Ground beef question


 
S

Scott Smith

TVWBB Pro
Is it possible that sometimes meat gets sold as 75/25 when it would actually qualify as 80/20 or 85/15 or perhaps actually works out as 78/22? I could see a retailer taking the price per pound hit for a variety of reasons.
 
I've done a little reading, and I don't think that the labelling regulations govern fat to lean %. In order to be ground beef, it has to be at least 70% lean, but that seems to be about it for fat to lean ratio regs. Ground beef can be from just about any cut of the cow. Ground Chuck (and Round, Sirloin, etc) has to be wholly made from that specific cut of beef.

Long way to say, I'm pretty sure that what you are talking about can happen. I doubt anyone is sending their ground beef to a lab for fat/lean analysis. More likely......they are estimating based on either what they see coming out of the grinder, or what cut was used.

I'd love to be more educated if someone else knows more specifics. :)

R
 
Just found this at the USDA
…

What's the difference between "hamburger" and "ground beef"?​

Beef fat may be added to "hamburger," but not "ground beef." A maximum of 30% fat is allowed in either hamburger or ground beef. Both hamburger and ground beef can have seasonings, but no water, phosphates, extenders, or binders added. The labeling of meat food products must comply with the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and the meat inspection regulations and labeling policies.
 
Most of the large major grocery stores with an in-house meat department get the bulk of their ground meats in about 11lb crayovaced tubes which comes very coarsely pre-ground only once and labeled by the meat packing house as 85/15 , 80/20 etc. and is tested periodically at the packing house for fat content . The store just regrinds the tubes in the meat grinder for the second time at a finer grind and the ground beef is placed in trays and then wrapped and priced for resale. There is a certain amount of store trimmings accumulated at store level which is ground twice on a fine ground before sold, and the meat is generally just determined by eye what the ground beef fat content should be sold at 75/25 etc. in some cases the meat could be labelled 75/25 but be actually 80/20 but the store would sooner the fat content be less than actually labelled as for fear of selling ground beef that is labeled over the fat content stated on the package . This is the way ground beef is produced in Canada and I am sure this applies to the USA as well also as all large major beef packing plants in Canada are owned by the U.S. companies such as Cargill Inc. and JBS.
 
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Love me some 5,000 cow ground scraps, NOT!

Do yourself the pleasure and grind a chuck roast for burgers and experience the difference of ground beef versus ground scraps the butchers sell. It’s worlds apart from anything in the pre pack case most stores sell. Chuck is around 70/30 to 75/25, Costco Prime is my reference point here.
 
Yeah, I don't bother buying ground beef anymore. For the most part anyway. We have a small store here in our village and if I tell them I want ground chuck, he will pull a chuck roast out of the case and grind it on the spot for me. Otherwise I buy beef I want to use and do my own. Also when I buy a whole strip loin I trim it out and use the trimmings to make some excellent ground beef. Fat content? Who know. The more the better though :D
 
We are making the transition to mostly grinding our own. I had my eye on some of the nicer grinders and she showed up with a cheapo from wally world that was like 30 bucks. If I kill it no worries.

Plan to grind beef as well as deer antelope and elk we harvest. Process almost entirely ourselves except beef. Of course with 8 of us, sometimes the store bought stuff is just easier
 
Many moons ago, when I worked in a beef packinghouse, they used what seemed a primitive way to check for fat content that may still be common. Can't remember the exact process, but a measured sample of the ground meat was added to a test-tube like vessel and heated until the fat had rendered. There were graduations on the cylinder that told you the percentage of fat. Not sure, but I think there was water in the tube as well.
 
LMichaels said:
Yeah, I don't bother buying ground beef anymore. For the most part anyway. We have a small store here in our village and if I tell them I want ground chuck, he will pull a chuck roast out of the case and grind it on the spot for me. Otherwise I buy beef I want to use and do my own. Also when I buy a whole strip loin I trim it out and use the trimmings to make some excellent ground beef. Fat content? Who know. The more the better though :D
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How do you store the fat trimmings until you use them? I would love to use some of my brisket fat but don't grind burger too often.
 
