Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Why grind it? You can eat it practically raw if you don't poke any holes in it and just torch the outside for a few seconds. just have steaks cut to look like hamburgers!
Why bother? My German customers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin make this all the time....
tuna55 wrote: Right, so you eat beef 200-300 times, each time from a different cow. In that timeframe, I eat from one cow. My risk is 200x-300x less than yours.
Actually, it's worse than that, if you are buying tubes of factory ground beef, you might be eating beef from hundreds of cows in each burger.
DrBoost wrote:Keith wrote: Our ground beef is so lean that you can't actually drain any fat off it when you brown it in a pan. The steaks are awesome. So much better than store-bought.Amen brother! I dont' like store-bought beef anymore. I can brown a pound of meat and get, maybe a tbs of fat drained off. And I actaully taste a difference from one cow to the next. Strange thing, one night, while eating steaks my wife and I were discussing how this cow tasted so much better than the last one. You never say that while eating Kroger meat.
See, but the Kroger meat, you don't have the potential for one cow to taste worse than the last. I would be SO disappointed if a cow i bought today tasted worse than the one i bought last week.
(I'm just poking fun. Kroger's meat SUCKS.)
In reply to Josh:
That is what I was reading that got me thinking about all this. They have trouble finding the source of contamination in ground beef because it contains not just a bunch of different cows, but cows from all different places. For example they might have three or four fat suppliers as well as multiple suppliers for all kinds of different beef with different levels of fat in it already. So, they don't just cut up a cow or cows and make 85% lean beef - they more like mix together varying amounts of 60%,70%,80%,90% lean meat and then add fat to get to the right number. It seems odd. It must be the cheapest way of doing things. In any case, you might end up with a hamburger made from eight different suppliers and countless cows. Gross.
Josh wrote:tuna55 wrote: Right, so you eat beef 200-300 times, each time from a different cow. In that timeframe, I eat from one cow. My risk is 200x-300x less than yours.Actually, it's worse than that, if you are buying tubes of factory ground beef, you might be eating beef from hundreds of cows in each burger.
Good point!
I do on occasion. Mostly the grinder makes sausage and liver pudding. I also prefer my beef in one piece and rare.
For something even more disturbing than a 100 cow burger... when is a steak a steak?
I really don't like steaks all that much. I mean, I've had a few that I liked, but I'm not cultured enough in the art of steak to know what I like and to make (or order) it like that. In fact, I really don't eat much meat at all, and when I do it's usually turkey or chicken. That being said, there's a local food co-op that sells local grass fed ground beef that's awesome. If I'm going to a grille out, I'll stop by and pick some up to make some burgers with. The surprising part was that the price difference between that and regular supermarket meat was VERY little. So I guess my point is, I don't grind my own beef (he he), but someone within 20 miles of me grows and grinds it for me.
it's a wonder I've lived as long as I have... when I/we were little and Mom would be fixing meat loaf , we'd be pestering her and she'd generally gives us a teaspoon portion of raw ground beef.... ummmmmm good... I've been eating RARE burgers for the better part of my 60 + yrs... so far so good... to bad there are state (maybe federal) laws that won't let a restaurant serve rare / medium rare burgers... when the server tells me they only cook medium or worse I say why bother... there's no juice, no flavor, and it's generally tough as shoe leather bleeehhhhhhhh
I only ground my own beef if I want it to be well-connected electrically.
wbjones wrote: it's a wonder I've lived as long as I have... when I/we were little and Mom would be fixing meat loaf , we'd be pestering her and she'd generally gives us a teaspoon portion of raw ground beef.... ummmmmm good... I've been eating RARE burgers for the better part of my 60 + yrs... so far so good... to bad there are state (maybe federal) laws that won't let a restaurant serve rare / medium rare burgers... when the server tells me they only cook medium or worse I say why bother... there's no juice, no flavor, and it's generally tough as shoe leather bleeehhhhhhhh
Should we get off your lawn now!
Of course, just kidding. It's the fear of ecoli-related insurance suits, and the FDA's guidelines on the temp of a "cooked" piece of meat.
My mom did the same. A bit of meat for the burgers, a bit of raw for me, You can usually still get a rare steak if you ask nicely, and some of the smaller mom and pop restaurants will accomodate a rare burger. Helps to be a regular, though.
I think I should get off my own lawn now
triumph5 wrote:wbjones wrote: it's a wonder I've lived as long as I have... when I/we were little and Mom would be fixing meat loaf , we'd be pestering her and she'd generally gives us a teaspoon portion of raw ground beef.... ummmmmm good... I've been eating RARE burgers for the better part of my 60 + yrs... so far so good... to bad there are state (maybe federal) laws that won't let a restaurant serve rare / medium rare burgers... when the server tells me they only cook medium or worse I say why bother... there's no juice, no flavor, and it's generally tough as shoe leather bleeehhhhhhhhShould we get off your lawn now!
