Buying beef : Grind your own or processed

[Drew Cutter]

Looking to buy my own beef from a local farmer. Is cheaper for me to grind the beef up into burger and steak or have him have the cow processed / butcher (?) ? Seem like the cost goes way up to have the beef process / butcher .

[mullberry]

LET ME ASK YOU THIS.
Have you ever butchered a beef before? Do you have a place to "HANG" the meat to cure?. Do you have a band saw,grinder ,vacuum sealer? & stuff like that? if no... use the butcher shop.

[Cyngbaeld]

Best to call the butcher and ask. Usually, the more you do yourself, the cheaper. Some will kill, clean and chill and you do the cutting yourself for much less money.

[Drew Cutter]

So what part of process can i do to save money ? The place i buy beef does aging , etc . How do i learn to do what i can do at home ? Ask my deer hunting buddies who make their deer steaks ,etc ?

[genebo]

You can take the same steer to two different butchers and get widely varying results. How the meat is killed, how it's aged, how it's cut can all affect the taste and tenderness.

Get the best butcher you can, who kills humanely, get the meat vaccuum sealed in heavy plastic, and you'll be happy.

I doubt you can achieve the same quality result on your first try.

I'm not a butcher. I've used some different ones and have spoken with people who've used others. It's obvious that a good butcher makes good eating, while a less talented butcher leaves you wishing you'd used a better one. Knowledge of cattle anatomy, all the different cuts and how to cut each one to make it the tenderest are all part of his training.

Get a cut list from a local butcher and try to figure it out. If you end up shaking your head at the complexity, don't try it yourself.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

[Drew Cutter]

Rose i added the book to my amazon list . thanks

[Drew Cutter]

Now its possible for me to get the right cut of meat from the butcher to grind into hambuger with my own grinder or is this still too much for a novice ?

[Onthebit]

Have him cut up the not so great cuts into cubed beef. Then have him do the packaging and then grind them yourself as you use them....it isn't hard to do and then you absolutely know there wasn't a cull/diseased cow in the grinder before hand or a chicken....UGG!

[Tad]

From personal experience don't use a butcher with a retail store. We sent an old cow for burger paid the rate on hanging weight of 980 lbs. We weighed some out when we got home for my cousin and got curious and weighed the whole thing. 450 lbs, 45% of hanging weight makes me think some got sold off the retail counter in the butcher shop. We found another proccesser thats great and would never go through the trouble of doing it ourselves. Don't forget if you stick 750 lbs of fresh meat in your freezer it is going to have to work HARD, if it is older it might send it over the edge.

[Ronney]

Drew, in all honesty I wouldn't waste my time trying to save money doing any of the butchering myself - you might save a few dollars but you waste a lot of time that could have been better spent doing something else.

I picked our beast up from the butcher on Monday. The total cost of butchering, including GST (a tax) was $292.00 It had hung for 10 days, was cut up, packed and pre-frozen so all I had to do was pick it up and drop it in the freezer. No unbelievable mess to clean up, no gear to clean, no brine to make, no packing to do, no turning of unfrozen meat in the freezer. Believe me, unless you are set up for it, it is just a bloody big time-wasting saga that could leave you with a lot of rubbish meat because you don't know what your doing.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[agmantoo]

I am the odd person out here. I have 5 deer in my home cooler which is a $35 convenience store modified freezer. Later today I will make burger and cubed steak. My better half will seal the meat in saran wrap and then wrap again in freezer paper. The meat will readily keep from hunting season to hunting season. We promote self sustainability on this site then turn around and tell most folks to have their meat processed by others! Processing meat is a learned skilled and can be achieved. Remember you can eat you mistakes!

