Meat Grinding Question

[jlazar]

I am going to purchase the Kitchenaid meat grinder attachment. My first two uses will be to grind brisket to make brisket burgers (at HEB these are $6-7/lb). And to grind pork shoulder to make breakfast sausages.

For those of you who do this also, what is a recommended percent fat content for brisket and for pork sausage.

There is plenty of fat on a brisket, but less on a pork shoulder. Can you use the brisket fat mixed with the pork to make breakfast sausage?

Would appreciate any other advice/comments based on your experience. I know to freeze the meat and grinder parts before use, but that's about it.

[STEbbq]

For burgers, I would do a 80/20 ratio. For sausage, 70/30. And yes, you can use brisket fat for sausage.

Meathead has a good guide for the KA attachment here.

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/sausage-recipes/science-sausage-making-pictures/

[jlazar]

Thank you.

[texastweeter]

Spot on

[Andrrr]

For beef the 80/20 recommendation is what I use.

I grind pork shoulders for bulk Italian sausage but I've never measured the meat/fat ratio. Those seem to have so much fat in and on them that it always just seems to work out well. Highly scientific, I know. Before I start packaging it up though I'll fry a little bit of it to make sure I have everything right

[Jerod Broussard]

We grind up straight pork butt for sausage.

I've got 6 pounds of 50/50 bacon-ends and deer that was ground Sunday. You could easily go 70 deer 30 bacon-ends on that stuff. I kept it loose to use for chili, burgers, and meatloaf.

[JeffJ]

For burgers I usually use chuck. Normally, I will grind a pound of the leanest parts to be vac-sealed and frozen for weeknight taco meat or maybe weeknight chili. for burgers I like a blend that is closer to 75/25 than 80/20. Start with slightly bigger patties. These next two steps are critical to taking your burger to the next level IMO:
1. Pack and form the patties as loosely as possible - the resulting texture is so rich and supple.
2. Put them into the cooker as cold as possible - partially frozen on the outside layers is optimal.

Then cook them somewhat slowly and that higher fat content melts and flavors the meat and the loosely packed burger tightens just enough to be cohesive and has such a luxurious texture - melts in the mouth.

I made burgers from a brisket flat once and they were great.

[JCBBQ]

When I'm cooking smash burgers often I'll grind up picanha and then add some of the fat cap ground in there. I don't know what the ratio is but it's definitely at least 70-30 - could be 65/35 The extra fat is amazing bc those smashburgers are Maillard Heaven.

Play around with it. See what you like.

[JoeSousa]

When I grind burgers I will usually grind up some brisket trimmings with my chuck roast. I will usually do a pound of brisket trimmings for 4 or 5 pounds of chuck so it probably makes it a 60/40 or 65/35 blend.

The Kitchen Aid attachment does OK for some occasional grinding but it takes quite a while to get through 10 pounds of meat. I have been planting the seeds with my wife of my need for a bigger meat grinder so we will see what happens. Realistically a .5 hp model will probably be more than I need but the 1 hp models are pretty sweet.

[jfmorris]

jlazar when I first got my metal Kitchenaide grinder I chopped an entire butt up into little cubes, mixed it around with breakfast sausage seasoning per a recipe on the free side, and ground it up. I then formed it into little logs like breakfast sausage comes in, and froze them rolled up in zip lock bags. Worked well, but it was definitely on the lean side for sausage - very little fat would cook out in the skillet, but it had a great flavor, and I would do it again. And it was easy to pull a bag from the freezer, saw off patties, and toss them in a skillet.

It think the amount of fat on a typical brisket would work well for a 80/20 grind. I did it recently with trimmings from a chuck roll, and was happy with the results.

[jfmorris]

@jlazer it’s been 2 years but I think I liked the recipe just fine, but I recall not having sage or some such spice, and substituting rosemary, which made for a bit different flavor profile. I won’t do that sub again!

[HotSun]

Thanks jfmorris for the post. I just picked up a full butt, about 22 pounds, @ $1/lb and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it, smoke it or turn it into breakfast sausage. I wasn't sure it was the right cut of meat I already have a bunch of pulled pork in the freezer. Maybe I will split the difference and smoke half.

[jfmorris]

HotSun I liked the sausage. As I said, it was pretty low fat, but if you mix in a spice mix you like, I think it will be good.