It's much the same for "raw" milk that hasn't been cooked, i.e. pasteurized. The gubmint has done made it illegal!
Of course we're much safer now with big profit-driven farms cutting corners to make a buck.
The solution to fatty meatloaf is to bake it on a wire grid and not in a loaf pan. Drains right out.
Put me squarely in the "forget it if it's overcooked" camp. I like my steaks Pittsburgh rare, and my burgers medium rare. Never had a problem.
Duke wrote: The solution to fatty meatloaf is to bake it on a wire grid and not in a loaf pan. Drains right out. Put me squarely in the "forget it if it's overcooked" camp. I like my steaks Pittsburgh rare, and my burgers medium rare. Never had a problem.
But then it's not juicy!!!!!!
Unless you wrap it in bacon, maybe?
Oooo OOO OOO!!!!!!!
Meatloaf wrapped in bacon.... GRILLED.
Bacon wrapped in meatloaf, perhaps?
The unwillingness to sell less-than-mid-well meat is not a law or regulatory measure. It's the restaurant's lawyers and insurance trying to mitigate risk. Restaurants are generally required to post that 'consuming raw or undercooked meat might make you puke out your insides' notice, but there's nothing except internal policy preventing a restaurant from selling you rare chicken if you want it.
1988RedT2 wrote: Of course we're much safer now with big profit-driven farms cutting corners to make a buck.
Do you really think Old Macdonald didn't cut a corner here and there, or that he wasn't keenly aware of his profits?
Duke wrote: The solution to fatty meatloaf is to bake it on a wire grid and not in a loaf pan. Drains right out.
Putting on a grid helps, but the true solution is not to have all the fat in there in the first place.
With storebought ground beef you'd need a wire grid taller than the pan is tall.
A good grinder/stuffer is handy. Not only can you make your own burgers, but you keep the intestines and make your own sausages and such.
They are really easy to clean. Intestines that is. Run them up on the nozzle, and stuff away.
Interesting the differences in texture you get with multi-passes through the grinder. Not always too sure I like it when it's puree smooth, but it is different.
Do keep your fingers out of there though. Even a hand cranked unit has no forgiveness.
alex wrote: The unwillingness to sell less-than-mid-well meat is not a law or regulatory measure. It's the restaurant's lawyers and insurance trying to mitigate risk. Restaurants are generally required to post that 'consuming raw or undercooked meat might make you puke out your insides' notice, but there's nothing except internal policy preventing a restaurant from selling you rare chicken if you want it.
can't speak for other places but here are 3 links about rare burgers in North and South Carolina... and when I was at the Rolex the cook at the Brickyard told me it was law there also... but if that's what I wanted that's what he would cook for me... I told him please and thank you 
http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=121304064644348&z_Issue_ID=11011008103005956&ShowArchiveArticle_ID=11011108103799118
http://www.pdco.com/node/88490
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/05/coming-soon-to-north-carolina-rare-burgers.html
carguy123 wrote: Putting on a grid helps, but the true solution is not to have all the fat in there in the first place. With storebought ground beef you'd need a wire grid taller than the pan is tall.
Don't your stores have more than one kind of ground beef? I can buy ground beef in increments from 80% lean on up to 96% lean. I usually buy 90% and if I brown a pound of it in a skillet I am left with less than a tablespoon of fat to drain. In fact I just did that - taco night at Casa Duke. I can't really call that excessive.
Man, all this talk of E. coli and other food contamination scares sure make me glad to be a vegetarian.
No, I don't. But a Kitchen Aid stand mixer we thought no one would actually buy us showed up as a wedding present the other day, along with a grinder attachment. So I may, in the near future.
Duke wrote:carguy123 wrote: Putting on a grid helps, but the true solution is not to have all the fat in there in the first place. With storebought ground beef you'd need a wire grid taller than the pan is tall.Don't your stores have more than one kind of ground beef? I can buy ground beef in increments from 80% lean on up to 96% lean. I usually buy 90% and if I brown a pound of it in a skillet I am left with less than a tablespoon of fat to drain. In fact I just did that - taco night at Casa Duke. I can't really call that excessive.
Around here 90% leaves a huge puddle of grease in the meat loaf pan. High enough that a wire grid is hopelessly outclassed.
I think they get their 90% by using all the fat on the piece and then adding 10% more.
I'd love to find 96% but I'm not sure I'd believe them.
I once heard a sports announcer say about a player that he "made steak from hamburger" and wondered how long it's been since he went to the grocery store - the cheap steaks are cheaper than ground beef...
Best burgers ever:
2.5 lbs ground beef, 85% lean or more 1/2 large sweet onion 1/2 large apple
Dice apple and onion to 1/4" or so, add to beef, form patties. Grill on a hot grill as you like them - I usually go 4 minutes on the first side, turn off the gas, let the grease fire finish cooking them for the other four minutes. Serve as hot as you can with sliced onion, tomato, mustard on a whole-wheat bun.
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