Grinding yer own burgers

LeggoMyEgg0 · August 2009

Last week I bought a meat grinding attachment for my Kitchenaid, and ground up two pounds of beef brisket. Grilled them up on the large BGE with a quick sear on each side, a rest, and a slow cook to perfection (nearly). My wife thought it was the best burger I'd ever made, but I found it too dry. I was thinking of adding back some fat or at least a fattier piece of meat, aiming for a 75% lean product. My wife thinks I shouldn't bother. Any advice (the wife is here to stay!)?

PS Any thoughts about doping the mixture with bacon?

jeffinsgf · August 2009

Try a little chunk of pork shoulder, instead of bacon.

stike · August 2009

we do 80/20 lean to fat. works out great.

also grabbed a chuck roast when it was on sale, andof course it always works to grind a brisket too. good amount of fat there.

for me, it isn't about how much fat is in the food i eat, so much as how much of that food i eat.

eat an 80.20 (or heck, 75/25) burger every now and then isn't bad for you. it's having two a day every day.

god put fat on a cow for a reason.
hahaha
one thing about grinding at home... because you can be sure your grinder is scrupulously clean, you can also cook your burgers much rarer without fear of bacterial issues. grocery stores push tens of pounds of beef through their grinders daily, and sometimes leave it to a 17 yr old to clean. you shouldn't cook supermarket ground beef less than 150-160. but your homemade stuff, well, no logical reson it can't be cooked rare. tha, and the fat, will give you much better flavor than any burger you can buy

Mary Queen of Kitchen Gadgets · August 2009

I have the kitchenaid grinder too and recently made my own ground beef for burgers. I used chuck roast. I did trim the large pieces of fat off first but left some of the small areas alone. Another key that I read in one of my cooking mags is to cut the beef in cubes, salt the cubes with kosher salt, let it sit salted in the fridge for a few hours (they say 24 but I didn't plan that far in advance) and then grind the meat. I used the grinder attachment with the larger holes and passed it through twice. Obviously, don't add more salt when they are cooking. They were perfect. Here is the link to the article in Gourmet http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/diaryofafoodie/2007/01/hamburgers

Unknown · August 2009

Personally, I like burgers that are very juicy. It seems that the juice only occurs when the fat's melted, so for me, medium-well seems to be the sweet spot, at about 150 - 155 degrees internal, but you'll need to assess that for yourself.

Too hot and the fat's drained off, too cool and it's not melted in the first place.

This only applies if I get a crisp crust. If I don't, then the magic has completely failed.

Haven't tried it, but Cook's Illustrated has a recipe using 10 oz. sirloin steak tips and 6 oz. boneless beef short ribs. Both are cut into 1" chunks, placed in a freezer until just starting to harden, about 15 to 25 minutes. Then the meat is ground.

They make the point that texture really matters, and suggest very gentle shaping to keep the meat loose.

Good luck!

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Grinding yer own burgers

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