Did you ever wonder how ground beef is made? We eat a lot of ground beef in hamburgers, meatloaf, and other dishes every year.
In fact, it is the second most popular meat for BBQ.
Here I will answer the question how is ground beef made? I will dig a little deep and give you a step-by-step explanation of the process.
How Is Ground Beef Made Step By Step.
Ground beef can be made at home or in a commercial factory.
Ground Beef At Home
The advantage of grinding your own hamburgers at home is that you decide what type of meat you use and what the fat-to-meat ratio is.
All you need is some type of grinder which can range from a hand grinder or an electric one attached to your home mixer to a special meat grinder.
In my opinion, the special meat grinder works the best but for most of us, the cost is not worth the investment unless you will use it a lot.
- Make sure that all your equipment and meat are as cold as possible.
I speak out of my own experience that this a must to avoid your/ grinder from clogging up and your meat turning into mush.
- Grind your meat a little coarse the first time
The reason for this is also to avoid your home grinder from having to work too hard and get warm. Store it cool until you go to the next step.
- Grind it the second time.
This is most of the time also the last grinding and makes your ground beef ready to use or freeze.
Commercially Ground Beef.
Although the steps are the same the process is completely automated for a large amount of meat that is processed.
Here are the steps on how commercial ground beef is made.
- Beef trimmings come into the factory
These trimmings come from all kinds of cuts such as roast, tenderloin, and more that are too small to be sold on their own.
- The trimmings go into the first coarse grinder after being inspected for pathogens.
After this initial grinding, the beef is tested for the fat-to-meat ratio.
- The second grinding is done.
This second grinding is the size of the hamburger meat you buy in your grocery store.
- Now the patties are shaped and run through the packaging machine.
The size and packaging are depending where the meat will be shipped to.
Although I tried to explain it as well as I can a video can do it much better than I can.
Types Of Ground Beef.
As mentioned in the video and as we all know there are several types of ground beef and here are some of the most used ones and the fat-to-meat ratios.
- 70% lean / 30% fat
- 80% lean / 20% fat (best for grilling hamburgers)
- 85% lean / 15% fat (best for moink balls)
- 90% lean / 10% fat
5% lean / 10% fat
How Ground Beef Is Made – My Opinion.
Although I sometimes grind my own beef it is time-consuming and if you have to buy the meats it can also be a little expensive. So, most of the time I buy it at the store or I order my ground beef online and have it shipped to my home.
it is also important to use the right meat-to-fat ratio for the recipe you are cooking.
In general, I use 80% meat/ 20% fat the most since it is not too fat and not too lean.
I prefer to use grass-fed beef and if you like to know why you can read my article on grass-fed beef for the grill for the answer.
Eddie van Aken.
Eddie van Aken has years of experience in running his full-service restaurant and with this came working with using and dealing with all types of kitchen equipment. With his experience, he can find all the pros and cons of grills and add them to the grill reviews he is doing. You can read more on the about page for Eddie van Aken