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Our yearly Texas hunt was a huge success and we came back with 11 white tails (2-10's, 3-8's, 6 does). Cut out all me roast, steaks, and other nice chunks of meat. I had 6 out of the 11 deer. I had some set aside to send to butcher to make sausage and about a 65 qt yeti of de-boned meat for me to deal with. After cutting out as much roast and other cut of meat, I was still left with a ton. And that is not counting the meat set aside to go to butcher. I trimmed all the meat and had right at 50 lbs of cubed meat for burger. I was using my buddies Cabelas 1 hp #22 Carnivore grinder. I picked up the LEM bags and tape kit (works fantastic) and a couple of plastic totes for the meat.

I decided to place the meat in the freezer to let it firm up some for about 2 hours. This was advice from my neighbor and it worked exactly like he mentioned. The question came into whether or not to grind twice for simple burger and such that will be placed into the meat bags. So I began, and it went without a hitch. His grinder went through that 50 lbs of meat on the 1st pass about as fast as I could feed it. No issues and nice looking meat. I decided to take the larger plate off and install the finer plate, just to see for the second run. I placed the 1st pass meat in back into the freezer for about 30 min or so, just to get it a nice chill. Took it out, loaded the hopper and started the 2nd pass through the smaller plate. Very very slow. Gristle and such kept plugging and getting hung up on the blade. After fighting with it, I decided to just run it a 2nd time back through the larger plate. Which still looked like a good grind. I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and installed the fill tube along with the grinder plate and blade. Went very nicely and a good pace. I was able to grind 2nd time and fill my 47 LEM 1 lb game bags, tape them and in freezer in about 30 min.

So my questions are:

Did I do something wrong on the 2nd grind with the smaller plate?
Do you really need to run it through twice?
Can you just simply run it through once through the smaller plate and be done with it?

We use our ground meat mostly for chili, spaghetti, taco meat, and just about anything that most folks would use ground beef for, we use venison. I want to get use to this process so i can try and make my own sausage. My sausage bill from the butcher was $552. No I did have approx 130 lbs of sausage, but still. he charges 3 lb for the pork, I can get family packs of Boston butts here on sale for $1 / lb. Sure there is a lot of work involved in making the sausage, but that's the fun part. And it seems that this will be a yearly family trip for us, so the equipment could pay for itself in the first year.

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MY first grind blade is very course.Then I have three more blades,each finer yet. I do the 2nd grind with the most course of those three.My grinder is a cheap Northern Tool $120 one and it has lasted about 20 years grinding 1-2 elk, a deer and an antelope each year. If it clogs,it is usually on the first grind. If I only grind once with the first blade, the meat is too course.But if you can use it that way, you don't need to grind twice.Personal preference

I suspect , you didn't trim out the sinew enough, the blades on the grinder need sharpening,, or you didn't have the front ring screwed down tight enough. Only an idea. I might be wrong on all three counts


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Can only comment on what I do, so take it for what it's worth.

I always start with partially frozen meat, both venison & pork. Either chunked butts, some times loins with a really good fat cap.

I am not trying to add much fat, as you can do that other ways, depending on its intention.

I always grind twice with the same plate.

My intention with the 2nd grind is not about texture, but rather to mix the venison & pork more thoroughly.

For us, the pork isn't about fat or flavour, but rather making more volume.

YMMV


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That was my thought on the 2nd grind as I did it. More about the mix and less on texture.

Also saddle, i did notice that some of the meat was trying to come around the plate. That could have been the case with the smaller plate and plugging.

could have also been the blades. it was a close friend of mines grinder so don't know all the details of the blade.

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I use a cabelas grinder that came with two sized grinder plates. The finer one is too small of holes to grind efficiently. It almost smashes the meat through. I do double grind, but only use the plate with the larger holes of the two.

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Get it extra cold ...I grind it course ...the meat then the fat ...then I get the weight to fat ratio to my liking ...then I mix in my meat mixer...into a large foil try and then back to the extra cold till firmed up ...then grind to what I want ...easy!


