Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Grind Your Own Beef & Giveaway Announcement

We drew the winner of the Bush's Bean Grillin' Beans Giveaway tonight to determine who get's this great prize package to kick their summer into gear!


Trevor entered the count of comments, tweets, and Facebook posts into Random.org and the winner is:

Kim of Stirring the Pot who said, "Pick me, pick me, pick me! Ha ha...I love the southern pit BBQ with ribs or pulled pork."

Of all the giveaways I have done, I'm pretty sure this is the first time another food blogger that I read and reads me has won.  Congratulations, Kim!  I'll get in touch via email to arrange the shipping.  

Filet Mignon Burgers
Remember the other day when I told you to keep the fatty scraps from trimming a beef tenderloin?  Here's why.


I picked through the pile of scraps, separating lean meat from the fatty pieces.  I tossed any pieces of "silverskin" because that is not the same as fat and will NOT render down.  It will stay tough, chewy and impenetrable.  They should make bullet proof vests with that stuff.  

Were you listening when you told your algebra teacher answered your complaint that "These word problems will never be useful in real life"?  Right now, he/she is snickering at you.

Word Problem (show all work)
Chris has 3.02 lbs of trimmings from the end tips, chain of bull/side meat, and the Chateaubriand portion of a beef tenderloin.   The lean pile of beef weighed out at 1.42 lbs.  How much of the fatty pile does he need to use to get an 80/20 mix of ground beef?  

a)   I didn't think I had to do math to cook
b)  Actual measurements are for bakers
c)  What time did the train from Detroit leave again?
d)  Eleventy

So after dividing by pi, multiplying by the square root of bacon, and carrying the one, I came up with about 20 oz of lean and 5 oz of fat.  Or you just can "eyeball" a 4:1 ratio.


I cut it into 1/2 cubes, mixed it all together and then put it in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill.  I ran it through the Kitchenaid grinder attachment with the coarse die plate on speed 4.  Then I put it back through a second time using the fine die plate.

I mixed that with a heaping 1/4 cup of bread crumbs, 2 Tbsp Worcestershire, 2 1/2 tsp bbq rub and one egg.  Then we formed them into 5.3 oz patties (1/3rd lb) and grilled them over a 450f on GrillGrates for 6-7 minutes a side.  


Finally, I simply served them on plain buns,  lettuce, and topped them with the leftover bearnaise sauce.  

Not on your Mickey D's menu.
They were pretty phenomenal.  The tender ground beef and buttery bearnaise sauce really put it over the top.
I'm looking forward to grinding more of my own meats this year.  It's a definite learning process for me but the results are well worth the effort.