The meat grinder is a powerful machine to have in your kitchen. But if yours have just broken or you don’t currently have money to purchase, you can still grind meat using other ways.
You may ask yourself what to use if I don’t have a meat grinder? You can grind meat with a blender, mincemeat by hand, food processor, and more. Below are ways on how to grind meat without a grinder.
Alternative Ways to Mince Meat: How to
Grinding meat with no grinder is not difficult when you follow the right steps. You don’t need specialized tools to get it done. You can use a knife, chopping board, tinfoil, food processor, grater, and blender.
Mincing Meat by Hand
- Using a knife, cut the meat lengthwise into long chunks. The pieces should be about 2.5 cm thick on all sides. They can be as long as you want.
- Cut the meat into thinner strips. Cut the strips lengthwise again to half the current size. You require the strips to be thin before you start mincing the meat further.
- Freeze the meat for around 20 minutes. Chilling it helps you get cleaner cuts and easy chopping.
- For fast and efficient mincing, use two sharp chopping knives. The sharper and bigger the blade, the easier it will be to chop the meat.
- Chop the meat rapidly. Use the two knives to chop-down the flesh repeatedly. Scoop the beef into a heap and turn it in a circle. Continue cutting, pilling, and turning until you achieve a consistency of tiny pieces.
- If mincing more meat, you will have to perform the steps several times. Chopping too much meat once will be difficult. Ensure you practice safety while cutting using sharp knives.
Check this too: How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife Without a Sharpener
Mincing Meat with a Food Processor
- First, you need to trim off the connective tissue, tendons, cartilage that may be on it. Use a sharp cutter to cut off these portions and throw them away. But if you love sausages, you can preserve them and prepare later.
- Cut the meat into chunks that are 1-2 inches cubes. They don’t have to be all the same size or be clear cubes.
- Freeze the meat for 20-30 minutes. Lay the meat chunks on a single layer of the baking sheet. Place the meat into a freezer to firm up but not get frozen. Chilling the flesh helps it get cleaner cuts and keeps the fat from melting during the chopping process.
- After chilling, place the meat into the food processor in small batches. Ensure you don’t fill the processor fully to make sure you chop the meat evenly. Place a few handfuls of meat into the processor at a time.
- Pulse the processor to chop the meat. Use a pulse setting as opposed to a run-non-stop. Pulse the beef at a speed of 6-8 for a few seconds, then check the flesh after 3-4 pulses. The meat should start to form a ball around the edges but don’t overprocess it.
Use a Grater
The process is simple but requires some effort. You need to cut the meat into larger cubes then freeze it to be firm. Take each cube at a time and grate it. It may take time if you have more flesh, but it’s efficient.
Mince Meat with a Blender
To guarantee you achieve the best results, work in batches not to overload the blender.
Preparing the Meat
- Chop the meat into small cubes for easy mincing
- Place the meat on a piece of tinfoil and put it in the freezer for around 20 minutes.
- Lay the meat on the tinfoil with the blender blades to get them cold before freezing.
- Reduce the amount of fat, tendons, and cartilage in the meat. The fat in the beef clogs up the blender as it’s left as a residue.
Procedure
- Place a small amount of the pieces of meat into the blender and place the lid.
- Run the blender for 20-30 seconds, using the chop setting.
- Remove the lid and check the meat uniformity.
- Continue running the blenders chop cycle until you have the desired ground size.
- Run it for short periods, so you don’t end up overprocessing the meat.
How to Grind Meat Right Regardless of Your Grinding Method
Maintain your meat as cold as possible when a blender to process to avoid encouraging bacterial growth. Blender tends to produce heat while grinding, but if you chill the beef and blades, you control the heat generation.
Check this too: Best Manual Meat Grinder
Use a sharp knife to remove fats, bones, skin, gristle, and connective tissue from the meat. They interfere with the meat mincing process.
Please make sure you clean your meat well before any processing to maintain a high level of hygiene.
Chop the meat into small pieces before placing them in the blender as large chunks can break it down.
To discourage bacterial growth, place your meat in a bowl of ice while you work.
Conclusion
It’s possible to cut up meat with no grinder using the simple tools you have at home. Some of the devices like knives, grater are readily available if you don’t have a mincer. They come in handy at such a moment when you need to grind meat. Follow the above-explained steps for the best results.