MEAT GRINDER

As I tickle the keyboards with composition, I am enjoying the most decadent meatloaf sandwich. Let’s rewind a couple of days and start with the gift. My sister-in-law “Shastina’ presented me with the most wonderful present of a meat grinder. She knows how to make me smile. This is a “Warring Pro Meat Grinder”. This model also has the capability to stuff sausage. It is one shiny, fancy machine. The Mad Meat Genius light bulb has lit. Let’s make some meatloaf.

This machine is very straight forward. One chooses one of three grinding plates (coarse, medium, fine) and assembles with blade. There is a forward and reverse switch.  That is all. The beautiful thing about this machine is; it will grind any meats you desire. Today we are grinding beef chuck and pork loin. We are using the coarse grind plate. It is good practice to partially freeze meat before grinding. This keeps the meat and fat firm to help not clog the plates. We sliced our meat into strips and let them sit in the Chilebrown Ice Cave for 45 minutes. This new grinder made fast work to transform the strips into future meatloaf. It was time to season.

Everybody has their favorite meatloaf recipe. Our loaf started with a mixture of pork loin and chuck. I made some fresh bread crumbs from some bread we had in the pantry. The bread was lightly toasted and then pulsed in a food processor. While the grinder was running a whole head of peeled garlic was run through.  Ms. Goofy went to our garden and snipped parsley, thyme, rosemary and oregano. This was washed and chopped.  Milk and eggs are the liquids to bind this mixture. We had a little cream left over so this was used instead of milk. Do not forget salt & pepper to season before forming the loaf. To gild the lily the loaf was crowned with bacon. This was all placed on a trivet in a black iron pan. It was baked in a covered bbq for an hour.  It smelled wonderful

This meatloaf was moist and flavorful. What fun to grind our own meat. We are guaranteed freshness and are able to control quality and proportions. Here is a big hug to my sister-in-law Shastina, for this wonderful gift. I am already anticipating this will be a freshly ground sliders kind of weekend. The wheels are turning for our future sausage endeavors.