasta sauce, which also came out well. It browned up very nicely and didn't fall apart in the sauce.

 

Next time I may try the coarse disk twice. And I won't bother trying to get it semi-frozen. Too much of a hassle. Will also try mixing in some thawed pork (cushion or shoulder/butt).

 

[toploader55]

Red Meat

Gotta Love Food Science.

Carbon Monoxide... Who would have thunk it.

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/why-supermarket-meat-is-always-unnaturally-red/

And this...

 

[mikael3]

I buy meat only where I can watch the workers butcher it, and where it does not go into plastic-wrapped packages.  I have always been put off by supermarket display cases, where the meat looks completely fake and somewhat creepy.  My family raised beef cattle—not many, and not as a primary source of income, but usually about 30 head—and every year, we froze the meat from a whole beef for our own use.  So all my life I’ve known what real meat is supposed to look like. 

 

Taste is a different matter.  Just because of how we ran the farm, we sold the cattle straight off the grass.  Whoever bought them had to finish them on grain.  But that meant grass-fed beef for us, at a time when no one had ever heard that term.  I have to confess, though, that I prefer grain-finished beef.  That might be because I always thought it was a treat to have beef that tasted different from our own.  But I’m not sure; grass-fed beef is a little strange, and I’m someone who ought to be accustomed to it.

 

I also grind all my own beef, pork, and lamb.  I like to control the mix, but I also think it’s kind of fun to do it.  I grind fine for some things and coarse for others.  Sometimes I get it ‘wrong’, but it’s always edible.