"Becca" > wrote in message
...
> Steve Pope wrote:
>> Bob Muncie > wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Omelet wrote:
>>>
>>
>>
>>>> I've been playing with sausage recipes lately as it's FAR cheaper to
>>>> make my own, and I can control the amount of salt and fat in it.
>>>>
>>
>>
>>>> I have 4 successful recipes if anyone is interested. 2 for "breakfast"
>>>> sausage and 1 for Italian, and one more recent one for a garlic/basil.
>>>>
>>
>>
>>> I would if I had a grinder, but for the amount of use it would get, and
>>> the space it would take up, I wouldn't buy one.
>>>
>>
>> Most butcher counters will grind up your purchase for you.
>>
>> If they will not, find another butcher...
>>
>> S.
>>
>
> It is easier to get that done at a butcher shop, although you might have
> to wait. Having meat cutters in supermarkets grind your meat, is getting
> more difficult. Due to health concerns, each time they grind meat, they
> have to break the equipment down, wash it with soap and water, then
> sanitize the equipment. When I was a kid, they would grind up a beef
> roast, then grind up a pork shoulder without taking the equipment apart.
>

There are very few butcher shops anymore (a stupidmarket meat department is
not a butcher shop) and of those very few butcher shops that exist it will
be even more difficult to find one that will custom grind anymore, and if
you say you don't use enough ground beef to warrant your buying a meat
grinder then you are certainly not going to find a butcher shop that will
custom grind your mere pittance... they won't even explain, they'll simply
point to the mystery meat in their meat case.

Commercial grinders hold 2-3 pounds of meat in their body, if you ask them
to grind a three pound roast you will not get any of the the meat you chose,
you'll get whatever was left in the hopper from the previous grind, probably
trimmings and scraps from their sale mystery meat... then the butcher will
push out your nice expensive cut that you agonaized over choosing with the
next batch of crap meat, the butcher will bring your good beef home to feed
his family and you will have a couple pounds of freshly ground shit. Plus
when a butcher shop grinds your meat you have no idea what was previously
ground and how long ago... you could well get your beef ground by a machine
that was last used to grind turkey, 3-4 hours ago.


Many years ago when there were several real butcher shops in every
neighborhood houswives would arrive with a dozen slices of stale bread and
an onion or two... with eagle eyes they watched as the butcher ground
several slices of stale bread until they saw the bread come out and then the
butcher would grind the meat they chose, then push through the onion and a
few more slices of bread. This way they got the meat they paid for and with
bread crumbs and chopped onion for whatever they wanted to cook... back then
hardly anyone cooked plain burgers, meat was stretched to make meatballs,
meat loaf, and many versions of fried burgers with filler like salisbury
steak. Back then when I was a tyke my mother could send me up to the corner
butcher with a note on a brown paper bag that said 5 pounds double ground
chuck - LEAN and with the bread and onions... all I had to do was hand the
butcher the bag and say "My mother said". I was five years old but the
magid words "My mother said" was all it took... the buthers all knew their
regular customers, they wouldn't cheat, especially not a kid, or there were
plenty other butcher shops nearby... back then what small supermarkets there
were had no meat department. no produce section either... if they tried the
local butchers and green grocers would literally burn them down... years
passed before the little Key Food markets in Brooklyn developed the cajones
to try.

You're not going to find any butcher that will do that anymore... the ONLY
way to know what/who is in your ground beef is to grind it yourself, there
is no other way... and with your own grinder you know it was scrupulously
clean before you grind. Decent electric home meat grinders are not very
expensive (I own two), I do not recommend a hand cranked grinder, for health
reasons, and they are deadly dangerous.... more then one home cook has lost
the rhythm of cranking with one hand and feeding with the other hand (like
patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time) and has cranked
off their own thumb and a couple of fingers before they even realized, it's
just that fast and you won't feel it right away. And never ever have
children around when grinding (or using any kitchen apparatus), in fact have
no one around to distract you. Electric grinders are much safer because you
only use one hand and the hopper is made tall and narrow so that your
fingers can't go in that far... electric grinders are as safe as using a
chefs knife, actually safer because you'll be using only one hand. A
grinder is a far more useful kitchen tool than a food processor. Don't even
think about a commercial grinder for home use, a little Oster Pro is more
than adequate. You don't want to waste $50 on the toys r us KA attachment
either... it's not about the price of that toy, it's about all the dollars
worth of meat you'll ruin, that thing doesn't grind, it smears, it produces
playdough.