Grinding Meat w/Vita-Mix

I know that we have several Vita-Mix owners on the board, so I thought I would get some feedback.

Anyone ever grind meat with their Vita-Mix, and if so do you have any tips you could share? I bought some sirloin and boneless short ribs for the express purpose of grinding in the VM. My initial thought was to cube up and toss in the freezer for a bit first, and then grind away. I’m guessing small batches at a medium speed should do the trick.

ah! let me know how that goes! am planning on making chorizo with my Dad’s recipe.

Ooh, homemade chorizo! Share the recipe?

I made myself chorizo con huevos for Father’s Day breakfast yesterday. The chorizo was just okay and I’d love to make my own.

There’s a video on the Vita-mix site that shows it grinding meat, but it seems to me like a bad way to do it.

First of all, it beats the crap out of the meat. When we grind meat at home, we use a KA grinder attachment and handle the meat as little as possible so it’s not over-worked. Of course, if you try it, I’ll be very interested to hear about it!

Second of all, you can’t put the Vita-mix container in the dishwasher. I suppose you could boil soapy water in there with a few minutes on “high” to clean it, but I really prefer to use dishwasher-safe (or dedicated) tools for raw meat.

Bob, I’ll send that to you this week.

I saw that video as well, and I don’t think that’s how I would do it.

After poking around other VM communities, I think the best approach is to work in small batches: take semi-frozen cubes of meat and put them in the container. Turn the VM to HIGH and then pulse about 3 times. Anything more than that and you end up with meat mush.

I don’t have a dedicated grinder, nor do I have the grinding attachment for my KitchenAid, so I really want to give this a go to see how it turns out. I will probably use boiling water just to be safe when I clean. I’ll try to document this as best as I can.

I took some pictures of this, but they turned out pretty lousy as I couldn’t figure out how to turn the flash off on my old point and shoot camera.

I cubed the sirloin and short rib, bagged them up in ziplocs and put them in the freezer for about 90m. I took a small handful of each and then pulsed on HIGH in the VM maybe 4-5 times. The net result was a really coarse mix that I was pretty pleased with. Next time I do this, I think I will make sure that all of the pieces are frozen solid and then thaw to the right temperature first. Some of the cubes that were just really cold as opposed to frozen needed a few more pulses. I made sliders with the meat, and they were delicious with just a little salt and pepper.

In retrospect, I would probably never go this route if I had access to a meat grinder and certainly not with better meat. But, I would definitely do this again with some USDA Choice Costco meat (which is what I used) over buying the bulk stuff. The wife asked if this was cheaper, which it obviously isn’t, but it tastes better and I know exactly what I’m eating! This works for me until I can source a good grinder or buy the KitchenAid accessory.

Thanks for reporting back, Kent. Costco chuck makes damn good burgers! I originally assumed it would be cheaper to buy whole meat than pre-ground meat, but it just doesn’t matter. Knowing what you’re eating is definitely worth the premium.

Coincidentally, we’re making sliders tomorrow night with a Williams-Sonoma slider press that the kids (so selflessly’!) bought Steve for F-Day. What did you use for buns?

I agree on the Costco ground chuck…but sometimes I really want some ground sirloin and they don’t grind anything but chuck. Maybe if you ask them, but I’d rather just do my own. I was curious about the short ribs more than anything.

I have used that same W-S slider press several times lately and it works great! For buns, I have usually gone with a package of dinner rolls and then sliced then, but they are usually just a little too big. Last night, I found a package of sliced sheet buns that look like they were made just for sliders. I’ve never seen them before, but they were just the right size.

I have used the Costco short ribs for burgers with excellent results…

Is that mustard on that burger? How disgusting!

Dijon to be exact…way better than any mayo product.

LOL! The ever-present Daisy tub!!

[rofl.gif]

The only way to roll…

The last batch i ground was equal parts chuck and sirloin and about 15% brisket. Yum!!!

Used the KA attachment

Why would one use a $400 machine to grind meat - a use for which it is not intended - when for $30 or so you could have one of these old reliables? Or $50 for the Kitchen Aid attachment?

I am sure you could make macaroni and cheese in a rice cooker . . .but why?

Exactly! [suicide.gif]

Tex, while you are indisputably the king of un-ground meat, that ground beef looks overworked to me both in the bowl and in the raw patties. In our experiments, we’ve gotten the best texture from ground beef we barely touch. We grind it into a bowl, toss (never mash or compress) with copious amounts of salt and pepper, place it into mounds, and then very gently form lacy patties. The more I touch/compress the beef, the more I see a drop in quality of the final product.

there was the video with keller where he just took a knife to a sirloin and made that into a burger. Sounds good!