What is your favorite cut to use for ground beef? I used brisket flat for both smash burgers and Cincinnati chili and both were amazing. I am doing Cincinnati chili again this weekend and am debating between buying a full packer and using part to grind and part to smoke, or buying someone else smaller and protecting our already not pretty budget for the month.
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I always grind beef for recipes and generally go with Chuck. But I have gone with brisket and short rib. I have even done tri-tip. But I don't get hung up on the cut. When I trim beef, I always keep the hard fat. So when I'm at the store and I see an inexpensive lean cut in the "managers special" section, I'll buy it and add my beef fat to the grind so it's around 80/20 mix.
Thank you everyone! I have a couple of frozen bags of brisket fat to add thankfully. Peoria Packing has what they are calling Pot Roast for $4.49 a pound. What cut do you think that is? Maybe Chuck?
Thanks. Unfortunately the closest one to me is a good 45 minutes away unless traffic is perfect. I’ll keep an eye out for it on Tuesdays since those are my typical off days.
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My go to is chuck roast or steak. I've actually added sausage. A mild is my choice. Different texture and taste as long as you don't flood it with seasoning. SPG works. If I had 2# of beef I'd add .5# sausage. You could use any combination of meats. My base line would be the chuck.
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When I have a side of beef processed I always tell them in no uncertain terms NOT to grind up the brisket. The steer only makes one of those, I don't want to waste it on hamburger. Normally they do a 80/20 grind, but the last one did a 70/30. Actually, it's probably better for doing smash burgers, but otherwise I'd rather have the leaner grind. Oh well, it's only about 60 or 80 lbs of whatever they trimmed off of every thing else.
I typically grind whatever’s the cheapest. For years that was Prime brisket from Costco, but thanks to the “shortage” they only have Choice grade…and the dang things are usually double the price of Prime (the ultimate paradox), so the last handful of months it’s been chuck - which almost always has the perfect blend of meat/fat.
With brisket I’ve found that point alone is too fatty, and flat alone is too lean…so about 50/50 mix of point/flat seems to do the trick for hitting the 80/20 goal. When I have a packer that’s not destined for smoking I’ll take the point and the half flat it’s connected to and grind it. The other half of the flat then gets used for…chili, birria, pot roast, etc.
Thanks everyone! I got a 2.7 pound Chuck steak and ground it up into about 2.1 pounds after being cut off the bone. Just finished browning it so it can spend tomorrow morning in the crock pot becoming Cincinnati Chili! Definitely seeing a lot of fat pieces in it, maybe I ground up some tougher fat?
It definitely turned out decent! For a recipe like that I would probably stick with store bought ground beef. Peoria packing usually has it for about $2.99 a pound. I will keep experimenting with grinding my own for burgers and such.
Although this does not answer your best cut question, try Wagyu ground beef sometime. It is excellent, especially for smash burgers. It is important to use a flat surface (Blackstone, fry pan, etc.) though. If you use a grill/grate you lose too much of the flavorful juice, which is what makes Wagyu special.
Also, you can often get ground beef (or trimmings for grinding) at a very reasonable price. From experience, selling the ribeyes, filets, etc. is relatively easy. Getting people to understand why paying a bit of a premium for ground beef is more of a challenge, because price is often the key factor for some consumers.
If you live close to a USDA certified butcher shop that processes Wagyu, ask them when they have any arriving for harvest. About 1/2 of the meat will be ground for burgers or other ground beef purposes. Most likely, a good portion of the top end cuts will already be spoken for. However, their demand for ground beef is unlikely to be as high . . . and they are not going to want to freeze that much of it. As such, they may have fresh ground Wagyu for a very reasonable price.
Here is a demo video a BBQ store in Minnesota did, which shows prep of Wagyu vs. Akaushi. Very interesting.
He is cooking on a grill, and has some flare ups. We recommend using a grill plate, Blackstone, or frying pan. Not only avoids flare ups, but preserves juice (which gives the Wagyu its flavor).
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