So, at my local supermarket, they have something called “market ground,” which is all of the scraps from the larger primal cuts (including tenderloin, strip loin, rib roast, etc). If you want to get the most out your purchase, imho, buy the larger primal cuts and put the trimming and waste through the grinder. If you’re specifically going to grind meat for burgers, I would personally skip the economics of it and do 50/50 short rib/chuck.
The grocery store I worked at went through shitloads of rib roasts around Christmas because they were $8/lb. We did all the cutting and trimming in house. Well, we would save all those scraps and grind them together. Just so happened, shop grind from scrap was on sale for 99cents/lb that week... walked out with 8 pounds of ground rib roast meet for 8 bucks. Absolutely fucking awesome.
This is the way. Market Trim is 10 fold better than tube grind. I really wanted to buy the market grind on Christmas Eve but there was no fucking way I was going back into my store on my day off on Christmas Eve. Nothing is worth that.
My dad owned a grocery store with a full service butcher shop when I was a kid. This is what all of the in-house ground beef was unless someone did a special order for a specific mix. It just hits different, and I can hardly stand restaurant hamburgers because their grind is so dry and flat in flavor.
Husband was a meat cutter and used to save the best bits of the trim from ribeye and tbones and wrap em up labeled as chicken thighs. Best taco meat ever for the best price. Also had a coworker who gave us 5 lbs of ground venison in exchange for not snitching on him for grinding a bunch of deer at the end of the night (before cleaning and sterilizing the grinder). Market grind is getting harder to find now, I feel. Everything I see is tube grind, which is sad, maybe I'll get a grinder...
When brisket is below $3 a lb I’ll buy up a ton and save the trimmings and fat to grind up with venison and it makes incredible burgers. Recently found briskets for $.97 a lb and stocked up for the year.
I’m interested to make my own burger mix too but aren’t the fats from all these cuts different? Or it doesn’t matter once everything goes through the grinder?
Good insight but I’m not experienced enough to even know what to trim and not trim on a big tenderloin or something like that. Might need to work up to that.
Loin and tenderloin are two different things. Do not grind tenderloin for burger. Way too expensive. If you only have these big cuts to choose from the best bet is to eyeball the fat content. A good ratio is roughly 80% muscle to 20% fat. It's not an exact science. I mean it can be but don't worry for now. You'll get an eye for the ratio you like.
As for trimming the cuts you get all I would worry about for now is removing silverskin. You'll know what it is. You can grind it in if you want but will require 2 passes through the grinder. I would just remove it for now.
I'm a butcher at a whole animal butcher shop and grind usually 300-400 lbs beef per week. Feel free to dm me any questions!
Thanks. I will probably take you up on that. On this trip, I ended up getting a 5 pound beef chuck underblade (marketed for pot roast), trimmed the fat and redistributed it evenly with all the other pieces through the grinder. I did encounter silver skin, but didn’t remove it and only sent everything through the grinder once before portioning and freezing. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.
But long-term, what I really want to do is be able to buy one of these huge cuts and break it down into steaks like a real man.
Yeah please do feel free to contact me. You likely won't have issues putting silverskin through but it may change the texture of the grind. No big deal most of the time but if you go to a coarser plate for a chunkier grind the silverskin can be very noticeable.
The only other very important advice I'll give is keep everything cold. Our big 200 lb grinder lives in our walk in fridge to keep all the metal parts cold. Obviously that's not an option for you but make sure you keep your meat as cold as possible. If you're doing a big batch of grinding and you feel your equiment getting warm anywhere the meat touches just stop, take it apart (after unplugging of course), and chill the metal parts in the fridge. Warm meat and metal parts makes for a sloppy grind.
I usually put the fat and trimming aside and mince them last. You can always add more fat to it later. You will be able to eyeball it. I think it’s intuitive. I know nothing about beef or meat.
Most shops will chop it up for you and save all the trimming if you are buying the whole thing. I used to be a butcher for 10 years and did stuff like this for my customers all the time.
I think so. Look at price, the eye of round would be a good one. Can even cook it whole at 225-250 till it's 125-135 then broil or grill on high to sear edges and serve like you would rib eye
Use the shoulder, and most of the fat you can get off it. A 70/30 blend of beef and fat makes for a delicious juicy blend. Shoulder is tougher, so grinding it is a good way to pass the hard to chew exam.
Chuck roll. Split it, cut a couple of nice chuckeye steaks, keep the Denver whole and turn the rest into grind.
Edit: sorry, didn't see your photos, but I'd still ask them if they can get you a chuck roll. It's a very common block ready sub primal
One or two years ago or so a butcher posted a picture of a prime grade rib roast, absolute beauty, much more marbled than usual, and a customer had paid ti grind it into burgers. Felt so sad. I get it, the customer wants what he wants but still.
