Grinding Beef For Burgers Questions

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pandemonium

Master of the Pit
Original poster
Aug 4, 2009
1,983
14
Florida
I just bought a grinder and just want to see what the best way to grind for burgers. I ground up chuck roast on the bigger holes and that was all i did because i read that if you grind it too much it will be tough? is that true? or should i send it through the grinder a few times?
 
Not sure how grinding can make any piece of meat anything but less tough
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, What I do with venison anyway, is first cube up with a knife to around 1 1/2 in. chunk which my particular grinder handles better, than run through a 3/4 in. plate then my finest plate which is a 3/16 in. Keep the meat very cold nearly frozen when grinding, it will feed so much better. This size has worked very well for burger for chili meat, spaghetti sauce, etc. as well as patties and meat loaf.
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now thats a grinder!! nice. i read that if you grind it up real fine when you smash it together to make the patty it will make it tougher, or maybe the consistancy would be bad. i dont know i gound mine one time through the bigger holes and thought they were great.
 
pandy - what mulepackin said is the same as what i learned.

i think what you're talking about is a denser, "heavier" burger when packed. i have noticed this with smaller grineds, but i have also noticed it when burger is handled too much.
 
I have the Kitchen Aid meat grinder attachment and they recommend grinding twice, the largest for ease on the first run through, hand mix in any spices thoroughly, then run through on next smallest (there's only two grinding plates with mine). I have no problem with meat texture, even after take the ground beef through the final stages to ground beef jerky.

The best part is that the ground beef is just so much better tasting and you know where the ground beef has been.

As I move my experience journey on this site over towards sausage, I'll upgrade the grinder.
 
When I went to meat cutting school(on a sabbatical from the Ad industry) we were taught to grind twice. Both times through the"coarse"plate. In the retail trade we used a lot of Aussie boneless beef mixed with our own trim, the next step was a "fine" grind.
BTW, we never used "grind"; the product were "minces".
 
Not so much tough but dense. I often grind meat twice. Once through a coarse 1/4" plate and then through a medium plate. Over grinding like over mixing will make the burgers dense. I shoot for a loose texture. Some people like to grind burger meat once or through a coarse plate to give the meat more chew.
 
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