Home made mince meat

chrismon

Hi everyone.
I'm looking to make my own beer mince meat.
What is the best type of cut to put in?
It would be mostly used in chili, burgers and bolognese.
Do you think its worth the investment compared to buying the horrible mince from butchers?
Thanks.

the beer revolu

What's horrible about mince from the butchers?
Maybe you need a new butcher.

Do you have a mincer? A food processor will give you pureed meat.

If you buy cuts of meat to make mince, it will cost you more than buying mince because the butcher uses trimmings and off cuts that wouldn't sell otherwise but this doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with it.

A good butcher will put nothing but meat and some fat in mince. Fat free mince is awful, dry stuff.

fiddlechic

Gosh, I must really have Christmas on the mind or something. When I read the title I thought "impressively early to be at the mincemeat" and was going to recommend Delia's foolproof recipe!

My parents have a mincer - seldom used to be honest, as butcher so handy with no washing up of the bloody machine. But normally use round steak with reasonably trimmed fat.

The Hill Billy

In all honesty - get a new butcher if you are not satisfied with your current butcher's mince.
What is wrong with it?

chrismon

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Ill be finding a new butchers.
I bought 1kg of mince today, it had a horrible amount of grizzle running through it.
I should have taken a picture to show how much was in it.
Was far from nice.

0lddog

fiddlechic wrote: »

Gosh, I must really have Christmas on the mind or something. When I read the title I thought "impressively early to be at the mincemeat" and was going to recommend Delia's foolproof recipe........

fiddlechic is so right.:)

Y'all thinking 'butcher' when reading thread have some sort of, um, "issue":(

Now is the time to make your mince meat. Please look up Delia's foolproof recipe for detail.

dmc17

Ask the butcher to mince a piece of round steak for you.

the beer revolu

dmc17 wrote: »

Ask the butcher to mince a piece of round steak for you.

And pay the kg price of round steak.

Why bother if your butcher doesn't put grisle and/or excessive fat in their mince?
Round steak mince is very dry with little flavour, anyway.
If I wouldn't eat a butcher's mince, I wouldn't give them my business for anything else without good reason.

awec

If you are looking to make burgers you will need fat in the mince otherwise they will just fall apart when they dry out during cooking.

Thud

Fat is not always a bad thing in mince, 20-25% is often recommended for juicy burgers, most supermarket (and probably butchers) mince is lower than that, lean mince is usually less than 10% which is grand for other uses.

Here's two good articles on grinding your own mince, different cuts can impact the flavour of the mince and type of grind can impact texture:
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/10/the-burger-lab-best-burger-blend-profiles-of-eight-cuts-of-beef.html

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2013/08/the-burger-lab-how-coarsely-should-i-grind-my-burger.html

rubadub

Thud wrote: »

most supermarket (and probably butchers) mince is lower than that, lean mince is usually less than 10% which is grand for other uses.

Cheapo mince in supermarkets is generally higher in fat, up to about 28% sometimes.

Tesco now do smaller 300g packs for €2 which makes 2 decent size burgers. They have a 975g one for €4. I think both are around 20% fat. I have seen tv chefs saying 17 or 18% would be the minimum they would use.

I wondered about adding in other fat to compensate if you only had leaner mince, like adding butter into the mix. I was thinking about getting very lean mince on purpose so you could add loads of butter.

the beer revolu

rubadub wrote: »

Cheapo mince in supermarkets is generally higher in fat, up to about 28% sometimes.

Tesco now do smaller 300g packs for €2 which makes 2 decent size burgers. They have a 975g one for €4. I think both are around 20% fat. I have seen tv chefs saying 17 or 18% would be the minimum they would use.

I wondered about adding in other fat to compensate if you only had leaner mince, like adding butter into the mix. I was thinking about getting very lean mince on purpose so you could add loads of butter.

