Anyone grind their own meats?

[BBBunny]

We're trying to eat healthier and I'm appalled at the prices of the so-called "Lean" ground meats. I have my grandmother's old KitchenAid mixer and finally bought the meat grinding attachment ($40+tax @ LnT after 20%off coupon:) ). Today I bought boneless Full Cut Round Steak @ $1.59/lb, trimmed and ground it up and probably ended up with at least 95% lean ground beef for less than $2/lb. I plan to do this with pork and chicken too. I also want to get the sausage stuffer attachment to make my own brats, italian sausage etc.

I'm just wondering if anyone else does this and what kind of savings you see.

Also, any great sausage recipes would be welcomed!

Thanks!

[nanajoanie]

All I ever used my meat grinder for was leftoever roasts to mix with mayo and pickle relish for lunchmeat. Gave it away several years ago and don't need it as a single person for as little as I eat.

Good for you trying to grind your own meats to have a healthy diet.

[onfire4god57]

We not only grind our on meat, but we also raise it ourselves, cows, chickens, goats, ducks, turkeys, hogs, just to name a few.

I will get a recipe together for you for your sausage. But I did want to tell you, when you grind your beef, you really don't want to take off all the fat from it. It's ok, if you're using it to make chili, tacos, something that you're breaking up the ground beef. But if you're making hamburger patties, if you don't have a certain amount of fat in it, your burgers will be real dry, and you'll have a hard time keeping them together when you cook them, they have a tendancy to fall apart without the fat.

[BBBunny]

Wow onfire4god57, I live in a townhouse, at this point there's no way I could have that much influence on my meats-kudos to you!

For my burgers I do mince up onions and mushrooms and add a little olive oil and egg white to the mixture to keep them from falling apart and being too dry.

nanajoanie, did you make a kind of deviled-meat spread? Yum! I hadn't thought of that.

[mirage7000]

We not only grind our on meat, but we also raise it ourselves, cows, chickens, goats, ducks, turkeys, hogs, just to name a few.

I will get a recipe together for you for your sausage. But I did want to tell you, when you grind your beef, you really don't want to take off all the fat from it. It's ok, if you're using it to make chili, tacos, something that you're breaking up the ground beef. But if you're making hamburger patties, if you don't have a certain amount of fat in it, your burgers will be real dry, and you'll have a hard time keeping them together when you cook them, they have a tendancy to fall apart without the fat.

Wow! It took me awhile just getting used to eating deer. Don't really know if I raised animals if I could eat them though. Nope I honestly couldn't on second thought! Just curious don't you get emotionally attached? Maybe it's different where you live. I guess I'm used to going to the store and buying it there.

[Willow]

When I was little my mother had a meat grinder that she hooked up to the side of the counter. She never ground her own meat but she used it for leftovers to make hash or something like that. If I lived on a farm I would also think of the animals as pets. They would all have names and I wouldn't be able to kill them. LOL

[DBackFan]

We also raise our own animals and use our own meat. Its the only safe way to eat it...you know what they have eaten and what they have been given. Animals are injected with so many disgusting things anymore. Our beef, pork and chicken is the best. I do not grind our own though I have a butcher take care of the slaughter and the cutting and wrapping.

The kids love having the animals especially the chickens, oh we get lots of fresh eggs too!

[mirage7000]

When I was little my mother had a meat grinder that she hooked up to the side of the counter. She never ground her own meat but she used it for leftovers to make hash or something like that. If I lived on a farm I would also think of the animals as pets. They would all have names and I wouldn't be able to kill them. LOL

I think I would jump off a cliff first! I guess for some people that they are raised to do it. Not saying anything bad! I think I'm gonna stick to veggies! If anyone wants to loose weight read this post! I definitely lost my appetite for meat.

[onfire4god57]

We don't slaughter our cows or hogs ourselves, they are taken to the butcher, but at times I do grind beef, especially if we're running low on burger. And I do make my own sausage. It's always the best because you put in just the right amount of spices to suit the tastes of your family. Sausage from a store is sometimes (most times) is too bland. Now we do cure and smoke our own hams and bacon.

Dbackfan is so correct, we know what our animals eat, which makes it much safer.

As far as the animals being pets. Well we do name some of them, and yes cows usually get named, but even growing up my kids knew that it was being raised to eat. But most of the animals like ducks certain rabbits, things like that we name are pets and they don't get eaten.

My kids grew up knowing that meat doesn't come packaged in a store. They also grew up knowing that as long as there was a chicken running around in the yard, they would never go hungry. And I hope that they will continue with the same traditions as they grew up knowing. Too many city kids don't really get to know alot of things.

And yes, going out every morning and collecting eggs is still a joy and they are so good and fresh.

And having new little babies running around whether it be baby ducks or chicks or rabbits or goats or whatever is always fun. And watching the births is still interesting no matter how many you go through