Finally figured out why my venison trim kept turning into mush during grinding

Been hunting and processing my own deer for about 5 years now. Every time I'd grind the trim for burger or sausage the texture was always off. Too soft, almost like paste. Tried different grinder plates, colder temps, nothing fixed it. A old timer at the local butcher shop saw me complaining about it while buying pork fat and told me I was overworking the meat before it even hit the grinder. He watched me trim once and said I was cutting the silver skin into tiny pieces instead of just leaving it on and trimming it off whole. Those little silverskin bits were getting wrapped around the blade and smearing the meat instead of cutting it. Spent 3 hours this past Saturday trimming a whole buck with that in mind and the grind came out perfect. Still had to add some pork fat but it actually looked like ground meat instead of baby food. Anybody else deal with this or am I the only one who missed this basic stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason.mark10d ago

And that old timer saved you years of frustration, now you'll never go back to grinding wrong again.

jenniferwells10d ago

Grind with the grain first then flip it around for the finish pass.