Looking for meat/fat ratio for ground beef

[tajmohal]

I am getting ready to purchase a butchered steer and am looking for suggestions for custom mix of ground beef including meat/fat ratio and what mixture/ratio of cuts of beef make the best ground beef. Thanks.

 

[alblancher]

I prefer 80/20 for burgers.  Don't need to use your fancy cuts on this, kind of what ever is left over after butchering but there are butchers on the site that can be more specific

Welcome to the forum

 

[bigwheel]

Diitos to what alblancher said. Anybody trying to serve normal folks any hamburger meat leaner than 80/20 is liable to get a biotch slap. Fat is where the flavor is at to coin a prhase..lol. Chuck comes from the cow just about right. Most of the other stuff is too lean..most especially all the members of the round family.  Brisket makes excellent hamburger meat but dont like to clump itself together very well and has to be treated gentle if you want to patty it up. Hey now there ya go..have them mix the round with the briskets. That should be very flavorful and if the briskets was packer trimmed it would add a a lot of fat and flavor..and should stick together well. Started to say untrimmed but dont think a person would want that nasty old inside or maybe outside body fat in there.  I would make soap out of that.

 

[smokerjim]

I'm with alblancher, I wouldn't use the good cuts for this,if your getting the whole steer there should be plenty of ground meat, i also think 80/20 is the best blend.if you were looking for specific cuts to grind i would say the front 1/4's,much more flavor than then the round,but again there is a lot of nice cuts you can get before grinding them.I'm sure you don't want to grind the loins that is where you get your steaks for summer.

 

[venture]

80-20 in our house.  70-30 is OK for a meatloaf.  Anything leaner than 80-20 we avoid.

Chuck is great.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[bdskelly]

We now grind our own out of chuck.  I believe that should make 80/20. 

 

[foamheart]

I actually like more fat, when I was a kid it was a 73/27 ratio I believe. Well yes of course it shrinks but you don't need grease to fry it. And of course that fat makes it taste good....LOL

I saw on some TV thingie where someone added the bacon trimming to the beef, I have added bacon to the grind and its damn tastee!

 

[bigwheel]

All my old sausage making experiences always wound up with a 3 lb box of bacon ends and pieces in the mix. Its good for what ails ya. Even kicks that good tasting chuck up a notch or two.