Need idea for freezing meat in cylindrical shape to put down cheap meat grinder.

Since it's cheap, even though the blade is sharp enough it still gets clogged quick. So I want the freeze the meat easilly so I'm thinking if only I had some sort of mold for for cylindrical shapes. Any ideas for something DIY or is there something in existence you can think of I could use to put meat into then into the freezer? The tube/chute of this grinder is about an inch and a half

 

Freezing the meat really does help when the meat has a good amount of fat. It can also help the grinder cut through any gristle instead of it stringing and clogging. I dice the meat into 1" cubes and freeze them on a silicone mat. Then I feed the cubes into the grinder.

 

Yeah, I'm doing a lot at a time so I need to be doing like 1.5" poles at a time.

Ooh... Just got an idea.... Pvc pipe cut in half....

Off to home depot...

 

I'm carnivore for health reasons and want to do organ meats but can't handle straight so want to mix em in ground beef. FYI

 

Yea, I tried making long tubes at first but it seemed like an unnecessary step so I timed making batches both ways. For me it was faster to just use the cubes so I cut out the mold process. The cubes do thaw faster than tubes so there is more time pressure but I bring the meat out of the freezer in batches if I have a big run.

 

Ah, so you need to thaw em a bit

 

No, thawing was not needed. It is just a side effect of taking too many cubes out of the freezer at a time. About 3 pounds is the most I can grind before the last cubes thaw.

Making frozen tubes was quite a PITA. I developed a press and molds. The first step was to cut the meat into small enough pieces to stuff into the mold (PVC pipe). Then I'd press it to squish it together and remove the air pockets. Then I'd freeze the tube and then use the press again to remove the frozen meat from the mold. Once made the frozen meat sticks were super easy to grind but creating the meat tubes was a lot of work. Very soon I stopped making the tubes and just froze cubes.

 

Why did you have to make the tubes again?

I'm thinking get some pvc pipe with ID smaller that the ID of the grinder chute, cut a section out of along the pipe so I can stuff the meat in it after lubing it with butter yum, freeze, take em out say 30 min before grinding and they should slide out with maybe a little force then reuse pipes no?

 

Here we go. These plastic shelving tubes. Got four spares just collecting dust and bugs waiting for me. Gotta put em through the dishwasher a few times tho lol. Either I can smack to loosen the insides then press em out somehow or I could also split the tubes down the side if need be. Hopefully a good few whacks would free it up. Four will be plenty, prolly more than enough.

 

Water expands when it freezes so almost anything you put in a tube will expand and really stick when frozen. I made a press and could get the meat out with brute force. You can also cut a slit down one side of your pipe and hold it closed with stainless steel hose clamps. Then after freezing you can insert a screwdriver in the slot and pop the mold loose.

 

Would a hot water rinse thaw the inside surface enough to let the meat cylinder slide out easily?

 

IDK. I'll find out maybe. I probably will cut the pipe down the middle to give room to crack open and def I'll lube it with butter /olive oil. I'll update later...

 

I'd just copy the old meatball recipes and use some wax paper to form the meat into a cylinder.

You even get extra-wide waxpaper.

 

Pilot Dane, what kind of meat grinder do you use? Mine is just about broke. I probably spent no more than $50 on it. Worked fine for a year then declined rapidly, I lost a washer or two and little pieces of aluminum broke and just now, doing my PVC project, I used 1.5" x 2' for a perfect fit with cap at the end, let it thaw for about 20 perfect in this SWFL heat, and pressed it out with the end handle to my vehicle jack. Worked perfect except the grinder couldn't handle it. Just started making bad noises and cracking. How much do I need to spend on a suitable grinder?


Mind you I'm grinding liver, tripe and other organ meats that would need to be frozen. Maybe this isn't that feasible

Actually I'm thinking the grinder isn't the problem but I would need frozen pieces. By the time it thawed enough to slide out it was only frozen in the middle and any of the tripe meat thawed wouldn't do. I think I'll have to thaw it enough to remove it then refreeze it. Hmm... I'll try again later.

 

Our most often used is a KitchenAid mixer attachment. We got a inexpensive clone from Amazon. Even though it's small we can run about a pound a minute through it. It's smaller than the big dedicated one but the convenience wins out and now the big one only gets brought out in Deer season when I run many, many pounds at a time.