Burger Blends

[SierraBBQGuy]

Been researching burger blend recipes. Kenji at Serious Eats is always on of my go to’s for things like this.
Found this excellent article on different cuts, also his suggested blend. I’m definitely gonna try this one, anyone else here tried it?

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-burger-lab-best-burger-blend-profiles-of-eight-cuts-of-beef

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-blue-label-burger-blend-recipe

[holehogg]

Thanks for posting.

[SierraBBQGuy]

I’ve found lots of recipes using Brisket, short rib and sirloin. This one replaces the short rib with ox tail. Seems like a great idea.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Couple older topics on custom blends:

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/the-pit-mastery-program/hamburgers/1081124-custom-grind-burger-blend

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/the-pit-mastery-program/hamburgers/1055884-what-mix-for-ribeye-and-ground-beef-best-custom-blend

I recently just made a 66% bison / 33% ground beef burger that was ridiculously good. I have had brisket burgers too and I don’t think they are worth it.

[RichieB]

I do brisket and short ribs blend. Then just chuck. The ox tail looks interesting. Thanks for the post.

[smokin fool]

My only experience with ox tail has been through Jamaican cooking and the superlatives given in that article are spot on.
Rice n beef n peas, beef being ox tail and peas being red kidney beans, is outstanding.
The ox tail gives it a depth of beefiness you can't find in other beef dishes.

[RichieB]

My wife uses it in her Thanksgiving sauce. Pork ribs, sweet sausage, braciole and oxtail.

[MBMorgan]

I have settled on grinding just chuck-eye steak for burgers. They can be hard to find but fortunately there's a good butcher in town that usually keeps some in stock so I'm able to grab a couple once in a while to keep frozen until SWMBO decides it's time to thaw, grind, and grill (or griddle).

[rickgregory]

The oxtail is tasty and unctuous, but a complete PITA to trim of its meat. It's be fun to try but I think a chuck/short rib combo is fine.

Last year I grabbed various high end ground burger blends, grilled them and as I noted in that thread, it's honestly hard to tell the difference in burger since you add condiments, cheese etc.

Having compared 70/30 blends with 80/20 and, once, 90/10 (just.. no) I really think the fat percentage has a much larger influence on burger meat than anything else. Probably the best ground beef I've ever had was raised at a small farm near here (https://www.seabreeze.farm/homepage) and between the quality of the meat, the influence of the feed etc and the 70/30 ratio... it was sublime. It's also $18/lb, so...

[Mr. Bones]

I generally use Chuck, sometimes add Short Rib or Brisket, when conditions an logistics permit...

[TripleB]

I just use Chuck. It has the right fat to meat ratio for me.

[gboss]

Those prices are hilarious right about now. $4/lb for oxtail? $5/lb for short ribs? If only.

Oxtail has been $9.99-12.99/lb when I've seen it recently. Crazy prices. And rickgregory is completely right. It's a total PITA to work with if you're trying to take the meat off when raw. I love Jamaican oxtail and I've made Japanese tail soup a few times, but it's just hard to justify at that price..

[rickgregory]

Kenji's post was published.... about 2010 I think? So the prices are way out of date.

[SierraBBQGuy]

Ok, so I did some more reading in the comments on this recipe. Seems everyone is in agreement, removing the meat from the oxtail is tedious at best, a pain in the butt. Kenji’s solution, just use boneless short rib Instead, LOL. So my first try here will be 1/3 each sirloin, brisket (or chuck) and short rib. I see many recipes using sirloin, didn’t know why, but he found the moisture held together better. In some of my past burger grinds, I did notice they fell apart quite easily.

[JeffJ]

Honestly I almost exclusively use ground Chuck. I grind it myself and I’ll make sure that the ratio is 75/25. The rest of the ground Chuck will end up about 85/15 which I’ll vac seal and freeze in 1 or 2 pound increments for weeknight tacos, weeknight chili, etc.