GYO burgers
We now have a meat grinding attachment for our stand mixer! Below are our notes for various combos of meat that we've ground together to make burgers.
| Date | Split | Notes |
| 1/10/26 | 1.11 lbs / 39% top round .87 lbs / 31% brisket .85 lbs / 30% ox tail | Chose this combo under Kenji's advice to use equal parts sirloin, brisket, and ox tail. Accidentally bought top round instead of sirloin; we think (?) they're pretty similar cuts anyways.
The ox tail was a pain to cut off the bone. A pairing knife was the best tool for this.
Used the coarsest grinding plate of the three that our grinder came with.*
Flavor: tasty! (Shocker.) Definitely more flavorful and "beefy" than store-bought ground meat. I think I liked the flavor coming from the brisket in particular.
Texture: I think good ? I did notice there were more chunks of fat in the burgers than with regular ground meat, but I didn't mind that. I don't think these burgers were necessarily fattier than others, but the fat was more concentrated in the oxtail parts of the meat. The brisket and top round are both comparatively leaner. Jackson thinks that the burgers were in aggregate leaner than usual, noting that there was less grease in the skillet than usual after we finished cooking. He may be right about that.
What will we try differently next time? I think the oxtail was a poor choice for this. It's a pain to cut off the bone. It has a lot of flavor and fat, but the fat didn't break down well. Next time, I'd be up for trying a combo with just two cuts. Maybe (1) brisket and (2) chuck (or some other cut that's fattier than brisket, and has a comparatively milder flavor). Jackson and I were both happy with the coarse grind setting, but would be open to trying the medium-level of coarseness.
* The day after writing this post , I noticed that the user guide for our meat grinder recommends the coarsest plate for burgers. |
General guidelines for meat grinding
- Everything should be cold. Cut the beef into cubes ahead of time and give it plenty of time to chill in the fridge. The meat grinding attachment can be stored in the freezer on the day of meat grinding so that it's cold.
- If grinding multiple cuts of meat together, make sure the different cuts are well-mixed BEFORE running them through the grinder. Ideally, the various cuts should be thoroughly combined as soon as they're cubed, right before being chilled. That way, the different cuts of meat are well-incorporated as soon as they're ground. We found that mixing the meats together after they were ground resulted in over-handling the ground meat, which compromised its texture.
- You want the meat-grinding process to move quickly so that the meat doesn't get too warm, which can lead to textural problems. To this end, the internet suggests running your stand mixer at a high-ish level of 6-8 while grinding the meat.