The FOOD LAB’s Guide
TO GRINDING YOUR
OWN MEAT
I’m a cook by trade but a grinder by nature. Nothing pleases
me more than the careful, controlled deconstruction and
reconstruction of what nature has so carefully put together.
Grinding your own meat at home is a uniquely satisfying
experience. There’s something profoundly beautiful to me
about watching the chopped meat fall out of the grinder into
the bowl, deep red interspersed with discrete creamy-white
bits of fat. I like the way it starts out free and pebbly as you
pick it up but comes together in your hands to form a burger
patty. And I like how salt can make the grind sticky, ready
to be beaten into a juicy sausage or a tender meat loaf.
I’ve never met anyone who’s decided to go back to using
store-bought ground beef after having tried beef ground
fresh at home. Once you grind, you never rewind. Why
should you grind? Four reasons:
- It’s safer. Packaged ground beef can contain meat from
hundreds, even thousands, of animals, and not necessarily
from the nicest bits either. This means that you’ve got to
be extra careful when cooking with packaged ground
meat—chances of contamination are higher. - Better flavor. Unless you’ve got a really great butcher,
you’re stuck with whatever ground beef the supermarket
has on hand. Usually this is no more specific than