Ground Meat

[Ed C]

Who is grinding up there own elk and venison? Any one? I like beef suet in my elk burger. But it is gumming up my grinder and making things slower. Any hot tips? I just ground up 12lbs. seemed like it took forever probably got 30-40 to go.

[Bushcraft]

Did you freeze the meat and fat that you are intending to grind first?

[Ed C]

Nope. Do you freeze the fat also? I have an electric grinder and it has no trouble with just the meat [unfrozen]. Add the suet and things start gumming up. I'll try freezing.

[Mark]

We ground up a bunch of elk this year. I grind it twice. The first time through is with the coarse grind plate and then again with the fine grind plate. I did not add suet this time but when I do add it, I would add it at the second time through. Even though I am grinding it twice, it does not take twice as long since it goes through so easy.

[Sawtooth]

IRRC, some time back, anthracitic suggested getting the grinder plate REAL cold before sending the semi-frozen meat through.

[rambler_wannabe]

I don't add suet, I buy cheap (fatty) burger or unseasoned pork sausage to add to the mix. Have it darn near frozen--we have a fridge that is set to 30 degrees and that is about perfect IMO.

[Hoogster]

Mark is right on the mark. I do it the same way. Grind both seperately then mix and grind again.

Ed, what percentage of suet are you using? That may affect grinding performance. My uncle was a butcher and did all his own elk using beef suet also.

[Ed C]

Hoogster: I was mixing about 20%. Talked to my meat cuttin buddy, now I'm goin to try 10%. What would you or your uncle suggest?

[Hoogster]

My uncle died a few years ago. I would go with the 10% also.
Did you try the way Mark suggested by grinding seperately first?

[Russ-T]

I’ve never had a problem with my grinder gumming up with suet. Of course 99% of the time I don’t add anything to the meat I’m grinding. My meat is not frozen but it is Very cold so it’s still firm. I normally don’t bother with grinding twice unless I’m adding suet or seasoning for sausages. Make sure your grinding plates and blades are properly mated together. If you are using the same blades with different plates they might not be making good contact which can cause gumming up, especially if you aren’t trimming the sinew off. Are you using an electric or manual grinder? I gave up on the hand crank years ago after one deer. Went out and bought a #32 electric grinder and with four people working it we still can’t cut up and bag as quick as this baby spits out the meat. Well worth the money if you process more than one or two critters a year. Helps me make friends too /images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Rusty