ground meat

[Bettacreek]

Hmm. I'm not sure the fat content of venison, but I do know that if I could get away without adding extra fat, I would. I'm also the type of person who uses 93/7 to make hamburgers, which everyone else claims to be impossible (apparantly nobody told that to the meat I've been buying). I'd be one to see if you can get away without extra fat added. Of course, I also don't eat ground meat unless it's slathered with sauces, lol. If I make a burger, I add lots of mayo, ketchup and mustard and I'm always careful to never cook the living daylights out of it so that it's drier than a pickled pig fart.

 

[patandchickens]

So is everyone saying to use LARD? or other type of pork fat?

I have not done it for some years (meat grinder lost in moving), but used to just ask the butcher for big slabs o trimmed pork fat. Dunno if they get their meat in a form these days that *produces* trimmed fat without lotsa connective tissue, but you could try asking.

Pat

 

[old fashioned]

If you buy lard from the store, read the label CAREFULLY. Avoid anything that says "partially hydrogenated".

Thanks, WZ. Just so I know...why should I avoid anything that says 'partially hydrongenated'? (I know you know all the evils of the frankenfood world & I'm still trying to figure it all out.)

 

[old fashioned]

Bettacreek....venison & elk (like that in your avatar) are 99.9% lean. There is little or no fat to the meat & in order to grind it for burger you need to add atleast some fat to hold it together or you end up with crumbled meat pieces.

When I buy beef burger at the store I too buy the 93/7 & it's great....so much less is lost in water/fat when cooking & if you start with a 6 inch patty, you still have atleast 5 1/2 inch patty when done.....not one the size of a quarter I don't like all my money paying for grease & water.

Thanks Pat, I know of a local store here that still does their own cutting & once in a great while, I've seen 'fat' sold in the meat section. When we're ready to grind it, I'll check them out.

 

[urban dreamer]

Well, yea I guess. We ground up leaf fat into our meat, not just plain lard.

 

[old fashioned]

Well.......um............just what is 'leaf fat'???

 

[~gd]

Well.......um............just what is 'leaf fat'???

It is the top of the line Lard usually found around the kidneys of the pig. It often pure enough fat so it doesn't need to be rendered as is the usual means of purifying Lard. With the new breeds of lower fat pigs less lard in general is produced per pig and often the leaf lard is not present in quanties worth keeping seperated from the rest of the Lard. Generally Priced more per pound than the real pork meat is

 

[old fashioned]

Thanks, gd....in showing my ignorance, I was thinking Urban's post was a typo :/

 

[freemotion]

If you buy lard from the store, read the label CAREFULLY. Avoid anything that says "partially hydrogenated".

Thanks, WZ. Just so I know...why should I avoid anything that says 'partially hydrongenated'? (I know you know all the evils of the frankenfood world & I'm still trying to figure it all out.)

Oh, let me, let me!!!!
They bombard the fat with hydrogen so that it transfers (trans fat) the hydrogen molecules, changing the natural parings of molecules and making the fat into something unnatural. This method was developed earlier in the last century to get some harder fat from cheap fat for making soap. Then the food industry found out that you can make a Twinkie last for a century and that they can use very poor quality fat to do so.....voila, the prevalance of hydrogenated fats in processed foods.

The big problem is that our cell walls are primarily made of saturated fats (think pork fat, any animal fat, egg yolks, cream) and hydrogenated fats fool the body into building cell walls with it instead. But it doesn't behave the way the good saturated fats do. It creates dead spots on the cell walls, preventing normal cell functioning. It is implicated in many diseases today, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

It is PURE POISON.

 

[freemotion]

Well.......um............just what is 'leaf fat'???

It is the top of the line Lard usually found around the kidneys of the pig. It often pure enough fat so it doesn't need to be rendered as is the usual means of purifying Lard. With the new breeds of lower fat pigs less lard in general is produced per pig and often the leaf lard is not present in quanties worth keeping seperated from the rest of the Lard. Generally Priced more per pound than the real pork meat is

Depends.....I can get it from a butcher for $0.89 per pound, since no one seems to want it or value it! The pieces are rather small and thin, but they save them up in the freezer and I buy them and render them into lard. Yum. Cheap yum.