Techniques › Butchery and seafood
Grinding meat at home
Intermediate Butchery and seafood
Grinding meat at home is turning cubes of chilled meat and fat into ground meat with a grinder, for burgers, sausage or meatballs.
Written with AI help from the sources listed, and published by Cory. Sources: USDA safe minimum internal temperatures, USDA on the danger zone (40-140°F). Spot a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.
How do you do it?
- Cut meat into 1-inch cubes, aiming for roughly 20 to 30 percent fat for burgers and sausage.
- Freeze the cubes and the grinder's metal parts for about 30 minutes, until the meat is firm at the edges.
- Feed cubes in with the pusher, never your fingers. Grind once through a coarse plate; go again through a fine one if you want.
- Keep everything cold, refrigerate the meat right away, and cook it to 160°F (165°F for poultry).
Why does it work?
Fat stays in clean little pieces only while it's cold. Warm fat smears, coating the meat and turning the texture mealy and greasy, and it melts out during cooking. Grinding also spreads any bacteria from the surface through the whole batch, which is why ground meat needs 160°F even when you ground it fresh.
What are the common mistakes?
- Grinding warm meat — fat smears into a pasty, greasy mix.
- Pushing meat with fingers — use the plunger; the auger doesn't stop.
- Leaving parts unwashed — scrub them in hot soapy water right after.
Still stuck? Watch someone do it on YouTube.
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