Custom Burger Meat Blend. What Would You Do?

[jklip13]

I'm totally joking, I haven't ever tried it with the "crust" just that yellowish fat most people remove underneath.

 

[mr drinky]

Mucho mas bacteria. I've asked a couple of meat providers about a dry aged burger and neither would do it. They claim that because the meat is ground you've significantly increased the surface area and in turn created an environment in which the bacteria can grow exponentially.

There are places that do make burgers with dry-aged meat though. If you simply google it, you find meat purveyors selling it, articles about eating establishments that serve them etc. Flannery Beef dry ages a lot of meat, so even if they trim off the most inedible parts, there is still going to be some trimmings left that impart that aged flavor. This is one article talks about dry-aged burgers.

Anyhow, I made some burgers out of one of my packets and they turned out interestingly good. The wagyu fat is more oily, so it had a distinctive smoothness in the mouth compared to other burgers, and the dry-aged bits did lend a blue-ish cheese taste to the meat.

k.

 

[brainsausage]

I've done dry aged tar-tar and burgers from prime-rib that I dry aged. Just wiped down the outside with a salt brine after removing the rind.

 

[ptolemy]

I did a run today with a blend (in post #1) and it came out amazing. Few things I learned: needs pickles to cut through the richness... needed more salt and pepper for crust, flavor. I used caramelized onions as topping. I am also thinking of adding 2 slices of bacon for extra saltiness/smokiness.

 

[Bill13]

Those look great, and more bacon is never a bad thing.

 

[Jovidah]

Mucho mas bacteria. I've asked a couple of meat providers about a dry aged burger and neither would do it. They claim that because the meat is ground you've significantly increased the surface area and in turn created an environment in which the bacteria can grow exponentially.

This may sound dumb, but don't you dry age the meat before you ground it? Hence it not being a problem?

I actually found one brand of burgers (Kettyle, they're Irish) that have some dry aged meat in it... though at the 10% mark so I suppose it's more for marketing than taste. I have to say though that they are the most awesome pre-made burgers I have ever found everywhere... they blow everything else I have found in regards to burgers (supposed Wagyu, organic uruguay meat, and what not) at the restaurant wholesalers completely out of the water. Completely made making my own burgers completely pointless as the meat quality was far better than any ground meat I could acquire myself. If you ever see them I can definitly recommend them.

 

[ThEoRy]

I was talking about the bacteria ridden ends (the black and green moldy cap) being ground up into the mix thereby contaminating the rest of the meat.

 

[Jovidah]

At the risk of further proving my ignorance... don't you just trim those off before you throw it into the grinder? I'm a bit of a noob in this regard, but I thought when you trim off all the crap on the outside you have pretty clean meat? (albeit tenderized due to enzymes and with more concentrated flavour due to evaporation of water)
Or are they afraid they'd still contaminate the meat during the trimming process?

 

[ThEoRy]

That's exactly what I was warning against. Making sure to not grind that into the mix. With it being called "Dry Aged Steak Ends" it makes me think twice about it.

 

[Jovidah]

Thanks for clearing that up. I think dry aging meat is really one of those things where you absolutely have to know what you're doing. It's one of those rare things I'm disinclined to dip my toe in as a home cook and would rather leave to the professionals...