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Are you wondering how to grind meat without a grinder? It might be you do not have a grinder for meat grinding? Or you are bored with the paste-like texture of store-bought machine-grind meat? I will show you a few ways that will eliminate the question in your mind how to grind meat without a grinder.
I personally do a lot of experiments while I prepare for cooking. Even there is a lot of time when I opt for the old wives method of making a paste of different spices rather than preparing them in blender or grinder. They always taste better. The purpose of using a machine is not to improve the taste. Rather it is for saving time and effort.
So don’t worry that you are not using a meat grinder to grind meat. I will let you know here how to grind meat without a grinder. You will need just a few things that you already have in your kitchen.
So, let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Why You Will Grind Your Meat Without A Grinder?
There are a few reasons you might want to grind your meat without a grinder. Here are some:
- You will have full control over the cleanliness. You can also control the fat and meat ratio. Definitely, you can make it low fat. As you are making it at home, you must use fresh meat. The taste will certainly feel great.
- Hand chopped meat always tastes better than machine chopped meat. You may not believe me, but give it try. You will get to know in a jiffy. You can chop it in more or less finely. You can control the texture of your meat as well as the flavor.
- When we buy grind meat from the supermarket, most of the time we don’t know what we are getting. As the meat is finely chopped, there is no way to know how much scrap is mixed in the product. Also, ground meat contains a high amount of fat. Avoiding the store bought meat can be a great healthy alternative.
- Picky eaters at home are very common in every house. Maybe you are planning for a beef stew but your picky eater wants a burger, what you will do? If you can grind your own meat, making the burger will not be a headache.
- In the kitchen, there is the time comes when we miss some ground meat, as some of us cook a lot. Maybe you are craving for a sausage but you can’t go out of the home. You got some leftover raw meat. If you can grind the meat on your own you will have a lot more options for cooking. A new skill for new cooking is always thrilling.
- Grinding meat by your own is cost effective as well. By grinding your own meat will get a safer, fresher, and healthier blend of ground meat.
3 Simple Methods Of Grinding Meat Without The Grinder
Now I am going to show you different methods of meat grinding. You will not have to buy anything. After reading this section, you will get to know that everything is within reach. You just have to jump and start. Never forget, practice will make everything easy. For you it may not happen in one day, in a few tries, you will start chopping like a pro.
1. Grinding Meat Using a Knife
Take a knife, chop chop and chop. You are done. As easy as pie. Hold on, this is it, but there are a few guidelines you have to follow:
Along with the meat, you just need a chopping board and a sharp knife. If you are not comfortable with the same chopping board you use to cut veggies and fruits, you can have a separate board only for chopping meat. I do it too.
However, to start the process, wash the meat finely. Some may not prefer washing but I think it is a better idea. The meat may contain small pieces of bone from the shop as they use the same knife for cutting meat and bones.
With a sharp knife, cut the meat at 45-degree angle. Remember to keep the thickness of almost ¼ inch. Then flip all the meat and again start cutting them at 45-degree angle in the opposite direction. Remember without a sharp knife you will have a hard time to make it done.
Flip the meat again and this time cut it at 90-degree angle. The thickness will remain ¼ inch. Again flip and try to cut again at 90 angles.
Gather all the meat and from left to right, right to left, rapidly chop the meat until you are satisfied with the texture.
- You can decide and make the desired texture of the meat without any confusion.
- The cleaning process is less messy and easy. You just have to clean the knife and chopping board.
- The flavor of hand-chopped meat is far greater than the minced meat.
- You can grind meat anytime anywhere
- This processes may seem boring to those who are less interested in chopping
- There are some people who find it uncomfortable to handle too much raw meat
Tips:
- To make the meat firmer, keep it in the freezer for 20 minutes. It will make the process easier.
- Make sure there are no bones.
- Use a straight-edged knife
Let’s watch A Video
2. Grinding Meat Using A Food Processor
First, wash the meat in runny water. Take a chopping board and a sharp knife. Put the meat on the board and start making small chunks. Make the chunk as smaller as you can. The food processor will find it easy to process it.
Wrap the meat with tin foil and put that in the freezer for about half an hour. Remember, more than half an hour is not recommended. We need to make the meat firm not frozen. So if you think you need to bring out the meat 5 minutes before the half an hour you can do that.
After about half an hour, bring out the meat from the freezer. Unwrap the meat and put them in the food processor.
Continue grinding them unless you get your desired texture. Just make sure not to give a load of meat that your processor can’t grind that smoothly. Try to grind meat in small portions.
- This will give you a fresh and juicy meat
- The grinder is no more needed
- Less messy
- Minimum handling of raw meat
- You can grind your meat anytime you want
- Grinding meat in food processor takes much time.
- Cleaning up the food processor is not easy.
Tips
- Clean the food processor instantly otherwise you will find it hard to clean the food processor if the meat becomes dry and hard.
Let’s watch A Video
3. Going To The Local Butcher
If you are new in the cooking world, you can find it difficult to hold the knife for chopping the meat. There are some people who want to avoid handling raw meat. In these cases, you can go to your local butcher shop for help. You can have a chat over there and make them understand what you want. They will give you valuable opinion too about the meat grinding.
Most of the butchers will love to do the job. From them, you will get an awesome output. They are super experienced. You can tell them your desired texture and they will do that for you. Butchers are professional!
Which Of The Above Method You Should Follow?
So are you puzzled that what method you should apply for grinding your meat? An amateur cook will not have a fine grip on the knife. So if you are an amateur cook pack your meat and go to the butcher shop for grinding.
For an experienced person, it will not be a big deal to grind the meat with a sharp knife. As s/he is already expert enough to hold the knife and chop anything let alone the meat. Just be confident and grind the meat with your knife as long as you are not getting your desired texture.
You can play with the texture to create variations on your recipes. For example, you can keep some pieces a bit bigger with some more finely chopped meat.
Quick Tips for Meat Grinding
- Work in a clean environment. Use a clean knife, clean chopping board and make sure the bowl is clean too for keeping the meat.
- Freeze the meat 15 minutes before cutting them into cubes. This way the cutting will become very easy.
- Seasoning while grinding meat will be a great idea if you know what you are going to cook with the meat.
- Disinfect everything that you use while handling the meat.
- Stay alert while handling sharp objects.
Final Words
I believe home cooked food is the best food. It doesn’t matter if you can’t use the traditional way of grinding meat with grinder for cooking your food. You already learned how to grind meat without a grinder. Be confident, trust your hands and grind your meat. Cook your food by your own processed meat, it will taste better than the store bought ground meat.
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