Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Grinding and bad meat texture

I recently bought a Weston Series 8 Pro-Series grinder to process game meat, make sausage, etc.
As a trial run, I partially thawed out some cubed venison hindquarter from a deer I shot last year. The deer was a healthy 8-point taken on 11/30. He was a very tender deer. Nice deep red color.

Using the coarse plate I ground about 3lbs. I also ground an additional 2lbs with 15% beef fat (fresh strip trimmings)
I double ground all with the coarse plate.The meat texture is awful for both. My best description is mushy with a rubbery bite.

I assume the double grind is the culprit? Perhaps the meat was too tender and I should have made a roast...

New to this and all help/advice is appreciated.

following

When I’ve double ground deer meat I’ve found it to turn into an almost putty texture with little to no grain left. Best results have come from running it through a medium plate, 1/8” or so holes, while still about 60-70 percent frozen. I don’t grind much so I’m not an expert, just sharing my experiences.

Did you refreeze for the second grind?

When I have seen mushy meat, it was always when either the meat was too warm or the grinder was too warm. I grind only cold meat and put my grinder in the freezer for an hour prior to grinding.

Noted. I did not. I immediately reground the partially frozen meat though.
My grinder components had been in the freezer prior to the grinding and were still very cold.

Way to much f..ING with the meat...

Unless u makin hot dogs, I've found no use for the 1/8th dics....

Deer shot in Tn on 11/30 would have been at the late stages to end of rut. Wouldnt say that would be the best eating or most tender deer. Quite the opposite typically.


My guess is that’s the problem. Not being sarcastic either. We grind a lot of deer every year

Sounds like you had the meat and equipment cold enough to prevent protein extraction and smearing of the fats. Barring the meat having bad freezer burn, and I think you probably would have noted that from the get go

We do our deer burger with 20-25% fat. Grind twice. 3/8 plate for us. Have never had it be chewy except for big old bucks in the rut. Not all of them, but I’d say more than 50% were tough and chewy or not very appetizing at least.

Yeah, I like to grind when the meat is partially frozen. I would not thaw meat out and then try to grind it. It grinds better when it is partially frozen anyway. Just ground up some elk meat the other day and mixed some fatty bacon and jalapeno's in. Turned out perfect... I always grind it twice too, using the coarse plate.

No need to ever double grind. I grind all my venison two parts venison to one part fattest beef chuck roasts I can find. Cut meat into similar sized strips not cubes. Strips will get wrapped around the auger and fed into the blades. Cubes or in the case of already ground meat sits on the auger getting churned around longer building up heat. I use the fine plate most of the time. Comes out same grind as store bought burger. Exactly the same characteristics of store bought except it tastes like venison. Fat content falls in between ground chuck and ground sirloin.Occasionally I will do course grind for chili or tacos. But for burgers meatballs meatloaf etc. the fine grind is my preference.

As for grinding frozen meat never had a problem. I freeze all my burger makings until season is over. Do a one time grind. Have ground meat that was in the freezer for several months. Could not tell the difference between that and never frozen ground. Which was how I used to do things, got sick of cleaning the grinder six to eight times a year.

If you are set on grinding twice or making sausage you need to keep things very cold. Not feels cold but almost can't handle it cold. Once the fat starts to melt your screwed. One trick I heard of from hard core sausage makers is use dry ice. Never tried it myself. Supposedly you can get pelleted dry ice and mix it in with the meat as you grind to keep things super cold and the fat in chunks not melted into the meat.

This.

I never have ground twice. I put the desired plate on , make sure the meat is good and cold ( firm) and grind it. I use a LEM 22.

Double grind all the time, with a course plate. Grinder cold, meat partially thawed

We always double grind. Coarse plate first, 1/8th plate second. First grind the meat is cold. Then it put in the freezer till it starts to get hard before grinding again. When we first started grinding we had issues with mushy meat and the second grind taking forever. Giving the meat a hard chill took care of that,

We did try running thru the coarse plate twice but neither the wife or me liked the texture. Experiment to see what you like the best.

I just did 2 deer yesterday; LEM #12. The LEM is a beast and will course grind a 5 gallon bucket in <10 mins. I double grind also with the medium (1/4) plate right into the bags using the stuffer tube. I didn't like the texture of single or double ground course grinds either.

I don't add fat to my lean game meat. Different strokes.

Never seen the need to double grind, just use the right size plate to start with and be done with it.

#guilty

several years back i bought a grinder.

amazon special. underpowered of course.

was gonna make smoked link sasuage.

grind it 2x. came out like hotdogs texture.

good thing it was a small batch. tasted good.

now i take it to a pro.

I always double grind, mostly frozen, course plate !

I always double grind. It mixes the fat and meat together better. I did 2 deer's loin trimmings and their shoulders today. Ready now to go get another and finish for the year.