Daily Loaf

Anyone who’s seen Food, Inc. has witnessed the terrifying process by which some ground beef finds its way to supermarket shelves. Your backyard burger could come from different parts of several different cows, sometimes killed at separate slaughterhouses, perhaps mixed with a “mash-like product derived from scraps,” according to a recent NY Times article. Many of the cuts used for grinding by big producers like Cargill come from less popular parts off a cow, parts that may have more contact with the E. coli bacteria in feces. To fight contamination, some producers treat the meat with ammonia. Yum!

Unless you ask the grocer to grind the meat for you — using a slab of meat you pick right out of the case — it’s nigh impossible to determine what went into the grinder for your future meatballs, how long ago it was ground, and what it was treated with. Your best, cheapest, and tastiest choice is, as always, to do it yourself.

Here’s a simple guide to the fine art of home-made ground beef:

1. Pick the meat.
Chuck roasts tend to have the right fat content and right price for a lot of applications, usually coming in at about 80 percent lean. That’s perfect for burgers, but you can trim some of the fat if you want leaner meat, or mix in some sirloin, which tend to have less fat. If your meat seems to have less fat than it needs, consider mixing in some pork fat, which is readily available and incredibly cheap from most butchers.

2. Cold is key.
Before you grind, put your grinder (whether it’s a countertop version or an attachment for your standing mixer) in the freezer. Cut the meat into cubes that will fit in the grinder, then throw those in the freezer for a bout a half-hour, as well. That will help keep the protein from turning to mush when it’s pulled through the punishing teeth of the grinder.

3. Big batches.
If you’re going to go to the trouble of grinding your own, buy big and plan on freezing your labors. Think about how what you plan to use the the meat for, then measure out appropriate portions, encase tightly in plastic wrap, slip into a baggy, and label with date and weight.

4. Clean it up.
Make sure to clean your grinder extremely well after each use. I know it’s annoying: so many parts to disassembled, so many clinging bits of fat and protein glued to the gears, so much soapy water pruning your delicate hands. Thing is, if you don’t do a good job you risk tainting your beef with the same dangerous bugs that caused you to grind your own in the first place. Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?

5. Eat well.
So, now you have ten pounds of delicious ground beef tucked away in the freezer and need to know what to do with it. Check out the CL Cookbook (cltampa.com/cookbook) for a multitude of tasty dishes that will do justice to your hard-work. Maybe the Bistro Burger, or a Picadillo Pizza, or perhaps Ethiopian Beef Tibs, or maybe …

(Photo by virtualern/flickr.com) (Want to follow all of CL’s Food, Drink and Restaurant news? Bookmark the food section of the blog, add the CL Food RSS feed to your reader of choice, follow @BrianRies on Twitter, or check out the Food Section page multiple times daily.)

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