Russ in CFL said:
How do you store the fat trimmings until you use them? I would love to use some of my brisket fat but don't grind burger too often.
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I have been rendering my fat trimmings for tallow, but, if I was going to save them to grind later for burger or sausage, I'd just vacuum seal them and pop 'em in the freezer. Works great for my pork back fat that I keep on hand for sausage.

R
 
Brett-EDH said:
Love me some 5,000 cow ground scraps, NOT!

Do yourself the pleasure and grind a chuck roast for burgers and experience the difference of ground beef versus ground scraps the butchers sell. It’s worlds apart from anything in the pre pack case most stores sell. Chuck is around 70/30 to 75/25, Costco Prime is my reference point here.
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I haven't graduated to grinding my own yet, but The Missus and I have taken to buying fractional cattle, and I will fight anyone who says that the grind we get from the processor isn't head and shoulders above anything I could get at even a boutique grocery store. As an added bonus, it's only four bucks a pound, even with the grinding fee on top of processing.
 
Barb and I have been grinding our own beef now for a few years now and that to us it is the only way to go. We 90% of the time do chuck roast with some added brisket fat for the burger grind only.
We were using our KA with a grinding attachment, very slow but worked okay. I just recently bought a dedicated meat grinder and it's so much faster than the KA, it will grind 10 pounds in about 10 minuets. Decide I would rather have to replace a $80 meat grinder every couple of years vs. a $500 KA mixer.
 
Russ in CFL said:
How do you store the fat trimmings until you use them? I would love to use some of my brisket fat but don't grind burger too often.
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and you can render some and fridge the render. makes a great fire starter when placed on garbage mail to light a chimney or coals in char baskets. literally stopped buying canola oil which i was using on old napkins to light the coal chimney.

freezer the parts you want to keep. i do so in 6 oz sandwich baggies so i always have a small amount of fat for use.
 
LeeHarvey said:
I haven't graduated to grinding my own yet, but The Missus and I have taken to buying fractional cattle, and I will fight anyone who says that the grind we get from the processor isn't head and shoulders above anything I could get at even a boutique grocery store. As an added bonus, it's only four bucks a pound, even with the grinding fee on top of processing.
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that's a very smart way to get quality beef. i've looked into it but decided to not store frozen beef as we don't eat beef as much as we used to. so we buy at costco the few cuts we need in a year. for burgers, i do do some blends as they're really good for a higher end burger, again, usually from costco meat department.

since you're getting ground beef from your processor with your other cuts, you're already getting top quality. no need to grind your own if your current model works for your needs. hopefully you can meet your local rancher who's raising your cattle. it's nice to know the people in your ecosystem. we do similar with winemakers. we like to know the people whose products we enjoy.
 
Brett-EDH said:
hopefully you can meet your local rancher who's raising your cattle. it's nice to know the people in your ecosystem. we do similar with winemakers. we like to know the people whose products we enjoy.
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Our rancher is my wife’s sister’s husband, but you’re spot on - knowing the path your food took to get to your plate is critical to getting good quality.
 
I used to work in a grocery store and got to know the meat manager. He said the most consistent grind was the one they got in the tubes and ran through the grinder to make it more uniform and fresh ground looking. It was labeled 70%, 75%, 85% etc. ground beef. The "scraps" that they ground in house were mostly by eye and labeled as ground chuck, ground round, ground sirloin etc.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Barb and I have been grinding our own beef now for a few years now and that to us it is the only way to go. We 90% of the time do chuck roast with some added brisket fat for the burger grind only.
We were using our KA with a grinding attachment, very slow but worked okay. I just recently bought a dedicated meat grinder and it's so much faster than the KA, it will grind 10 pounds in about 10 minuets. Decide I would rather have to replace a $80 meat grinder every couple of years vs. a $500 KA mixer.
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I doubt you could ever wear out the KA. You could wear out or break the attachment but the actual machine? I have yet to see one actually "worn out"
 
LMichaels said:
I doubt you could ever wear out the KA. You could wear out or break the attachment but the actual machine? I have yet to see one actually "worn out"
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That may be true, you're the experienced one, not me. I know it's almost 40 years old and has had a lot of hard use. At Christmas time for well over 30 years it made over 100 dozen cookies, and many loafs of bread.
Although it still runs fine the fact that the new meat grinder is at least 10 times faster than the KA makes the investment well worth it.
 
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