Friday, August 15, 2008

How to Make Ground Meat from Scratch

I decided to make this post so that my daughters will know it is actually very easy to make your own ground meat at home. I figure if I don't show them, they will not know when they grow up. I noticed a lot of people only know how to purchase ground meat at the supermarket and really have no idea how to make it at home. So, if you haven't gotten a clue before, after reading my post, you will know! :D Of course I learned it from my mother when I was little, used to help her made ground meat in her kitchen.


First you will need a sharp Chinese cleaver. And then of course ground meat of your choice, pork, beef, chicken, etc. You will have to cut the meat into small pieces and then use your cleaver to chop on it. Just chop through the meat, flip it and chop again, flip the meat again and chop again until you have worked all your muscles. In the olden days, the butcher used two big cleavers to chop ground meat for his customers. This is really a good hand exercise for anyone who wants to try. Haha...


My ground pork is done after multiple times of flipping the meat and chopping. Now it's ready for seasoning for my pork balls noodle soup later.


Serving up my homemade pork balls with glass noodle (tang hoon) soup!


Who wants to try my pork ball with Thai chili? :P

I cooked my broth with 2 chicken drumsticks, 1 baked chicken cavity, 1/4 cup of yellow beans, shrimp shells that I saved, dried Chinese mushroom stems (I saved this for making broth too), 1 whole large yellow onion and 3 carrots hence my broth turned out very sweet and flavorful.

18 comments:

eatingclubvancouver_js said...

Great knife work! Is it tiring? ;)

Anonymous said...

it's much cleaner to chop your own, coz u can wash the meat b4 chopping ... but I'm always so lazy ... heh ... wah I lurve tang hoon soup!

Beachlover said...

oh! I love minced pork with bee hoon soup!!..thai's chili is a must for me!! a bowl for me please...

Indonesia Eats said...

How are you?
Long time, I didn't visit your blog.
I love meatballs soup a.k.a bakso :)

Peony said...

although we can easily get ground/minced meat at the supermarket now, I still minced the meat myself when cooking for Ryan.
Cos can control the fat in the meat. But me not so hardworking like you, I used the food processor, heehee.

Unknown said...

wow... that easy huh... thanks for sharing... will definitely make my own ground meat... :)

Jin Hooi said...

Haha, that's how my mum make her ground meat ;-)) That's why mum has small arms .. haha

Nilmandra said...

Wah... old school! :D Great knife work there. My grandma and parents said that minced meat chopped the old fashion way has more 'bite' to them, different texture compared to commercial minced meat. I make my own meatballs too for noodle soup, very similar to yours. I love that stock you've got there!

Yan said...

i must agree that manual 'meat mincing' is tiring coz i have done it too. however, i find that the manual minced meat taste sweeter and bouncier compared to machine minced meat. hmmm.. or is it psychological? =p

arh yes, DHL over a bowl of minced pork with my fav carrot & broccoli, pls. i am a soupy person too.

cheers,
yan

Little Corner of Mine said...

Haha js, not really actually。

Yes noobcook. I'm lazy too! :P Actually I read that best not to wash it since the bacteria will spread to your sink. When you cook it well done, all the bacteria will be killed anyway.

Handed one to Beachlover! Enjoy! hehe...

I'm fine, thanks Indo-eats. Come visit often ok! ;)

Yah hor Peony. Have not thought of food processor, perhaps too heavy to carry out from my pantry. :P

You're welcome mikky. Yup, that easy, try it yourself!

Haha Lao Cha, good for your mom!

Thanks Nilmandra! I love to add yellow bean into my stock, makes it sweeter!

Yan, perhaps I only mince a little at a time, just enough for my family, so it's not that tiring. :P
*DHL a bowl to Yan* Enjoy!

SIG said...

Haha, wow. I should try that sometime but must first get a cleaver. The butcher I go to knows I'm particular. And I make sure that there's not a bit of fat in it before I buy it, and he'll then put it through the grinder, but if homemade ones make bouncier meatballs, it's worth a try.

Anonymous said...

I too uses minced meat to make my own meatballs but I uses the minced meat from supermarket.

Too lazy to mince my own meat... :)

tigerfish said...

I know this is very tasty tang hoon soup! Yumz!

Unknown said...

i love the idea of showing children how things work before the meat mincer (do they call it that? hehe)

well done!

petite fleur said...

This looks really good. What goes into your pork meat balls ?

Little Corner of Mine said...

Sig, it's worth a try to see the difference!

Kerry, I only minced my own when I have pork at home and didn't go to the supermarket. But making our own minced chicken is so much cheaper.

Indeed Tigerfish, thanks!

Thanks Rita.

Thanks petite fleur. I seasoned my minced pork with hoisin sauce, sesame oil, salt, garlic powder and white pepper, then stirred until it turned gluey and sticked together.

Piggy said...

I make my own minced meat sometimes, as I prefer to control the amount of fats in it. But it can be quite tiring, do you think so? :-)

Anonymous said...

When you learn how to make sloppy Joes from scratch, you can customize the ground meat