I think the melting point of butter would be too low.

rubadub

the beer revolu wrote: »

I think the melting point of butter would be too low.

wiki has backfat lard as low as 30-40C, and butter as 32–35 °C

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_fat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter

http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2010/06/the-butter-burger.html

....The butter burger was first conceived of years ago, before we started grinding our own meat. The best ground meat we could find tended to be the leanest type available. Now everybody knows you need fat to make a burger juicy. The generally accepted standard for good burgers is 80% lean. Since we were occasionally buying meat that was leaner than that, clearly some supplementation was in order. In restaurants it is a common practice to sear meats and fish in hot oil and finish them with a generous basting of butter. That final kiss of fat gives them a wonderful flavor that is seldom duplicated in home kitchens. Heaven knows that a touch (or more) of butter makes almost anything better and so it was easy to see how we decided to increase the fat content of our meat by adding some grated butter to the blend...


Butter Burger

Makes 6-8 generous burgers



All gram measurements are by weight.



1800 grams/4 pounds first cut chuck blade roast bone in

200 grams/7 ounces butter diced

200 grams/7 ounces onion diced

50 grams/1.75 ounces soy sauce

10 grams/0.35 ounces salt

1.5 grams/0.05 ounces /½ teaspoon cayenne



Have a bowl sitting on ice to put the meat into as you trim it to keep everything cold. Trim the meat out of the roast, removing connective tissue, bone and large pockets of fat. Cut it into strips, which will fit into your meat grinder. Add the butter, diced onion, soy sauce, salt and cayenne to the bowl and stir gently with a rubber spatula to combine. Grind the meat mixture using the ¼-inch die of the meat grinder. Reserve half of the ground meat in the bowl and grind the other half a second time.

Combine both portions of meat and gently mix them together with your hands. Lay out two layers of plastic wrap in slightly overlapping layers so that they form a double wide sheet. Lay the meat down in a log on the top third of the plastic wrap and fold the plastic over the log and roll it up like a sushi roll, forming a log approximately 5-inches in diameter. Use additional plastic wrap to shape the log and wrap it tightly into a roulade. Place it in the refrigerator for at least two hours to firm up. Slice 1.5-2-inch burgers off the roll, remove the plastic, and cook them as desired.

This guy puts butter in the middle rather than mix in.
http://www.meatwave.com/blog/93-7-the-butter-burger

Butter Burgers

2lbs lean ground beef
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Bring butter to room temperature (or soften in the microwave) and mix in the salt and pepper. Spoon butter onto a piece of plastic wrap, then wrap the butter in the plastic, forming a log about 1 inch in diameter. Place the butter in the freezer for 10 minutes, or until firm.

Work 1/3 lb ground beef into a patty and create a dimple in middle using you're thumb. Place 1/2 tablespoon of the butter mixture into the dimple and reform the patty around the butter. Season the outside of the patties with salt and pepper to taste.

Grill the patties over a very hot grill until they're nicely browned on both sides. Remove from the grill and allow to rest for a few minutes before serving.

I have heard of people making coarse "mince" by cutting up beef with a knife or scissors.

Markcheese

I'm sure I heard somewhere that the original U.S. Hamburgers were a mix of lean beef and fatty pork ... Chicago beef barons managed to change legislation to make "hamburger" in the states an all beef affair ...

Rubberchikken

Nice quality mince with a little fat is perfect for home made burgers lasagne etc.
without the fat the mince is dry and flavour

honestly get a better butcher, you can't beat meat from a good butchers.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

Markcheese

Melendez wrote: »

I got a mincer and make my own mince. I tend to trim meat meticulously before I mince it so there is only a tiny percentage of fat, I find it very difficult to purposely leave any fat in it. It doesn't make mince-based recipes taste any better, probably the contrary in many cases, but I feel a lot more confident about eating it, and, as such, enjoy it more.

Well if you're specifically on a low fat diet, fair enough... I'm not quite at the dripping on toast stage but not far off ...