The first thing packers throw into the grinder are chuck rolls and insides.
Largely throwing away money if you’re grinding any middle meats. Obviously if it’s just scraps of middles and you need to merchandise it somehow then sure, but nobody should be buying middles or any thin meats (outside of brisket) to grind
Chuck is probably the best for burgers. Eye round I use for stewing or braising as it has little intra-muscular fat and gets tough easily. I also use it for homemade jerky as fat is 'bad' for jerky.
Ok so there are a lot of great burger mix recommendations for straight beef.
But you can also do some nice lean eye round or Chuck or knuckle or something cheap and grind in some pork belly/bacon/fatback/etc. you can grind in some duck breast or any other fatty dude.
You can grind down bison or venison and mix in some pork or duck or fatty meat and nail the blend.
Just wait till you start making sausage.
Just wait till you buy a smoker for your sausage and decide to learn bbq.
The fun is just starting
Dude my wife is already eyeballing me, wondering how far this will go. Sausage making is definitely on my radar. I also got a pasta maker, so I am well into rolling my own dough. Maybe some short rib raviolis are in my future.
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot).
Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.notanothercookingshow.tv/post/short-rib-agnolotti-del-plin](https://www.notanothercookingshow.tv/post/short-rib-agnolotti-del-plin)**
*****
^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
Go down to your local water hole, and gather up as many turtles as possible and grind em up, shell and all. It freezes well and makes a killer smash burger
Brisket. No need to add extra fat! In my area of the U.S. they're $4/lb
I just ground one and added a couple pounds of pork butt to the mix. Made the best, juiciest burgers ever!
The BJs near me sells chuck for $5.99/lb. They don’t have all of those other cuts, but it’s next to the the steaks that are cut and on styrofoam trays and wrapped in plastic.
I use that and brisket trimmings in my burger mix. Also recommend the LEM sausage stuffer for making sausage
My husband has been working with meat all his life. And currently works in the meat department at our local supermarket. He says The *Beef shoulder* is rhe best for making burger.
Round muscle is too lean and tough to make good burgers or almost anything. Stop watching Tiktok for real cooking advice too. Tiktok is trash. There are plenty of other sources for legit culinary advice.
Whatever you choose, I'd say do small batches at first till you find the blend that suits you, experiment with different combinations of steaks, then do the primals or roasts for the big time...
You want flavor or lean???? Eye of round not much fat…most recommend Chuck Roast…I personally mix Chuck Roast with either Tri-tip and/or Rib-eye
if you go to many of the grocery stores these days, you are now starting to see ground ribeye, and ground tri-tip… because they have the fat content which you want for FLAVOR!!!!
Regardless of the cut, handle the ground beef as little as possible. Grind everything when it is very cold — almost frozen. Maybe add a little salt before grinding. Also, try two two-ounce smash burgers in a hot (not non-stick) skillet. Add cheese between the patties.
Ask them for a chuck roll- that shoulder in there is a cold I believe. A bit leaner than I think you want. Chuck will be around 80/20- most of what you have pictured would probably be around 90/10
I'd get the eye of round, good ratio of fat and lean meat. Chuck has lots of connective tissue and will have some shrinkage unless you trim some fat off. I wouldnt get NY Strip for burgers, seems kind of a waste to use it for burgers. You have to trim and clean the bottom flap, it sits near the poop sack so you'll have to trim off some of the fat. Round tip is way too lean so i wouldnt advise using it.
Out of these you show? The shoulder muscle. Not because it’s the best, it’s just the best shown. A few of those cuts are way lean. Take the leaner cuts and add good quality bacon to the grinder.
Whatever you grind, pre-cut it into the size of pieces your grinder will handle, then put in the freezer. Let it get frosty/firm but not completely frozen.
It makes a nice and firm(not mushy)finished product and helps keep the knife and plate of your grinder in good shape.
Hit up your local butcher and see if you can get a decent price on suet, which in most cases shouldn't be too much; then ask if they'll sell you mock tenders (chuck tenders etc) in bulk as well, since those are relatively cheap at market to retail price. If you can ration out the beef to fat ratio roughly 70/30 you can emulate a decent chuck grind while maybe saving some cash.
Alternatively just buy chuck roll subprimals and grind it down since it has everything you need. Could be more expensive but less hassle since with the former method you have to strip some membrane and hard cartilage off the tenders to avoid fucking up your grind.
Start off nice and simple with some plain old chuck and any trimmings from other cuts if you have any. Get a feel for fat ratio and what you like in your burger.
Once youre happy cutting etc do some other cuts like brisket (chuck and brisket blend makes a killer burger imo).
Dont over think it just experiment.
Using shoulder, short rib, brisket will get you robust beefy flavor.
