Grind Your Own
With Memorial Day, the official kickoff to summer barbecuing, right around the corner. Mark Bittman, writer of the popular Minimalist column for The New York Times, reminded readers of a column he wrote a couple of years ago about grinding your own hamburger meat.
Why bother with such an endeavor? Because, he argues, when you buy pre-ground meat “you have no way of knowing whether the meat came from high- or low-quality animals. It could come from dozens of animals, and they could all be poor-quality animals — old dairy cows, for instance, rather than cattle raised for beef.” Not everyone has access to high quality butchers in this day and age unfortunately, and many end up getting their pre-made patties at the local King Kullen. Of course, Bittman does not expect you to get a meat grinder (although you could). Instead, give the steel blades of your food processor a taste of red meat.
With a 12-cup processor, Bittman says you can do a few pounds at a time. Not bad.
A few of his rules:
Fat equals flavor. “If you start with meat that’s 95 percent lean, you are going to get the filet mignon of burgers: tender, but not especially tasty. If you use chuck or sirloin, with 15 to 20 percent fat — still quite lean by fast-food standards, by the way — you’re going to get meat that is really flavorful, along with the good mouth-feel that a bit of fat brings.”
Take it easy, twitchy. As satisfying as grinding may be,”you want the equivalent of chopped meat, not a meat purée. The finer you grind the meat, the more likely you are to pack it together too tightly, which will make the burger tough.”
Don’t treat it like a piece of meat. “Handle the meat gently. Make the patties with a light hand, and don’t press on them with a spatula, like a hurried short-order cook.”
Spice it up. “The burger is the cousin not only of the steak — which often takes no seasoning beyond salt and pepper — but also of the meatloaf and the meatball, both of which are highly seasoned.” He suggests the basics like minced garlic, onion, parsley and Worcestershire sauce, but encourages experimentation: “It’s hard to go wrong here.”
And now the most exciting part, for rare-meat eaters, at least: “If you grind your own beef, you can make a mixture and taste it raw.” (Salmonella isn’t killed until 160 degrees and rare meat is usually cooked at 125.)
Now all you need is the charcoal.
