A Chili Cheeseburger and Meathead Returns

Remember Meathead?



My grandmother has once again allowed this poor animal to become hugely overweight. This beagle should be around 15 lbs--she currently weighs in at around 50. Seriously, the dog is FAT.

And so she's back at our house for an undetermined amount of time to lose weight, get her nails cut down and maintained properly and for overall health protection. Evidently granny just couldn't deny the dog unlimited amounts of food--and you see the result.

We confiscated the animal. I got tired of hearing, "Oh, she's fine," knowing full well that she wasn't fine at all. Poor Meathead wheezes instead of breathes, has to make 3-point turns and has to stop for a breather when en route from living room to kitchen.

Of course the old woman means well. At least that's what I keep telling myself. The heart that kills...

Needless to say my life has become more complicated. It couldn't happen at a worse time, either--smack in the middle of my very first fertility treatment, hormones a-raging and trying to keep everything ship-shape around here, hoping for success on the first try... well, a dog that knocks over the trash in search of goodies and lacks certain training... you can imagine my turmoil. That being said, I must add that Pickle is a much happier dog having a doggie friend over.



Food has been a catch-as-you-can affair here since the dog arrived. Last night I threw together some hamburger patties. I've become quite the fan of gently--gently--patting them into shape, to allow for a very tender, fall-apart-in-your-mouth kind of burger. I topped them with a chili-bean topping I made from the navy beans I have hanging around in the freezer. About 2 cups went into a saucepan with tomato sauce, water and chili seasonings (chili powder, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and salt, to taste) and let them cook until they were reduced and thick, sort of like refried beans without the mashing. That was super-tasty atop our burgers with a slice of cheese and the buns dressed with a smidgen of bbq sauce from the fridge. Sweet, spicy, salty... ooh, yeah.

And the dog didn't get a bite. Not for lack of trying, though.

I Did A Bad, Bad Thing

I finally succumbed to the Angry Whopper yesterday.

It's all Catherine's fault, really. I was vaguely amused by the commercials but not all that tempted--until I read her article, that is.

This mega-sandwich (I had the single burger--I cannot imagine anyone being able to consume the triple)--is a hamburger patty topped with pepper jack cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, jalapeños, mayo and spicy "Angry Sauce."

It was pleasantly spicy, and very filling. There was a lot going on, though. I didn't even notice there was cheese--I only read about it afterward. The mayo, angry sauce and various bits plopped out and slid down my wrists. Normally I'd count this as a good thing, but this time the dripping innards made it difficult to snarf this unruly beast.

Even so, I liked it.

You can expect horrific nutritional value in such a monster. Behold:

The single angry whopper has 880 calories, 55g of fat (of which 18g are from saturated fat and 2g are trans fat), 110mg cholesterol, a whopping (pun intended) 1670mg sodium, 59g carbohydrates (3g dietary fiber and 13g of sugar--where in the world they put sugar I'll never know) and 37g protein. It's not as bad as my long-lost beloved Thickburger, but close enough.

It's a good thing we walked, huh?

I can't say that I'll eat it again anytime soon, though. Perhaps if they offered the same sandwich in their Junior version I'd go for it--this was just too much.

Save Money Today: Grind Your Own Hamburger

I finally did it. I made my own hamburger.

This is not ground-breaking news; our great-grandmothers did this all the time. Nevertheless, it is a timely topic given the current worldwide economic situation. Let's face it: groceries are getting more expensive.

But Why?

My incentive was purely an economical decision. Over the last 12 months, the best price on 85% lean ground beef has been around $2.59 US per pound at my local warehouse club, where I have to buy at least 5 pounds, bring it home, portion it out and freeze. I don't mind doing that--it allows me to do additional meal prep such as making meatballs or hamburger patties, forming meat loaves and even pre-cooking some ground beef for those nights I really need to get a meal on the table in a jiffy. (Believe me--it really helps avoid fast food lines!)

But I still think $2.59 per pound is high. Higher fat varieties weren't much cheaper. We're not talking about great cuts of meat, here, either. And most store-bought hamburger meat is a mixture of leftover bits from various parts of the animal--or animals. The thought of my nice tray of ground beef coming from several animals sort of skeeves me out. It just seems wrong.

As I perused my local grocery ads, the meat prices for cheaper cuts seem to be soaring! $3.99 per pound for a chuck roast? That can't be right. Then I found angus top round for $1.99 per pound. Angus. Pre-ground angus hamburger is way more expensive than $2.59 a pound!

A light bulb came on somewhere in my head.



Top round is a relatively lean cut of beef--around 15% fat. And it can be ground (well, chopped, really) in the food processor, so there was no need to purchase another piece of equipment. And I found this SF Gate article online that told me how to do it. All I needed was time.

I've got lots of that.

The Process



So I bought my roast--about 3.25 pounds for a first try. I sliced it down in about 1-inch widths, then cut those slices into 1-inch strips. The strips, in turn, were cut down into 1-inch cubes. I refrigerated the meat cubes for about 30 minutes before continuing (along with the blade from my food processor) to make sure everything stayed as cold as possible.



A few sudoku puzzles later I was ready to get dirty. After retrieving everything from the fridge and assembling my ancient food processor, I dumped in 2-cup portions and pulsed (about 2-second bursts on high power) about 15 pulses per batch for a relatively uniform medium dice. Occasionally I found larger bits of fat that stuck together--I just took my chef's knife to those.



The Result

It looks like store-bought ground beef. It smells fresh. It fries up well and made for a great ragu. The texture was not exactly like store-bought--it was certainly more of a coarse-grind mouth-feel that was nice in the ragu. I can't wait to try it in a hamburger patty! Plus it was made from superior-quality meat purchased on sale.

But Is It Worth It?

For this first-try batch I selected a very small roast, so pound-for-pound I really saved very little in comparison to the $2.59 I could have spent on store-prepared ground meat (though not angus)--especially if you consider the hour I spent cutting & processing the meat, including the 30-minute chilling/quality sudoku puzzling time. However now that I know how to do this, I'll be buying larger roasts to process into hamburger meat, thus increasing my savings. Mr.W and I are also discussing the possibility of a kitchenaid meat-grinding attachment for a finer product.

And while it's true that my time is valuable, when you're trying to leave more cash in your wallet, one often has to put in extra effort to make up the difference. I don't mind that at all. The care and effort I put into preparing a superior product to feed myself and my friends and family is worth it to me.

Not to mention the fact that I can customize freshly made ground meat for a higher-end product, such as adding chopped vidalia onion or prosciutto for a little something special.

Die-hard frugalites could also add meat stretchers in with the grind, such as cooked (and cooled) lentils or brown rice.

Have you ever ground (or processed) your own hamburger meat? Share your tips in the comments section below.