Meat grinders are durable machines, but even they will give out at some point following years of faithful service in your kitchen.
Hopefully, the meat grinder breaks when you have no upcoming parties planned. But what can you do if the grinder starts to malfunction on the same day that you have a barbeque scheduled? Do you just order pizza or cook something else?
If you know how to grind meat without a grinder, you can still push forward with your barbeque plans. To find out how to pull that off, please go ahead and read the rest of this article.
Why Grinding Meat Without Using a Grinder is a Good Idea?
1. You’re Making the Texture of the Ground Meat More Interesting
The ground meat that comes out from a grinder is usually pretty uniform in terms of size. There is nothing wrong with that and many people prefer the texture of the it to be even throughout. If you want a more interesting texture in your ground it though, you can make that happen by processing it using other items in your kitchen.
2. Freshly Ground Meat from Your Kitchen is Healthier Than the Supermarket Alternative
With your grinder broken, you could end up thinking that going to the supermarket to get ground meat is the next best thing you can do, but that’s not necessarily the case. You have no control over how much fat is used in that package of supermarket ground meat. By grinding your own meat, you can ensure that it’s a healthy mixture.
3. Better-Looking Burgers are Possible if You Use Your Own Ground Meat
Ground meat left to sit for a while in a supermarket may turn slightly in color. It’s still safe to cook with, but you’ll find it difficult to cook up beautiful burgers using that ingredient. That same issue is not present if you use freshly ground meat. You can even keep the burgers rare and they will still look gorgeous.
4. It’s More Practical to Ground Your Own Meat
If you live in a home full of picky eaters, you know all about how challenging it can be to whip up a dish that will please everyone. That may even prove to be an impossible challenge.
After all, what can you do if you’re planning to cook up some beef stew but someone is suddenly craving a Sloppy Joe? Well, if that does happen and you know how to grind meat without a grinder, then you can still meet that special request.
Learning this process of grinding without a grinder is also useful since that skill will allow you to quickly get the ground meat needed for some easy-to-cook recipes. Instead of spending all night in your kitchen, you can just grill a burger in a matter of minutes.
Furthermore, knowing how to grind with no grinder means you will not have to put money down for a replacement machine.
How to Grind Meat in 4 Easy Ways without a Grinder?
Grinding meat with no grinder is not that difficult, especially if you just follow the right steps. You don’t even need some specialized tools to get it done. As long as you have a knife, a chopping board, tinfoil, and a food processor, grinding without using a grinder is doable.
1. How to Grind Meat Using a Knife?
Take the piece you want to grind and put it on your chopping board. Pick up your knife and proceed to make cuts at a 45-degree angle. Only cut about 75 percent of the way through the meat and make sure that the slices are about a quarter inch apart.
Flip the meat over and cut it at the same angle and the same depth but the slices need to be made in the opposite direction this time.
Turn it over again, but now, the slices you need to make should be coming from a 90-degree angle. Remember not to cut all the way through the meat.
Go back to the other side of the it and make those 90-degree slices again. Keep in mind that these cuts should be heading in a different direction.
You should now have several chunks of it on your cutting board. The last step involves quickly chopping up those chunks by using the part of the blade that is closest to the handle. Keep chopping it until you get the texture you want.
2. How to Grind Meat Using a Food Processor?
Start out by placing the cut of meat on top of the chopping board. Grab hold of your knife and proceed to slice the meat. Cut it into small chunks. Try to get the chunks as small as you can.
Next up, spread out some tinfoil on your countertop and place the cubes on it. Scrunch up the foil to cover the chunks of meat. Put the foil packet in the freezer and let it sit there for about 30 minutes.
Following the 30-minute waiting period, you can take the foil packet out of the freezer and put the chunks in the food processor. Turn on the food processor and keep it going until it is ground to your target texture.
Don’t put all of at once or else the food processor may struggle to slice up all of the chunks.
3. Seek Help from Your Butcher to Grind Your Meat
Technically, you’re no longer the one doing the grinding if you’re going to the local butcher for help, but for some home cooks this is the only viable option. Inexperienced cooks probably shouldn’t be using their knives to grind their own meat and not everyone has a food processor at home.
Don’t worry though. Most butchers are more than willing to lend a helping hand when it comes to grinding meat.
4. Which Alternative Method Should I Use?
As noted above, if you are an inexperienced home cook, you probably don’t have much choice in this matter. If your meat grinder breaks down, the next best thing you can do is to put your meat in a container and take it to your local butcher to have it processed.
Now, if you are more experienced and feel comfortable using sharp tools, then it would probably be best for you to grind by using a knife. What’s so great about using the knife to grind meat is that you will have a good feel for the texture of the meat all throughout the process. Once it feels like you’re starting to grind the meat too finely, you can just stop immediately.
Plus, you can more easily customize the texture of your ground meat if you use your knives. You can keep some pieces bigger while chopping the other bits finer to create a more texturally interesting mixture.
The meat grinder is a great machine to have working in your kitchen. However, even if you don’t currently have the money to get one or yours just broke all of a sudden, you can still get ground meat through other means. An absent or malfunctioning meat grinder no longer has to be a barrier to you having freshly ground pork, beef, turkey, or chicken inside your kitchen.