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[quote=SDupontJr

Can you just simply run it through once through the smaller plate and be done with it?

[/quote]

I do that all the time, although I run it through twice. Matter of fact, I have never used the coarse plate that came with my grinder. I don't add fat to my hamburger which makes the process easier and it might not work the same, but you can try it. I can't say I have had a lot of trouble with the sinew although there have been times that I have had to clean it from around the blade, but usually I will do that between the first and second grinds.

Keep a lookout for what Saddlesore said. With my little LEM machine, its picky about how tight you screw down the ring. Gorilla tight and the motor will struggle, not tight enough and it does not grind as good....I've used it a lot so I know when it sounds "happy"....all of em are probably like that. When everything is right and the blade is sharp, the ground meat should come out of the holes in the plate in nice long "strings" that don't "break".


Last edited by RJY66; 12/15/18.

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I have ground a lot of meat over the years. If I double grind it I run it through a 3/8"or larger plate the first time and finish it with a 1/8" plate. The last couple of years I just run it though the 1/8" plate one time and call it good. I played with it back and forth for years and really couldn't tell enough difference to justify the time and work.

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Originally Posted by New_2_99s
Can only comment on what I do, so take it for what it's worth.

I always start with partially frozen meat, both venison & pork. Either chunked butts, some times loins with a really good fat cap.

I am not trying to add much fat, as you can do that other ways, depending on its intention.

I always grind twice with the same plate.

My intention with the 2nd grind is not about texture, but rather to mix the venison & pork more thoroughly.

For us, the pork isn't about fat or flavour, but rather making more volume.

YMMV



+1.

I stuff bags on the second pass and I like the better mixing.

The coarser cut is nice if I make brats at a later date too.


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i just run it thru the smaller plate i have and call it good....i have done it both ways and as others have said could tell no difference

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Originally Posted by New_2_99s
Can only comment on what I do, so take it for what it's worth.

I always start with partially frozen meat, both venison & pork. Either chunked butts, some times loins with a really good fat cap.

I am not trying to add much fat, as you can do that other ways, depending on its intention.

I always grind twice with the same plate.

My intention with the 2nd grind is not about texture, but rather to mix the venison & pork more thoroughly.

For us, the pork isn't about fat or flavour, but rather making more volume.

YMMV


This..only with beef fat ^^^^^^^^

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For years I used an old hand cranked grinder that was my Grandmother's, a few years ago I bought an electric grinder from Cabela's when the local store opened. I have ground meat twice on occassion using the coarse plate first then the fine. This year's deer was ground with the coarse plate as most was intended for chili and meatloaf. I ground pork butt separate from the venison and mixed the two separately after grinding although I have sometimes ground both together at times.

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I take 15 pounds of venison trim, 3 pounds of good beef suet, and a 5 pound chub of 73/27 ground beef (all parts frosty cold) and run it through the coarse plate. Then once through the fine plate into burger bags with the 2" tube. Make for near 80/20 ratio with great texture that I can serve to anyone without complaint.


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Originally Posted by BlueDuck
I have ground a lot of meat over the years. If I double grind it I run it through a 3/8"or larger plate the first time and finish it with a 1/8" plate. The last couple of years I just run it though the 1/8" plate one time and call it good. I played with it back and forth for years and really couldn't tell enough difference to justify the time and work.



This is exactly what I've found... grind once through the smaller plate and good to go...


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Originally Posted by haverluk
I take 15 pounds of venison trim, 3 pounds of good beef suet, and a 5 pound chub of 73/27 ground beef (all parts frosty cold) and run it through the coarse plate. Then once through the fine plate into burger bags with the 2" tube. Make for near 80/20 ratio with great texture that I can serve to anyone without complaint.


Interesting... that is almost exactly how I run mine, but I use pork instead of the suet.


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I grind once with a 7mm plate. Run a stuffer tube straight into the bag. Northern Tool grinder Harbor Freight foot pedal with no detent. The foot pedal is helpful to me.


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