Making beef sticks, I've found it useful to grind my own meat so for better control of fat/meat ratio, etc... However, if you're going the 100% beef route, it can get costly if you do your own grind. The best deal I've been able to find are these packer briskets from costco for $4/lb. As I'm on about my tenth brisket now, I thought I'd share my approach in case it's helpful for any newbies or in case any of the experts can chime in and point out what I'm doing wrong to help me do it better ;)
Most of the videos I've seen involve folks getting chunks of fat and chunks of meat and using those to get a certain ratio of fat to meat. I've had terrible experiences grinding pure fat in my poor little kitchenaid adapter, so I'd rather not do that. Instead, I seek to create strips of meat that can be fed in that have that ratio already.
So first, I just unwrap the brisket and let it drain for a few minutes in my sink. I take quick slice of fat off the point and a quick slice off the flat, both very light cuts. Then I put the whole brisket on a cutting board and let it sit in my freezer uncovered for 45 minutes:
While it's firming up in the freezer, I sharpen or hone my long 14" slicing knife. Once it's firmed up, I point to flat with about 3/4" inch thickness.
This leaves me with something like this:
After cutting vertically, I cut the fat out of each big slice so it's about 30%. The idea is that you can visually look at each slice and pretty much get that 30/70 fat/meat ratio by grinding the whole slice, or by cutting a vertical portion of that slice into cubes (where each cube is still 30/70).
Then I stick these slices in the freezer and vacuum bag them. I lay them out fat-touching-meat so they don't freeze together.
Then, when I want to start on the grind, I simply take out one of these bags and let it rest for ~20 mins or so. Then it's a quick slice into cubes that each have 30% fat for my grinder, who is happy to munch on them in their semi-solid state.
The other benefit of this approach is that you don't have to grind it all at once. You can just take out a few bags here and there.
Anyhow, hope that helps!
Most of the videos I've seen involve folks getting chunks of fat and chunks of meat and using those to get a certain ratio of fat to meat. I've had terrible experiences grinding pure fat in my poor little kitchenaid adapter, so I'd rather not do that. Instead, I seek to create strips of meat that can be fed in that have that ratio already.
So first, I just unwrap the brisket and let it drain for a few minutes in my sink. I take quick slice of fat off the point and a quick slice off the flat, both very light cuts. Then I put the whole brisket on a cutting board and let it sit in my freezer uncovered for 45 minutes:
While it's firming up in the freezer, I sharpen or hone my long 14" slicing knife. Once it's firmed up, I point to flat with about 3/4" inch thickness.
This leaves me with something like this:
After cutting vertically, I cut the fat out of each big slice so it's about 30%. The idea is that you can visually look at each slice and pretty much get that 30/70 fat/meat ratio by grinding the whole slice, or by cutting a vertical portion of that slice into cubes (where each cube is still 30/70).
Then I stick these slices in the freezer and vacuum bag them. I lay them out fat-touching-meat so they don't freeze together.
Then, when I want to start on the grind, I simply take out one of these bags and let it rest for ~20 mins or so. Then it's a quick slice into cubes that each have 30% fat for my grinder, who is happy to munch on them in their semi-solid state.
The other benefit of this approach is that you don't have to grind it all at once. You can just take out a few bags here and there.
Anyhow, hope that helps!
