How to grind meat in a blender

Grinding meat in a blender might be something you are not familiar with. Not only will this tip save you a trip to the market, but also allow you to grind both raw and cooked meat in no time. However, one thing you will have to ensure is that the blender you are using is powerful to do the job and of course the meat quantity is not a lot to begin with.

Start by prepping the meat

If you are planning to grind raw meat, you will need to maintain it at a low temperature. This will prevent any bacterial growth over the meat surface and prevent it from getting into the meat during the grinding process.

So make sure to maintain the meat at a temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent contamination by bacteria. For this you will be required to keep the meat in a bowl of ice when working with it.

Once the temperature is maintained, start by cutting the meat into uniform sized pieces. Make sure that these pieces are not too large; this way the grinding in the blender will be smooth and hassle free.

Take small steps

If you will be using your blender as a meat grinder once in a blue moon, then you are good to go. Frequent grinding of meat with the blender may shorten its life and make it unfit for blending purposes. The reason being the small motors of a blender. Unlike an electric meat grinder, the blenders come with small and not so powerful motors. These tend to get the blender stuck and put in extra effort to grind the meat.

To avoid this, grind the meat in small portions rather than filling up the blender in a single go. So you will need to add a small portion into the blender, set it to the chop mode and then run it for around 30 seconds. After 30 seconds remove the lid and check for the consistency of the meat. Repeat the steps till you get the desired consistency. Make sure to not run the blender for more than 40 seconds in a single go as this might overheat the blender and make it unfit for further use.

Depending on the desired consistency of the ground meat, you will have to run the blender more or less times. If you are looking for a rough texture to make sausages, then a few rounds will do the job. However, if you are making baby food or puree, you will need to show some patience and go through the process several times before you achieve the desired result.

Go for a food processor

Food processor can also be used to grind the meat and this is way more powerful than your blender. However the procedure is pretty much similar, the only edge you will get is that the job might be completed quicker than that in a blender.

To prepare the food processor, you will start by selecting the appropriate blade for grinding. The S shaped blade will do the job for you. Additionally you will run the food processor on the pulse mode in short intervals to grind the meat to your liking. Depending whether you are working with raw meat or cooked meat, you will be required to maintain its temperature during the grinding process.

For cooked meat, the temperature of the meat is to be maintained at 165 degrees Fahrenheit during the grinding process. So depending on what recipe you are following or what method you might be using you will be required to maintain the meat temperature for the perfect grinding to take place.

Conclusion

Either use a food processor or a blender to get the job done. You may try both ways to find which one is easy for you to implement. Personally I will recommend using a food processor due to its high power. This will tone down the time taken to do the job, plus it will pose lower chances of the machine heating up fast. Do try these out and let us know which method you think is the best way to grind your meat at home without a meat grinder.