The Kitchen Appliance To Use For Grinding Burger Meat At Home
When it's grilling season, burgers are a must, and let's face it — buying the pre-portioned patties from the store is the easiest option. Oftentimes pre-seasoned, not only does this reduce the time it would take you to knead the meat, but it also keeps your hands clean. However, there are definitely some flavor advantages to a more from-scratch approach.
Grinding your own meat at home can seem messy, tedious, and a bit scary, but the work is worth the perks. First, you get more bang for your buck. The price of a pound of ground beef is often more expensive than the amount of money you'd spend on cuts of meat that are on sale that you can grind yourself and grinding your own cuts often yields much more by weight. Secondly, it's healthier, as you know exactly what's going into your patties. Furthermore, if you prefer your burgers are made with beef that is either hormone-free or grass-fed, you have that luxury. Lastly, it's an explosion of flavor, as you can choose the type of meat you grind, and add other ingredients to grind along with it.
A hand-crank meat grinder or KitchenAid attachment is typically the best bet for a home cook. However, if you don't own one of those, there is a common appliance that makes for a great alternative.
Food processor
Known for chopping and mincing ingredients quickly, a food processor is a golden tool for the kitchen. However, if you find yourself itching for decadent burgers, yet you don't have the luxury of a meat grinder, the handy dandy food processor can easily come to the rescue.
Simply cut your beef into one-inch cubes, spread in an even layer on a sheet pan, and freeze the meat for about 10 minutes. This allows the fat to firm up so that it can evenly distribute during the grinding process. From there, add your beef to the food processor in small batches with any seasonings or extra add-ins you'd like and pulse for 10 seconds at a time until the beef looks consistently ground. It's best to work in batches as the food processor can get warm after running for a certain amount of time, which can then melt the beef fat and cause your meat to become mushy. From there, all that's left to do is form your beef into patties and get to cookin'!
If you're thinking of grilling up some burgers using chicken, turkey, salmon, or even veggies, you can use this same method.