LOL

I'm lovin' my little grinder. I picked up some beef stew meat for $4.99lb (7bone chuck was $5.49/lb? cheaper to get stew meat w/no bones?) and ground it all up. One thing that I never understood is when you buy ground beef in the store, it's all pink & purdy on the outside, but the second you break it apart, the inside is usually grey/brown unless you're buying that pink slime icky stuff in the rolls. How is the outside all pink & the inside.. well, not? if it's not treated, shouldn't it ALL be the same color? I noticed that my ground beef was a deep deep burgundy everywhere. But one thing I didn't think about was the fat content.. or lack of! The ground beef I ended making was like 97%.. which means it cooked WAY faster than I was expecting and would be crappy for burgers on the grill. I'd have to mix in stuff to make sure that it stayed in form!

Interesting. I always just figured they ground up chuck steak but maybe better not to know what they do since I use ground beef often.

I'm pretty sure they just add fat to it.

Whose fat?

I would think they would add beef fat to it. The fat trimmings off of all the other meat.

We slaughtered our other pig yesterday. Took the whole day and ended with 30lb bacon, 35lb ham, 14lb canadian bacon, plus about 50lb to be made into sausage. Also a whopping 6 gallons of fat to be rendered into lard!!

I had some local master gardeners come and witness the slaughter and they took a lot of photos and maybe some video. I'm going to ask them if they could give me a copy so I can share the photos here.

I don't use much beef any more, but when I do, I get Grass fed beef. Mostly I use ground turkey or chicken in place of it. Trying to avoid the cholesterol as much as possible. I sure do miss a nice steak now and then, once in a while I allow myself some. Dave have you ever rendered the lard in a Nesco roaster? It works great, and you can do a large amount at a time. We used to butcher two hogs every fall, and my mother would use the Nesco to render the lard. Made quicker work of it. Also can control the temp nicely. I can still taste the cracklings!

Rita - I know it's not whole steak but bits & pieces of trimmings that they can't make into stew or stirfry packages.

Skiekitty said:Rita - I know it's not whole steak but bits & pieces of trimmings that they can't make into stew or stirfry packages.

Oh that makes sense. And so does that they would add beef fat.

dave said:We slaughtered our other pig yesterday. Took the whole day and ended with 30lb bacon, 35lb ham, 14lb canadian bacon, plus about 50lb to be made into sausage. Also a whopping 6 gallons of fat to be rendered into lard!!

I had some local master gardeners come and witness the slaughter and they took a lot of photos and maybe some video. I'm going to ask them if they could give me a copy so I can share the photos here.

That would be interesting to see. Must have been a lot of work to get it all done.

I always use a stock pot but the nesco roaster sounds like a good idea!

porkpal said:Whose fat?

Me!! This is one of my fav. t-shirts.

https://www.lolshirts.com/shir...

That would be: "who's" fat. - but I like it!

We buy our ground beef from a company called Zaycon Foods. You sign up, they post "events" and you buy it online. They bring in a truck and you pick it ip in a parking lot. 97/3 lean and extra fine gound. Have to buy 40 lbs. at a time but we divide it up and freeze it. We get our chicken from them too. Best chicken we've ever had. For those of us who cannot raise our own.

The pork, especially the bacon and canadian bacon sounds wonderful, Dave! Hope we get to see some photos.

OH my. Don't know what I would do with 40 pounds. Way, way too much.

Arlene, that looks really interesting. Can't store more than 40# anyway. Im hoping they add more cities close by, as i cant get to tyler by 8AM.
What is a patio steak?
Have you tried the salmon filets?

Yes, we're lucky there are several places fairly close and since we're retired, we can do any time.

Don't know what a patio steak is. Have not tried the salmon. We have gotten chicken, ground beef, bacon and ham. All good stuff!

I get ground round usually 40 or 50 pounds at a time from my friend that has the meat store/deli. She double grinds it and puts it in 5 pound bags.

I need to get some chicken breast from her again..........no additives at all, but it's kinda pricey.

Good deal. We used to have a great butcher shop but they are disappearing. Zaycon chicken has no additives either. One of the reasons we buy from them.