"Steve Wertz" > wrote:
> The large holed disk is for a coarse grind (often called a chili
> grind). The small holed disk is for a finer grind like you
> associate with supermarket ground beef.
>
> Depending on your grinder and sharpness of the cutting blade, you
> should be able to use just the small plate with one pass for a
> fine grind. Instrcutions for inferior grind3ers will often tell
> you to do two passes, one with the large grind and again with
> either blade depending on your preferred grind.
>
> To help with the sinew issue (and grinding), use partially frozen
> meat (not so frozen that you couldn't cut it with your usual
> knife).
>
> Try sharpening your blade. It helps to make sure your disks are
> ground perfectly flat and have sharp 90-degree corners where the
> holes meet the surface of the disk. If you can get replacements,
> get new stainless steel blades and disks.

I'm not sure if my grinder is inferior or not. I'm sure it's not the
greatest, based on the brand name. It's an Oster, and it's made in Japan.
I'd guess that today Oster stuff is crap, but I'm not sure if that's true of
stuff they made about 40 years ago. The knife and disks don't look too bad
in terms of wear, but maybe they weren't that sharp to begin with.

Partially freezing the meat sounds like a good idea. I'll have to try that.

I'm not sure how much use this meat grinder got from my grandmother. I can
almost guess why she got it. Back in the 1960s, she got an early microwave,
the Radarange by Amana. I remember her showing it to us and cooking with it
in 1968. She cooked hamburgers for us, right on the bun. The flaw in the
plan is the typical ground beef at the market was rather fatty. If your
cooked the hamburger right on the bun, the fat soaked into the bun rather
than draining off. If she ground her own beef, she could make it much lower
in fat content. I suspect this is where the meat grinder came into the
picture.

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