I need an education on grinding meat

[Marianne]

I snagged an old metal meat grinder from my sis in law a couple weeks ago. I'm sure she picked it up at an auction. It looked good, just a dab of rust on the outer edge of the top.

This says 'Universal Food Chopper' on the side. I remember my mother using one when I was a kid. What I don't remember is all the juice dripping all over the floor. I just ground up 2 lbs. of pork to make Italian sausage. While the grind is just the texture I want, I'm wondering if there's a better way you all do it today. My pork was very cold, still barely frozen in the middle.

How do you guys/gals grind meat? Or do you have any suggestions for the next time I do this?

 

[Wannabefree]

In my experience there is always "juice" running out, and I grind fresh deer I have mine secured to a board long enough to lay it over my sink, and let the liquid run down the drain while I grind. I have the metal handcrank type too.

 

[Dirk Chesterfield]

Partially frozen meat is the best to grind. If your meat has lots of natural juices then some will be released when you grind it.

I put my assembled grinder in the freezer for about a half hour so that it stays very cold during the grinding process. This helps keep more moisture in the meat. I also grind my meat in two passes. 1st pass coarse grind. Re-chill everything then do a second pass with a fine grind. Two passes with a chilling step in between also helps reduce moisture loss.

Your blade may also be dull, crushing the meat instead of cutting it.

Make sure to wash your grinder immediately after the second pass and don't soak the blades / plates / screw shaft in water because they will rust very very quickly in water. I wash and thoroughly dry my parts, coat them in a layer of shortening and store them in a sturdy ziplock bag.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Ditto what Dirk said, but I have to say, that I have never had leaky meat. And I have ground deer, moose, bear,and lamb. But, I do not use a manual. maybe that's why?

 

[Marianne]

Great, I was wondering about oiling it between uses. Thanks for the tips. I'll have to check the blades. I never thought of them as actual blades.

I read that a lot of people now days use their food processor, just pulse it a few times. Something about partially frozen meat, cut in 1" cubes.

My food processor is not a real heavy duty thing, great for veggies, but ...and I'm trying to be kinda low tech on some things.

 

[miss_thenorth]

The first deer we got, we tried the food processor. Didn't work, so I went out and got a hand crank. Then we moved up north and got a moose. I bought an electric one. Nebver looked back, although I won't be getting rid of the hand crank one.