Making My Own Mince

Dad joke alert: 

How does Lady GaGa like her meat? Raw raw ra-a-a-ah.

I finally got a mincer! I've been wanting one for ages, and finally found one at a reasonable price. It is made of cast-iron, quite heavy and sturdy. From the look of it, it should last for years. It is also surprisingly strong, and cranking the handle to make the mince wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined.

For the first recipe, making mince for burgers seemed smart. So I got sirloin steak and Kalahari steak from Spar because of its nice marbling. In total, it was around 1.3 kg of meat. I cut the meat into cubes so it would fit into the mincer funnel easily. With the chunks in a bowl, I seasoned them well with garlic powder, dried origanum, and thyme. No-one likes bland burgers, so I made sure the meat was very well seasoned.

Time to crank!

The meat chunks went through easily enough, and I decided to run it all through three times for a finer texture. After everything was a dense texture and looking good, I formed mince balls and flattened them to make patties. These were popped into the fridge for about an hour to ensure they were set.

The burgers were cooked on the Cadac, along with some bacon. Because bacon.

Having all the ingredients ready was key to a smooth production process. The cheese rolls were cut and opened, lettuce was shredded, tomato slices waiting and cheese slices lined up. There was also a little bowl of homemade pickled cucumber slices and slices of avo.

When the patties and bacon were cooked, it was time to assemble.

Bottom bun on plate, then shredded lettuce, tomato slices, burger patty, bacon, cheese slice, avo, and top with the bun top.

The burgers were absolutely delicious.

My top Grinder Tips:

I will cut more of the harder fat off the meat and not use it. The marbling in the Kalahari steaks was more than enough to make the burgers juicy. When I used all the fat, it tended to get stuck like weird white fibres in the grinder's plate. Putting through some bread cleaned it pretty effectively. I did get a patty press, but found it had to be sprayed with cooking spray after each patty. As I'm impatient, making big meatballs and flattening them was much quicker. And pretty satisfying to do. :-)

I will definitely be playing around with the grinder some more and trying some potentially yummy experiments. There is still a lot to learn to make the most out of this piece of equipment.  

Of course, I will be totally open and will share my tips and any tricks that I learn. Check for updates!