Grinding Your Own Hamburger and Sausage.


 
Bob Ivey

Bob Ivey

TVWBB Emerald Member
Ok guys, I need advice. I just got a meat grinder for the KitchenAid and I am wanting to know two primary things.

1 Thoughts on what meats or mix of meats to make my own hamburger. I am tired of the stuff you get at the store.

2 I also want to make my own sausage. Again, what meats work best and maybe some recipes. I know I want to smoke the sausage. This will definitely expand my menu's.

3 I was reading in the instructions that when making ground meat that you should run it through the grinder twice. What do you think and any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA
 
Chuck and sirloin are good. Some people use short rib and brisket.

For sausage chuck and pork shoulder are great.

I've been running it through once.
 
for burger, try 4lb chuck and 1 lb butt. Most recipes start with 5 lb meat. The pork does give it a subtly different taste (some don't care for it but try it once to see which camp you fall in to). For sausage, try 4.5 lb butt and .5 lb hard pork fat (not that soft mushy stuff). You can use the fat that you might cut off your steaks before grilling. Won't add much if any beef flavour but it will help keep it moist.

If smoking, make sure you add the requisite amount of #1 cure. Usually 1 tsp per 5lb meat. But keep in mind using teaspoons and tablespoons is an innacrurate way of measuring cure and spices. Use grams if you can.

You can smoke without cure but you want a higher temp when doing so.
 
Now that beef prices have come down again, I like to grind a couple of ribeye steaks every once in awhile.
It should be good with a single trip through the grinder. I hope that you enjoy it if you decide to give it a try.
 
The Kitchen Aid works great if you do two things: cube the meat you are going to grind into 1" squares. Arrange the cubes on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for about 45 minutes to an hour, until they are "kinda" frozen -- not hard, but not merely cold. While you're at it, put the entire grinder gizmo and wood plunger into the freezer as well. Fill a really large bowl with ice and set the Kitchen Aid mixing bowl down in it to catch the ground meat. I guess that's three things, but grinding generates heat and you will be tortured and frustrated with mush if you don't keep everything as cold as possible.

For burgers, I use the coarse grinder die. I like the texture of one pass -- it's a bit chunky -- but guests seem to prefer two passes through the coarse die. It's a good compromise.

As far as meat is concerned, any beef will do. I like chuck, prime brisket and about 10%-15% pork rib trimmings (I save them when trimming ribs). I put them into 6oz and 8oz patties and freeze them in quantity.

Kitchen Aid also has a sausage stuffer kit. It's barely ok. Again you have to keep the meat super cold for it to work properly. There are lots of recipes online. You can make pretty good simple Texas sausage with just beef, maybe a little pork fat and some salt and pepper. You add liquid, so you can use beer, water and tip in some hot sauce. You can buy hog casiings online and just follow the directions for prepping them. Sausage making is fun and you can experiment with all sorts of spices. I only made "fresh" sausage -- without any curing salts. You have to cook/smoke it soon after you make it or freeze it.

Jeff
 
If you have a Costco close by, check out the boneless country style ribs (pork butt). They're perfect for making sausage and you can get a good sized package really cheap. Just cube, chill, and grind. I usually add a little crushed ice in the grinder, both to add moisture to the meat and to keep things cool. For burger, I like to buy whatever steaks are cheap and in the clearance section, along with brisket trimmings. Regarding grinding once vs twice, it's all in what texture you want. If you're looking for a Johnsonille brat type texture, then once. If you want it finer, then put it in again. I typically only grind one time because I prefer the course texture. As mentioned above, be sure to add some cure if you'll be smoking over low heat. You don't want to turn your smoker into an incubator. There are a lot of guides for food safety when making sausage. It's good to at least take a look before you make your first batch.
 
I saw a recipe for four parts beef, one part bacon linked like hot dogs that appeals to me! Let me know when you have results!
I agree with the 80/20 for ground beef. Sausage is going to vary a little more, some want to be less fatty, some want to be more. Drew is right, country ribs are a great mix of fat to lean on average.
Good luck!
 
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I've never used a grinder to make my own ground beef but I have done it in a food processor a number of times. J Hasselberger perfectly describes my methodology for preparing the meat. I've always bought chuck roast for my burgers. The texture of the burgers is different when you "grind" in a food processor. The idea is to not over-process. Pulse it until you get chunks pea size or a bit smaller. The result tastes like hamburger but has chew to it a bit more like steak. I would imagine a single pass through the grinder would produce a similar texture.

Can't help on sausage. Never tried to make any.
 
The kitchenaid grinder is fine. The stuffer is fine to find out if you like making sausage or not and you can make good sausage with it, it's just more work. I've got the 5lb LEM stuffer and its so much better. I'm still using the kickenaid grinder. Like J said keep everything cold. That's good advice for sausage making, regardless of tools.
 
I'll second the use of a dedicated sausage stuffer. The LEM mentioned by Dustin works great.

As for recipes and more background, check here: http://lpoli.50webs.com/Sausage%20recipes.htm
Just be very careful with smoking sausages. In general you will have to use cure #1 (prague powder #1) to prevent botulism (unless your temperatures are high enough).

I am now sure what the rules are with regards to linking to other fora, but these are two that I found very useful:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/index.php
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/index.php

Good luck.
Almost forgot: I like a coarse grind, so I only grind once through a medium plate.
 
The kitchen aid works, it's just slow, and the meat needs to be in thin strips or chunks, colder the better, like was said. Most ground meat is chuck or trimmings from the round.
1 pass is usually fine, butchers run the really fatty meat through 2 times, (at least) and finer, to "hide" the white chunks of fat, For burgers don't mix or work it too much, it will toughen it.
Pork butts are the standard for sausage, they already have the right lean to fat ratio. You need at least 25% fat for a decent sausage, You don't have to stuff it, but can make sausage patties. I suggest you start with fresh sausage, then work up to smoked. You have a lot of studying to do. :)
 
We grind fresh chuck for burgers usually. Though I bought a strip roast I was not too happy with, and that became burger meat as well. One pass, with the larger grind.

Also, a good tip for cleaning -- run a piece of bread through the grinder after you are finished. Makes cleanup much, much easier.
 
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