Ground Beef - making/grinding your own?

[92saturnsl2]

Of all the meats my household uses, inflation seems to have gotten the best of ground beef. I used to buy 93/7 at Sam's club for about $3 a pound before COVID, now I can't find 73/27 for less than $4. Even chuck 80/20 is over $5.

Kroger very seldom has a sale where you can buy 80/20 for $3.50 or so, which I'd buy 20# at a time and put it in the freezer. The sales seem to have run dry, haven't seen any in months.

I have about 6-7 full briskets in the freezer (about 16-18lb each). I bought these for $1.99/lb, a couple have been in the freezer a few months, but I just bought another 4 because Kroger had them on sale again last week.

If I bought a meat grinder, does brisket make good ground beef? I normally trim much of the solid fat off when I smoke brisket, but perhaps the extra fat is a good thing for burger/GB? We use GB for hamburgers, spaghetti, chili, tacos, shepherds pie, or other recipes that call for it. Curious if anyone has tried this or has a solid method for reducing their cost of ground beef using a meat grinder. I have four kids, so even a little bit of savings adds up and might be worth the effort.

 

[MrHorspwer]

Brisket makes excellent ground beef. The amount of fat in the cut allows you to really control how much fat your grind has.

I typically grind brisket for beef sausage but always set some aside just to have as ground beef. I like to double grind with a 6mm plate. Trimming for sausage, I usually don't trim much fat. Usually the gross looking top layer of the fat cap and some of the deckle. That much fat makes for excellent sausage and a really good burger patty, but it's a little bit much if you're cooking it down for tacos or spaghetti. You'll have a lot of fat to drain off after cooking.

 

[kschachn]

This reminds me of when we used to grind our own meat for burger. I miss that I think I’m going to start again.

But I don’t think you’re gonna save any money.

 

[IndyIan]

How much is pork there? Or chicken? We seem to be able to buy $2/lb chicken or pork pretty much every week. Those "pulled" taste pretty good in chili or things like that. Also in everything but burgers ground meat is pretty much the same for alot of things, and theirs lots of recipes for pork/turkey/chicken burgers. My wife make feta goat burgers that makes beef burgers seem quite boring.
I'd see if you can borrow a grinder first and see if you like doing it. One worth getting isn't that cheap really.

We have a medium hp kitchen aid stand mixer with the grinder attachment and it works ok, we really only use it once or twice a year when we get a couple goats killed and butcher them ourselves. We grind the trimmings and scraps, and the belly. To grind well, especially the stringy or fatty parts, we spread all the chunks to be ground on cookie sheets and put them in the freezer until the corners of the chunks just start to freeze. Don't freeze them to much though. Warm greasy meat doesn't grind well in our machine anyways. And we run it through twice. Its not something I really want to do every month, but as a family activity, grinding and making your own burgers is a good way to have kids involved, and they can customize the recipes for what they like.
Just today my youngest said he is looking forward to butchering up our goats soon, Rammie and Hopper were looking pretty tasty today after he worked up an appetite swimming in the pond before supper... He likes cutting up a couple 60lb carcass's on the kitchen island, and its interesting work to do once in a while.

 

[Pablo]

We buy local ground beef. It's raised well and tastes really good. It comes in 1 pound tubes. Perfect for us. Not cheap but just the two of us $6 pound isn't a budget breaker. Ditto the ground pork.

These smoked herbie beef meatballs are you one of the tasty dishes. Smash burgers on the griddle are another.

 

[tnt_motorsports]

Of all the meats my household uses, inflation seems to have gotten the best of ground beef. I used to buy 93/7 at Sam's club for about $3 a pound before COVID, now I can't find 73/27 for less than $4. Even chuck 80/20 is over $5.

Kroger very seldom has a sale where you can buy 80/20 for $3.50 or so, which I'd buy 20# at a time and put it in the freezer. The sales seem to have run dry, haven't seen any in months.

I have about 6-7 full briskets in the freezer (about 16-18lb each). I bought these for $1.99/lb, a couple have been in the freezer a few months, but I just bought another 4 because Kroger had them on sale again last week.

If I bought a meat grinder, does brisket make good ground beef? I normally trim much of the solid fat off when I smoke brisket, but perhaps the extra fat is a good thing for burger/GB? We use GB for hamburgers, spaghetti, chili, tacos, shepherds pie, or other recipes that call for it. Curious if anyone has tried this or has a solid method for reducing their cost of ground beef using a meat grinder. I have four kids, so even a little bit of savings adds up and might be worth the effort.

Find a farmer and a local processer for beef. We have had great luck using the same set up for 12 years. This year we paid a little more with inflation but still got beef for $2.50/lb hanging weight. With $0.50/lb processing I'm still in the ballpark you quoted for ground beef not to mention brisket, steaks and roasts. We get around 90/10 from our processor. Makes great meatloaf and homemade burgers.

If you can't find a deal to make it work, let's trade the brisket for ground beef ok? My favorite smoked meat is a brisket, so I would gladly take those 6-7 off your hands...

just my $0.02

 

[doitmyself]

I agree with those above. A careful cost and time analysis needs to be done. If it turns out you enjoy spending time on this, it might be o.k.. We process food and the dehydrator we bought did not pan out as we anticipated. There are tons of Google hits about brisket burger.

I enjoy making venison burger with a hand crank grinder, but it is a labor of love. Venison is extremely lean, so it's fun experimenting with different mixes, i.e. adding pork fat/pork belly/side meat.

 

[Vil_Riker]

I have made ground meat in a food processor but it has been pork. Give it a try. I'm not sure how you like the texture of the things you cook because it will be different. Very different.

