# anybody make their own hamburgers from roast??



## stevensondrive (Jan 22, 2013)

our local Shop n Save has shoulder roast on sale for $3/lb.  we are out of hamburgers so I thought of using our grinder and patty maker and making several pounds of our own. 

my questions are:

is shoulder roast a good roast to use?

has anyone done this while adding in spices like garlic and black pepper maybe?


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## dward51 (Jan 22, 2013)

Which shoulder cut is it and how lean is it?  

We grind chuck into burger meat when it's on sale.  If you have a lean shoulder, you will need to add some additional fat to get good burgers.  Nothing wrong with using some bacon trimmings & ends (you can usually find a 3 pound block of these near the bacon at the grocery store) or back fat (aka salt pork at most stores).  Fat is where the flavor is, and if the cut is too lean it can be flavorless and tend to fall apart as the fat helps bind the meat also.  The cuts with more fat also tend to be the less expensive shoulder cuts too.  If you get a really fatty cut, you can trim some out before the grind also.  The beauty of grinding your own is you are in control of the final product. Most people like the flavor of an 80/20 or 85/15 mix for burgers (80% meat, 20% fat, etc...)

As to spices.  I usually grind the meat and vacuum pack it "as is" adding only fat if needed and then freezing what we won't use in the next week.  That way I have a lot of options later and the ground meat is basically a blank slate to build upon from there.  If it pre-spiced it, the spices might not be compatible with the end product I desire to make later.  We freeze our ground beef in 1 pound packs. 

If you know you want to make up burgers out of the entire grind, no reason not to mix in seasoning into the burgers, it's up to you.  A good base combo to start with would be salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder in quantities to your taste.  You could also preform the seasoned patties and freeze some of them if you were not going to use them right away.

I picked up two large shoulder chuck roasts two weeks ago and after trimming of the excess fat and membrane ended up with over 12 pounds of finished ground beef.  Looked and smelled better than anything you would buy at the grocery store and I know what is in it.  I usually watch the store for items marked way down due to their expiration (sell by) date.  You can find stuff 1/2 price at my local Kroger on the last day of "sell by" if it's still on the shelf.  You never know what or when they will have this stuff marked 1/2 price, but we check that section of the store every time we walk in and are often treated with a great buy.


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## linguica (Jan 22, 2013)

Whenever on sale we grind shoulder (7 bone here) roast or cross rib roast for hamburger. Eat some and freeze some. No more twice ground packing house garbage allowed in this house.


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## stevensondrive (Jan 22, 2013)

the ad doesn't say what the % fat is.  it also omits "chuck" in the description.  so I suspect it is the cheaper high fat roasts. plus it is cheaper than hamburger is right now.  buying the discounted meat is a great idea!!

I couldn't agree more with you on making your own so you know what is in it!!  we decided to buy a grinder when we realized we weren't getting our own deer back.  it has mushroomed from there.  I am slowly getting into making my own sausage and hamburger and hamburgers.


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## linguica (Jan 22, 2013)

stevensondrive said:


> the ad doesn't say what the % fat is.  it also omits "chuck" in the description.  so I suspect it is the cheaper high fat roasts.   buying the discounted meat is a great idea!!
> 
> I couldn't agree more with you on making your own so you know what is in it!!  we decided to buy a grinder when we realized we weren't getting our own deer back.  it has mushroomed from there.  I am slowly getting into making my own sausage and hamburger and hamburgers.


Ground meat even in the best butcher shops is made from a trim bucket. A plastic bucket used to collect odd pieces of meat and fat accumulated while breaking down a larger piece of beef. Nothing wrong with that if only good quality meats go in. In some operations junk  meat and out dated or questionable looking counter pulls and also added. It's all a matter of quality and is directly controlled by the head meat-cutter.


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## stevensondrive (Jan 22, 2013)

great point Linguica!  I like to know what I'm eating


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## bigwayne (Jan 24, 2013)

If your grocery, even big chains, has a service meat counter, they will probably grind it for you.  I go through what roasts they have on sale and pick the nicest looking one I can find and ask them to grind it for me.  If you want standard 80/20 hamburger grade, then find a marbled roast like a boneless chuck roast.  If you want something leaner, go for a round or top sirloin type roast.  Here (in CA) the cheapest leanest roast usually on sale is called a "cross rib" roast.  I have no idea what part it really is, but it looks like it would be super tough if you roast it, but it grinds up real nice.


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## culpepersmoke (Jan 25, 2013)

dward51 said:


> Looked and smelled better than anything you would buy at the grocery store and I know what is in it.  I usually watch the store for items marked way down due to their expiration (sell by) date.  You can find stuff 1/2 price at my local Kroger on the last day of "sell by" if it's still on the shelf.  You never know what or when they will have this stuff marked 1/2 price, but we check that section of the store every time we walk in and are often treated with a great buy.


X2 here. When we started grinding our own I made some burgers with my grind and store bought. You could really taste the difference. I know what I put into mine... Theirs???  Watch the sales and you'll save a couple bucks.


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## diggingdogfarm (Jan 25, 2013)

I don't buy pre-ground meat for anything!
I grind it all myself.


~Martin


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## kathrynn (Jan 25, 2013)

DiggingDogFarm said:


> I don't buy pre-ground meat for anything!
> I grind it all myself.
> 
> 
> ~Martin


I am hoping to do this too!  Can't wait to start doing my own burgers and SAUSAGES too!


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## woodcutter (Jan 25, 2013)

I just bought a 13 lb round roast from Sam's last weekend and ground and froze. It was $.48 per lb cheaper than the 10lb 90/10 they sell. It is delicious!


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## kathrynn (Jan 25, 2013)

Woodcutter said:


> I just bought a 13 lb round roast from Sam's last weekend and ground and froze. It was $.48 per lb cheaper than the 10lb 90/10 they sell. It is delicious!


I have 2 chucks I bought from Sam's a few weeks ago in my freezer....I think they are about 15 pounds.  Was thinking about smoking them with veggies and such.  Hmmm maybe hamburger!


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## danbono (Jan 25, 2013)

Hi All for hamburger meat I grind chuck with the point of a brisket 50/50.

Dan


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## kathrynn (Jan 25, 2013)

sounds good Dan.  I usually buy ground chuck for most of our burger uses at the house.  Like having a bit more of the taste of the fats in there.  Sirloin is good....but a bit too dry for my tastes....so I just might try those chuck roasts...and I have a large flat in the freezer too!


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## stevensondrive (Jan 25, 2013)

I added garlic, worshire, pepper and onion into the hamburger before the final grind.  it really added to the flavor.  I only wish I had added more.  the taste was much better and the sense that I knew what i was eating really added to the flavor too.


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