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down_home
Explorer II
Dec 13, 2013

Gound meaat

Went with the Wife to store, today. Went Sams Club. She waanted hamburger meat. Went over to select a chuck roast and have ti ground coarse.
"Butcher" said he couldn't do it. Policy won't allow it.
He said the tubes of of beef, in one corner, of the case come coarse ground. They take tubes from the case, in back and grind them again, for the pkgs on display. The beef in the tubes looked almost black. he said they were vacuum packed and when opened turn red. It is coarse ground.
The reason was so they could track the meat if someone got salmonella or mad cow. Each tube has a code on and the pkgs have that code. That means imo the meat is never fresh and accounts for why when you get a pkg of meat and often times find it dark inside. It may be who knows how old. I thought I bough a fresh chuck and had it ground two weeks ago at another store. He brought it from, in back and I couldn't see him grind it. Wife said it didn't taste good to her.
I don't know when they started this and if it is all beef supplies or all stores.
It won't stop mad cow as it is there from the get go. They still feed junk to cows. They still sell old dairy cows ground up as ground beef.
So it appears, out of self defense, we need to buy a meat grinder. We have a 50 year old small one from Wife's Mom but it now larger than the new Chinese junk.
ow about grinder attachment for the Kitchen Aid or a larger hand operated grinder(American made) or something else?

44 Replies

  • Walmart deals with vacuum packaged meat that comes into the stores frozen and is then thawed to put in the cases. You may pick up a vacuum packed meat package and it will look dark. When the package is opened and air gets to the meat it "blooms" (turns red). I agree about not knowing what is in the ground. I have watched Meijer grind and package meat in their stores and picked up some of that when it was put in the case. Same with our local Kroger or the local little town grocery store.
  • how are the grinders that you can get with the kitchen aid products
  • I have the kitchen aid grinder we grind tons of meat.
  • You are dead on, O.P.!

    First thing to know about the ground beef you buy in most stores is that it's all from used-up dairy cows. And it's from EVERY PART of the cow that couldn't be carved off the bones and labeled as something else. That's why it tastes different from fresh-ground table-beef chuck, for example....and also the reason it's so risky in terms of contaminants like E-coli. The meat in that tube can have come from the mix of scraps from hundreds of cows, and every step in that process is an opportunity for pathogens to be introduced.

    I won't buy such "beef", unless for something that's going to be cooked to death like spaghetti sauce, tacos, or meat loaf.

    For pure patties/steaks/tartare, I insist on fresh-ground from identifiable cuts off a TABLE BEEF BREED.

    Walmart may be an exception in the "we won't grind" department...my local Safeway/QFC/Fred Meyer's/Albertsons all have butchers that will grind any beef cut to one's specifications. Look around locally- not every chain follows Walmart's lead.

    For home grinding, here's my experience:
    I used to have an oldie like you describe and it worked great. Thinking I'd like something more "powerful", I discarded it in favor of a big ol' honkin' unit from Cabela's that looked really impressive.

    But it turned out LOUSY ground beef. Unlike the older unit, which had blades that really cut the meat, the newer unit sort of squished/extruded it in a sort of unpalatable mush. Yuck!

    If you're satisfied with the look/feel of the grind you're getting from the old unit, hang on to it!