I was at the supermarket this week and asked at the meat counter about when they would have ground beef in. They won’t, I was told.
Since it’s been months since it’s been available, I asked about what’s happening. They explained that the Ministry of Health no longer allows them to grind meat because a fly could get in or something unsanitary like that.
Ground beef is a staple that so many families use to stretch a meal, in a way that you can’t do with a roast. I have so many ways that I use ground beef, and not having it as an option was very limiting for me. I asked the butcher to cut up a few roasts so that at least I could use it for stews, and he asked me if I was planning to grind it myself. That possibility hadn’t crossed my mind, but after he made that comment, I was determined to see if it was something we could do.
Two years ago, following another very long period of not being able to buy ground beef, I bought a meat grinder attachment for my Bosch mixer. Unfortunately, the one experience we had with it caused me to mentally discard using the grinder as an option – the meat couldn’t be ground when frozen, but once it was defrosted, it came out of the grinder mushy. I chalked it up as an unfortunate purchase and waste of money.
After the butcher asked me if I was going to grind the meat myself, it jolted our grinder back into mind. I wondered if there was something different we could do to get a better result, and resolved to do some research about it. I quickly found out that a basic principle of grinding meat is that the meat and the grinder blades should all be very cold.
We put both the meat and the grinder attachment in the freezer for an hour, and then my fourteen year old son ground everything while I took a nap. He ran each batch through the grinder twice, and the resulting meat looked perfect. Though unfortunately the piece that pushes the meat down has disappeared and not having it made the job harder than necessary, it was still doable and it’s so nice to know that now this is a viable option for us.
Meat grinders can be bought fairly inexpensively. In my case, I opted to buy an attachment for a mixer that I already had, rather than get a freestanding grinder that would take up more space.
Since the ground meat I can purchase from another source is more than twenty shekels a kilo than the roasts I can buy and then grind, the potential savings are significant. Since we regularly use ground beef (when we can get it :)), it won’t take that long until the cost of the grinder will be offset by the savings.
Avivah
We don’t use much ground meat so I hadn’t noticed if there is a shortage in the center of Israel but it seems likely these rules would apply in the entire country. I will look when I next go shopping. Question for you – are meat grinders dangerous for at home use with little kids around? Or even for an adult unless very careful? Anything can be dangerous but I’m wondering if this would be more so than other items, like a regular food processor which has many safety features.
There is a long chute the meat is pushed down in, too narrow for a hand and too long for a finger to reach the grinder, so there’s nothing that is especially dangerous. Like a food processor, you would want to be careful of putting something where it shouldn’t be but it’s built so that caution is automatic.
My mom used to grind meat with a small, heavy manual grinder that clipped on to the underside of our table. She’d put a baking tray underneath to catch the ground meat and juice. It was not arduous work but she never ground large quantities at once like you do. My sister and I used to use the same grinder to make the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. I loved doing it.
Thanks for the post. It brought back some lovely family memories!
Thank you for sharing that, Chaya Dina! I’m glad this post gave you pause for positive memories.
Would love to read more savings ideas!