Do Any Of You Grind Turkey at Home?

[efincoop]

Hi folks, I purchased a meat grinder last year, I want to get back to using it. I have done beef & pork with it, but now I'm considering grinding turkey.

I'm just wondering if any of you grind your own turkey at home and if you do, if you feel it is worth it and would you be willing to share you technique? Do you partially freeze the meat before grinding? Do you mix white & dark meat, or keep them separate, do you add any kind of fat to the grind?

I did a couple of internet searches, but I did not find a lot of information out there on this topic. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[klflowers]

That is a good question. I have been thinking about grinding some turkey and making breakfast sausage from it. I was thinking partially frozen with white and dark mixed, but I haven't done it yet. Hadn't thought about fat though - I guess you would need to add some.

[Huskee]

Please remember General Discussion is not for food talk, thanks!

[mountainsmoker]

Yes it is easy to do. But you must add fat to make it palatable. My turkey sausage recipe calls for 7.5lbs turkey to 2.5 of fat pork butts. You can then add what ever spices you want. If you don't add the pork the sausage will be very dry. The pork adds very little flavor more like dark meat chicken or turkey. Make sure you get a pork butt that is mainly fat.

[klflowers]

What about beef fat? I have some from my last brisket trim.

[mountainsmoker]

Beef fat is pretty strong flavored, I would not use it. Wait till you get some pork fat trimmings.

[klflowers]

I’ll do that, thanks

[efincoop]

Please remember General Discussion is not for food talk, thanks!

Sorry Huskee I actually started to post where you moved it, but all I saw was recipes. I know now for the next time.

[Huskee]

Mainly recipes if we have any to share, but as the channel name indicates also a variety of Food & Cooking & Technique discussion, which is really the majority of what we end up talking about here. Thank you!

[efincoop]

Thanks mountainsmoker ! I do want to make turkey sausage, but I was also thinking of also making some patties for turkey burgers. Would you use the same turkey to pork ratio minus the spices, or do you think for the patties, you could just do ground turkey on its own?

[mountainsmoker]

You can get by with a little less but remember your best beef hamburger is 80/20 so your want it some where in that range. Figure turkey legs and thighs have about 2-4 percent fat. So go with that and add an other amount to make up the rest.

[Murdy]

I've noticed a lot (if not most) of the commercial, turkey and chicken sausage products mix a little cheese in. ( for example https://www.johnsonville.com/product...w-cheddar.html ). I always assumed this was to up the fat content a bit and improve texture. Just thinking out loud here, but does anybody have any knowledge about this as a technique?

[pkadare]

I don't believe that is the case, in this case, that is simply another flavour of sausage that Johnsonville sells. They carry other flavours of chicken/turkey sausage that are either straight meat, or have other additions for flavour that don't include cheese.

https://www.johnsonville.com/products/smoked-turkey-sausage.html

[mountainsmoker]

efincoop I got to thinking which is dangerous for me. You might want to start with a 90/10 mix of turkey to fat mix and see how that holds together fry it and see how that holds together for you and how the mouth feel is. You can always add more fat but you can't take it away.

[efincoop]

Great idea, thanks mountainsmoker!

[TheBuck]

I grinded fresh turkey from my backyard yesterday and it went well. I grinded them with a kichen aid grinder on my malaxer. It really no fat meat. Ill use it for spaghetti sauce and maybe sausages.

[Fenixrising103]

I just ground some turkey last week for burgers and they came out great. Once the bird was defrosted I gave it a dry brine and left it in the fridge. Then I deboned the breast and thigh meat and saved the wings/drums for the smoker. I chilled the meat and Kitchenaid grinder. I used the medium grind and added some mozzarella shreds an egg and some breadcrumbs. I made the patties and cooked several to try. Juicy and flavorful to say the least. I asked my son to take a photo but he was too busy wolfing down the burger.

[Brewmaster]

What a turkey

[mountainsmoker]

Yes you added the egg and bread crumbs as a binder instead of adding extra fat, so it should work out the same as the egg is your added fat.