Thread: Economics of your own meat grinder

Originally Posted by MB

How's the grinder going @Flyblown? I'm thinking of buying one. Cheers.

For what it's worth. A mate bought a similar one. Works mint. We ended up mincing a few fallow front legs. Really useful as we were going to end up with a heap of chuck steak.

Transforms goats too. A strong enough sauce and you can substitute the goat mince for pretty much anything.

Haven't tried sausages yet.

Yup, use ours regularly. A lot of venison goes through it, all the quality mince for our consumption and all the scraps for dog food too. Good machine.

I have the Kenwood one and use it a lot (good machine).
Make patties 50/50 ven/tame pork. The local supermarket often has pork specials $5 kg, so I stock up.
Have made sausages which were edible but didnt look that flash.
Nowadays I just drop the mince mixture to the butcher to be made into sausages and salami.

Originally Posted by gimp

Deer (or other game meat excluding pork) fat doesn’t taste good. A proper burger (in my opinion, and I’m something of an enthusiast) contains only meat and seasoning, the meat ideally with something like a 20% fat content. Venison isn’t ideal, need to add fat. I haven’t managed to find a good source for fat to add to venison mince but I haven’t tried too hard yet. So I just buy beef mince for burgers.

I got some done recently and they added some mutton for fat. Sausages were best I've had in a while.

if you chopped the legs off a cow would it be ground beef or a ranch slider ?

Originally Posted by sako75

We use venison mince in lasagne and to be honest couldn’t tell the difference from beef
I think meat patties are the way to go with minced venison

Just finishing off a pile of lasagne made with veni mince.

I borrowed a George Foreman mincer with a sausage mince attachment, and was choosy what bits I fed through it, mindful of @Tahr's comment that silver skin burns them out over time.

Nicest mince and lasagne I have cooked so far.

Originally Posted by gonetropo

if you chopped the legs off a cow would it be ground beef or a ranch slider ?

Both. .........did I win a prize for guessing right?

Finally got the grinder in question and done our first batch of venison burgers. First impressions are good

We use Glenn Morris of BackRidgeButcher fame and always ask for double fat on our venison sausages. I do not ask what Pixie Dust he uses but they are mouth watering and with Watties Tomato sauce, bacon, eggs, buttered bread and Nespresso coffee it is very hard to get up from the table.

Thanks to @Flyblown I just put 3 more reds and a bit of fallow into my freezer too but due to time restraints with work I opted for my local butcher to make most of the sausages this time.
Steaked up all the back straps and the best of the hind quarters and all the fore quarters, hind quarter offcuts and various other trimmings went to mince and sausages.
Happy national vegans day!

Geez, a bit flasher than my handmincer. Hmmm, might be time to trade up. I shoot a fair few bunnies so maybe some more rabbit mince. I reckon fatty bacon or cheese would be a good source of fat.

What about manual meat grinders? I hate anything with LCD screens or other gadgetry that will break. It’s much more profitable than electric grinders(25-50 average price) and no electricity needed. We bought our Kitchen basics 3 years ago on Amazon and still actively use it without any prob's

A decent manual grinder is all good until you have X number of Kgs to do regularly. Proper quality ones are ridiculously expensive also.

Like 3-4 times the price of my cheepo electric one that has been going strong for years with hundreds of kilos through it no drama.

But yes they have their place and there is always the almost cathartic part of hand cranking a mincer.

Fat from deer oxidises rapidly and gives the meat a rancid flavour. That is why most guides don't recommend its use. It will occur in storage in the freezer quite quickly. Best to use / mix pork or beef fat at 25-30% for sausages, a bit less for burgers. i like to buy those bulk packs of bacon and grind then into the venison for burgers. Mutton flaps will also work but flavour can be a bit strong.

No fat of any kind gets wasted at our house. I have a good 50kg or so in the freezer. Game fat like deer fat is extemely good for you, the more yellow the better. Grazing animals eat herbs and mixed fodder and store nutrients in their fat, some of which are hard to come by. Good for old knees. Render it and it will keep well.

I just butchered a prime cow. 600kg+ animal. Instead of having the butcher do it I did it myself and we bought a mincer and sausage maker. Wife can do small goods.

She tracked down this as supposedly the best for game meat, it has a metal gearbox and they ship to NZ.
https://www.luvele.com.au/collections/meat-grinders

She will make sausages and burger patties. Everything will get broke down, even the bone marrow.

She can also make salamis but demands a sellar. I'm thinking about a small cob room. Might work.