I put tons of additions to the ground meat - chopped onions, garlic, parsley, ground walnuts and panko breadcrumbs.

 

[4WD]

I hit yellow tags when the stores open - cook or freeze right away …

 

[Kira]

A local guy raises beef and offers cuts for sale at the farm.
His ground meat, while good, misses the mark as the texture of the grind is somehow off.
Believe me when I tell you we all want to enjoy everything he sells as he's a loved neighbor. We're not being picky.

Ergo, if you grind meat at home (something I saw my Mom and Grandma do only once each) be aware that the dies you have may not deliver the grind you prefer.
Where to get other dies becomes the question. Maybe regrinding the meat is what's to do in that case?

And 3 cheers for yellow tags! However, no yellow tagged fish at the Stop & Shop; big nogo on that one.

 

[Hermann]

I've quit buying burger. I now stock up on sirloin steak when it's $4.99 or so. Id rather eat a steak than a burger anytime. Last week I bought 3 Choice 12oz KC Strips for $5.99 lb. $13.48 total.

 

[97prizm]

Of all the meats my household uses, inflation seems to have gotten the best of ground beef. I used to buy 93/7 at Sam's club for about $3 a pound before COVID, now I can't find 73/27 for less than $4. Even chuck 80/20 is over $5.

Kroger very seldom has a sale where you can buy 80/20 for $3.50 or so, which I'd buy 20# at a time and put it in the freezer. The sales seem to have run dry, haven't seen any in months.

I have about 6-7 full briskets in the freezer (about 16-18lb each). I bought these for $1.99/lb, a couple have been in the freezer a few months, but I just bought another 4 because Kroger had them on sale again last week.

If I bought a meat grinder, does brisket make good ground beef? I normally trim much of the solid fat off when I smoke brisket, but perhaps the extra fat is a good thing for burger/GB? We use GB for hamburgers, spaghetti, chili, tacos, shepherds pie, or other recipes that call for it. Curious if anyone has tried this or has a solid method for reducing their cost of ground beef using a meat grinder. I have four kids, so even a little bit of savings adds up and might be worth the effort.

Brisket and a chuck 50/50 mix. Is your brisket a flat or point? I don't think I've ever seen a brisket only burger except Wagyu. Sounds great though

 

[MrHorspwer]

Ergo, if you grind meat at home (something I saw my Mom and Grandma do only once each) be aware that the dies you have may not deliver the grind you prefer.
Where to get other dies becomes the question. Maybe regrinding the meat is what's to do in that case?

On the flip-side, you may find you like your home grind better than the typical grocery store grind.

I'm not really picky about the grind, but I love how tacos turn out with my home grind. So much that I'll do a quick pass of grocery store ground beef through a 6mm plate when making tacos.

www.lemproducts.com

I use a Mighty Bite. Plenty of power and processes quickly for small batches (~20-25 lbs at a time). My only complaint is that it's short and the head isn't high enough to fit over a standard meat lug.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Do not waste expensive brisket meat for ground beef. Those briskets have the perfect marbling in the meat and that is what makes them so awesome on a smoker. There is too much fat cover on briskets for it to pay off in the grinder. What I do is go to Sam's club and buy about 3 beef round sirloin tips and grind all of them. They usually cost from $2.99 to $3.29 per pound and make 99 percent lean ground beef which is great for diets. I also have a hamburger patty press which makes large 1/3 of a pound burger patties. I used to be a meat cutter and I know that the cheap inexpensive ground beef in the 10 pound tubes is very poor quality and the packing houses use chemicals to remove all of the meat from the bone. Buy a nice Lem's grinder and grind you own. I have a yoder smoker and all the sausage making equipment to make sausage snack sticks, summer type sausage and ground jerky for sticks. I consider it an awesome hobby but I am retired and have time to do it. I keep all my pheasant breasts and use them for snack sticks too. I used to be a professional meat cutter and also put some time in a meat packing house before i got smart and got into the credit and student loan industry. Anyway I am done writing my term paper on meat grinding hahahha.

 

[SeaJay]

Chuck 80/20 is great for burgers, 85/15 is passable, any more than 85 I will not bother with for burgers. 73/27 will do in a pinch, certainly better than 93/7 or such.

 

[Kira]

If you have extra lean meat you can always dot the meat with mayonnaise while it's in the mixing bowl.

A mixing bowl is always involved with my burgers as I almost always add chopped pickles a/o garlic a/o onions a/o Worcestershire Sauce a/o a T. or two of bread crumbs a/o an egg to the meat.

 

[Pablo]

We bought (shared) a beef a couple years back for the freezer. We were both pissed.

The price was right and meat was very tasty.

The butcher was a complete hack. Odd cuts and terrible butchering skills. This was a place others recommended. We were new to the game and just the two of us, not high volume.

We just figured now buying from the local meat co-op fits us better.
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Yes with extra lean, I add some olive and grapeseed oil. Works fine.

 

[Kira]

Food recommendations are the most iffy.
Most of the time, people can't describe anything. If they have no taste or are simply trying to be enthusiastic, you get empty cheerleading.

 

[Pablo]

Food recommendations are the most iffy.
Most of the time, people can't describe anything. If they have no taste or are simply trying to be enthusiastic, you get empty cheerleading.

Yeah food recommendations on Facebook for the win!

Some people will eat anything could be the conclusion, and/or indeed it's exactly as you say.

 

[4WD]

Food recommendations are the most iffy.
Most of the time, people can't describe anything. If they have no taste or are simply trying to be enthusiastic, you get empty cheerleading.

I go back and forth with friends over crawfish - they over season them badly (macho thing) so I’ll say corn is way cheaper and it all tastes the same once plastered by so much seasoning …