Meat Hacks

How can I Grind Like a Pro at Home?
One of the things we wanted to do when we started Meatgistics and WaltonsTV was to try to help you at home make as good of a product as possible. We talk to a lot of professional processors who do this for a living and we have a lot of people in this building who have a lifetime of experience in the processing business. I wanted to take some time to share some simple things that the pros do that you can apply to your home processing to give you the best finished product possible. The three main things that home processors use in making their products are grinding, mixing and stuffing so we are going to give you some tips on all of those.

Today we are going to focus on grinding and I’ve got 5 good pointers for you.

• 1 Heat is Your Enemy
  Through the grinding process heat is your enemy, you want to do everything you can to keep everything as cold as possible. Commercial processors will put their entire grinder in a walk in cooler, this is probably not possible for you at home but you can put your grinder head and auger in the freezer before you grind to keep the heat down.

• 2 Keep Things Chilled
  Along the same lines you should leave your meat in the cooler until just before you start to grind, the colder your meat is the better. Even if it has a few ice crystals it will grind a lot faster and easier than a warmed up product will.

• 3 Sharp Plates and Knives
  Commercial processors also make sure that their plates and knives are in good shape before grinding. You can do the same by holding your plate up and look across the surface, if you see any waves or a groove along the side where the knife has eaten away the surface then use a difference plate and knife. If you don’t have a different plate order one for your next grind. Do the same with your knife, make sure the edges are sharp, if you use a dull knife it is going to smear and heat your product.

• 4 Check for Damage
  Plates and knives can crack and once they do it creates all sorts of problems, visually inspect both before you use them. Tap the side of the plate if it rings like a bell then it is good, if you hear a thunk or chunk then you might have a fault in it somewhere and it shouldn’t be used.

• 5 White Oil on Everything
  There is a reason we sell a lot of white oil to commercial processors, they use it to lubricate everything. We say it all the time but it’s worth repeating, oil your plates and knives before you start your grinder. If you do not lubricate them you are going to have metal on metal which will create friction and friction causes heat which will damage your product and remember, heat is the enemy during this stage.

We will be back in a later video showing you some things you can do to mix like a pro.

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