Drew Cutter, get a #10 meat grinder of the old design sold for home use. Buy one that can be converted to motor drive. Cabelas did carry them and they are reasonably priced. From your meat source tell them of your intent and get their lower priced meat and a ratio of 90% lean and 10% fat. If you have a local place that sells meat from a cut to order display ask them to save their steak trimmings from the boxed beef they purchase. Take the meat home and cut it in cubes that will fit into the grinder. Blend the lean and fat and run it through the grinder. When you have all of the meat ground once get ready to wrap. Now send the meat through the grinder a second time and catch the meat as it exits the grinder. Take portions that you will use at one time and without compressing the meat, wrap it in saran wrap and then freezer paper. Do Not Press the Meat into a Ball! When you are going to make burgers, thaw the meat and use a spatula and slice off the burger. Again, DO NOT press the burger into a patty! Cook the burger as it was cut and let the grease run down through the burger, flip and repeat on the other side and remove to bun. Add whatever you apply to meet your taste and consume. You will be pleasantly surprised of how good it will be. PS....only grind enough meat in this manner for a couple of months use.

[Drew Cutter]

Thanks. This is closer to what i want to do. I have friend who is going offer his meat through CSA. I have look at cabella grinder. I did find someone who make sausage out of grass fed beef , fairly close by. I'm not a big steak eater. More of a brisket person.

[agmantoo]

Drew Cutter,
I did some editing in my original post to you. You may want to reread. Feel free to ask any questions that may arise. I also make sausage and lard. As time passes check Craigs list and other places and see if you can locate a cuber. Cubers are expensive but they will make a marginal cut into a great main course. There is a place near me that sells a deboned and cubed rabbit hind quarter. It is far superior to any chicken fillet sold.

[Drew Cutter]

1. When you cut the meat into cube. Do you cut all the meat into cubes ? If you have access cube , to be grind up later do you freeze them and how ?
2. What should i look for in a cuber ?

[agmantoo]

Drew, I may have confused you unintentionally. The cubes that go into the grinder are just pieces of meat that you would reduce in size in order to go into the opening of the meat grinder.

A cuber is a machine that is used to break the tissue in a less tender cut of meat. There are both manual and power versions. A power version is highly desired. The powered version has a set of knives that the meat passes through. Have you every purchased cubed steak at a meat market? That meat is processed with such a machine as I am trying to describe. The rabbit I mentioned is sent through that type machine. I will locate a link where you can see a cuber. Lets see if this will open
http://www.kohlerequip.com/item.php?item_id=222

[Drew Cutter]

I was leaning toward a power one . So , basically you prepare small "steak" size slabs to run through the tenderizer , then through the grinder. (Some types of steak esccape me because i tend to not eat allot of steak)

[agmantoo]

The tenderizer/cuber can take a chunk of meat as large as a mans fist and after going through the machine it will have been processed and as large as a saucer. The meat will have been pierced with the small knives numerous time breaking the fiber creating a steak that would have been tough so tender it can be cut with a fork. I run all the best cuts of the venison I prepare through my machine. The results are dramatic.

I send small chunks of burger meat through the grinder and end with a ground meat product. Essentially with the grinder I am making hamburger or sausage.

[francismilker]

Personally, unless I had a place to hang it in the cool to age the meat, as well as had a nice large clean area to work in I wouldn't attempt it. You're talking about a lot of money possibly going down the drain and wasted. When I butcher my own deer they're small enough that I can take my time and utilize every morsel of meat through my grinder so there's not much waste. I can't imagine cutting and grinding a whole or even half beef without commercial grade equipment.
Besides, unless it is chilled thoroughly it will be like trying to saw through jelly after a while at room temperature.

[coonripper]

Harbor freight sells a grinder for like 50.00 just add an old electric motor and go. I have used mine for years with no problems.

[cathleenc]

if you want to learn home butchering I'd advise starting with smaller mammals, like goats or sheep or pigs. A cow is just too huge to start with - not sure I'll even try one - but we can process a lamb/sheep pretty quickly and efficiently these days.

The only meat we get processed out anymore is beef. Sounds good but it is a ton of work. Just finished making 25 lbs of gr pork sausages (spicy italian and breakfast) and it was a 2 day affair: trim, cube, season, refrigerate over night - next day: grind, chill, blend till tacky, package, freeze. Maybe 5 hours total work? Even though I would not do it any other way I found myself doing the math - just how much would this cost in terms of cash to have the butcher do it?