Mincing meat problem

[wombat]

Have had my thermomix for about a month now and absolutely love it. My family has always killed for leftovers the next day and the past week I have had a few issues as I am becoming more adventurous.

1.  Did bolagnaise sauce last night and for the first time used my own meat to mince.  I used rump steak and the mince looked ok except for the fact it does not combine sinew very well at all.......a good mince has to have a certain amount of fat in it but it seems that even a bit of sinew does not process very well.  On cooking, the sauce looked OK but on eating it my family all gave it a thumbs down.  I couldnt eat mine at all as the slightest bit of gristle turns my stomach.  I have worked in butchers shops before and it seems the consistency of the mince was not the same as a mincing machine.  My only option seems to be to buy fillet steak to mince which i wont do.

2.  Made the beef stroganoff from the book and added all the tweaking that was suggested in this forum and it was horrible. I make stroganoff all the time and the real flavour comes from the browning of the meat.  It seems this recipe is more a "stewing" type of process and there is no flavour.
Don't get me wrong, I love my thermomix.  I am making soups all the time, fantastic rice, great for steaming veges, great dips, pastry and cakes, LSA and the list goes on but I am very disappointed with the mincer and I think there are some dishes that it probably cant duplicate....beef stroganoff being one of them.

Any ideas

[thermoheaven]

I always chill my meat in the freezer until they are firm before i mince, and you are right, it doesn't do sinew/fat, but that's the point of mincing at home, isn't it, that we cut out all the fat? i've never been able to do mince just like at the butcher's at home because i don't just the same "cuts" - a price one pays for knowing what one is eating. I think rump is fine to mince if you use the lean bits. also, i tend not to pulse the mince too much - about 3 turbo pulses does it for me - lean meat doesn't do well too fine. I also find adding the seasoning to the meat before cooking (if I add salt to a dish, i add it to the meat before cooking) helps with the texture.

I agree about the browning issue with strogg but reason that my tm does so much more than any other appliance I've ever owned that it isn't an issue. I do everything else in the tm and add the meat during the last few moments of cooking.

[wombat]

Thanks for the freezer suggestion.  Ill give it one more go and cut off all the fat i can see.  I totally agree with the thermo doing so much more.  I originally purchased for a food processor/vitamiser and steamer so everything else is a bonus. More than happy......just trying everything.  Custards are just too divine and the problem with that is we are having desserts once or twice a week which is horrific as we are a family of normally no desserts.  I suppose it is all about balance and seeing as i am no longer buying a pack of timtams once a week but making a cake or something else it is all good.

[CreamPuff63]

wombat I just don't do stroganoff after a non-cooking friend invited us over for tea and served it - yuk! put me off for life  anyway for mince I buy chump, blade etc and partially freeze and then dice up and throw in (max 500g - but does better with smaller batches)

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I rarely mince meat in the TM as I don't like the consistency.  I am not keen on the TM bolognaise and have recently gone back to my stovetop recipe for that.  I love the beef strog though, but we all have different tastes (and different pre-TM recipes to compare back too). 

[Yvette]

I make the strog with chicken exactely as in the EDC cookbook except no mushrooms absolutely divine my family favourite. I have never liked mince in the TM

[JulieO]

Yes after making mince in my TM when I first got it, and really trying to like it that way (I didn't),  I went back to using the mincer attachment on my KA.  It comes out exactly like mince should (worm like).

[meganjane]

I've been cooking more and more meat dishes in the TMX lately. Iused to believe that meat needs to be browned to get the full caramelisation/flavou, but now I've made a few dishes, I don't believe that is true at all. In fact, a lot of the juices are lost.

I love the mince made in the TMX as I remove all fat and sinew. I use Chuck Steak.

For Stroganoff, see the recipe here, based on Chelsea's with all our tweaks. Check out the note which explains how I cut the meat.

[Kazza14]

I totally agree I tried to mince pork for the sweet n sour meatball receipe from the EDC and it was awful, not only did the time specified not even get close to mincing it properly, it eventually turned it into a sludgy texture ..yuk

I love my thermie, best kitchen appliance ever......but wasn't at all impressed

[Halex]

I dont have a mincer or a KA, but I do have my beloved TM.

I have minced beef once, but from memory it wasnt that succesful otherwise I am sure I woud have done it again.

I am out of mince, but have a load of different beef cuts in my freezer.

Would love clear instructions how to mince  well.

Thanks

Hally

[mcmich]

I minced chicken breast for the first time last night.
It was partially frozen. I hit turbo 3 times and checked after each turbo hit
until I got the texture I desired. As I was mincing 500gms I did it in 2 lots.
It wasn't perfect but it was O.K. for the chicken and vegetable loaf I made.

[cookie1]

I do use the TMX for mincing chicken but not beef.

[Halex]

Yes I have found chicken to be OK, my problem is beef too, now what with that cow in my freezer, I need god advice for the beef.

H

[dragongirly]

Sorry Hally I don't have any experience mincing beef in the TM - but I have done pork.  It was not fun.  I was trying to make pork mince stuffing for Christmas (I got my TM the week before).  One of the reasons I got the TM was so I could use it to mince meat.  I didn't have fun.  I didn't take all the sinew from the pork and it managed to get all caught up arund and under the blade.  Took ages to clean out.  I ended up using tooth picks to get all of the meat out from where the blades meet in the middle. 

I haven't tried again yet - but where I live I can't get beefmince so I will be trying very soon *grin*

Looking forward to hearing about your beef mincing fun!

[dede]

I remember when we were young my dad would go out and shoot a whole heap of kangaroo. He would then hang them for a few days and bone them out. We all then took in turns turning the handle of a manual mincer to mince up kg and kg of kangaroo meat. Was such hard work as kangaroo mince is very sinuous. But it done a great job.
I just don't think the TM is very good when it comes to mincing sinuous meat. Better to have a separate mincer for that kind of thing.
But a warning if you are ever to buy a mincer, don't buy the cheap ones as they don't do a good job either. The sinew gets stuck around the shaft and you will be forever pulling it apart to remove it before you can continue.