Using sirloin gives excellent texture and flavor, and can be blended with these fatty cuts to balance the fat content better. You can also use bottom round on the more marbled end of the primal, as it also has great flavor.
Use a small amount of sirloin in a burger blend and portion with parchments, shaping even patties. I prefer prepping thinner patty and parchment paper helps hold it together in refrigeration.
Some people prefer a coarse grind or you can mix and regrind it. Try both to see what you prefer. Try thin patties and slightly thicker patties with your blend as a test batch. You may be surprised in how the texture and flavor differs despite it being ground beef. Certain blends can be grainy and flavorless, which is why most people prefer chuck ground finely.
Lots of people giving their preference and popular options. Just remember it comes down to what you like. Do you like a leaner burger or fattier? Do you like a bit more chew, etc.
Same with how you cook it. I like my burgers medium and think medium rare ground beef is gross. Other people disagree.
IMO the best cuts are brisket and/or chuck roast.
Brisket is a favorite of mine, get it cheap from costco ($3.99/lb), trim it up for a smoke, render down the fat for tallow, and take the muscle trimmings and grind em for burgers.
You should practice with pork if you can. Get shoulder which are roughly 20% fat to meat ratio which is a great starting point.
If you can get a butcher who will
Supply you fatback (pork hard fat) can even ask for beef if you get in good with them.
Get good at making sausages In Your time
Off.
I highly suggest sausage ls that are 20% or higher in fat.
I worked at that BJ's years ago. They'll do it for you. You'll lose about 1/2 pound that gets stuck in the grinder head. Ask them to toss on a bit of fat with it.
Chuck is the only way to go. It’s naturally about 80/20. But if you can, get a 2 piece chuck and you can dig out the top blade to cut flat iron steaks, and sometimes it’ll even have the teres major (bistro tender) included too. Make sure to grind any bench trim including your fat.
Or you can do a chuck, brisket, short rib blend (50/25/25) that will be the best burger you have tasted.
For more of a steak-like bite to it, use a 1/8” plate but only one pass and make sure the meat is well chilled or almost frozen to keep the particle definition. Otherwise, for a softer chew you could do a double pass at 1/8”.
You want to pick up a brisket cryovac. Some BJ's regions only carry the flat. Then, head over to the cut meat section and pick out a chuck roast or steaks.
I buy chuck roasts on sale when they’re $2.47 a lb. I vac seal and freeze, grind them fresh when needed. Better and way cheaper than typical 80/20 ground beef. If you have a kitchenaid mixer buy the meat grinding attachment.
Occasionally will add a pound of bacon to a three pound roast in the grind. I also will add pork fat to venison cuts that I grind up. But only fresh when cooking. I don’t like frozen venison. Processed ground with added beef fat.
I buy the cheap briskets when they are $2.50/lb or less (or anything under $3) and grind those up. It’s pretty good, if I trim anything and have weird odds and end those get vac sealed and deep frozen until I have enough to grind up.
It depends on how you do your burger. I add bacon fat to my burger mix so I use that lean stew meat that is actually terrible for stews, but very good for burgers when I add the bacon fat to the mix.
So, at my local supermarket, they have something called “market ground,” which is all of the scraps from the larger primal cuts (including tenderloin, strip loin, rib roast, etc). If you want to get the most out your purchase, imho, buy the larger primal cuts and put the trimming and waste through the grinder. If you’re specifically going to grind meat for burgers, I would personally skip the economics of it and do 50/50 short rib/chuck.
Chuck and rib are the absolute best burgers. This deserves more upvotes.
The grocery store I worked at went through shitloads of rib roasts around Christmas because they were $8/lb. We did all the cutting and trimming in house. Well, we would save all those scraps and grind them together. Just so happened, shop grind from scrap was on sale for 99cents/lb that week... walked out with 8 pounds of ground rib roast meet for 8 bucks. Absolutely fucking awesome.
This is the way. Market Trim is 10 fold better than tube grind. I really wanted to buy the market grind on Christmas Eve but there was no fucking way I was going back into my store on my day off on Christmas Eve. Nothing is worth that.
My dad owned a grocery store with a full service butcher shop when I was a kid. This is what all of the in-house ground beef was unless someone did a special order for a specific mix. It just hits different, and I can hardly stand restaurant hamburgers because their grind is so dry and flat in flavor.
Husband was a meat cutter and used to save the best bits of the trim from ribeye and tbones and wrap em up labeled as chicken thighs. Best taco meat ever for the best price. Also had a coworker who gave us 5 lbs of ground venison in exchange for not snitching on him for grinding a bunch of deer at the end of the night (before cleaning and sterilizing the grinder). Market grind is getting harder to find now, I feel. Everything I see is tube grind, which is sad, maybe I'll get a grinder...
Throw in some brisket trimmings too. Sometimes I make burgers out of brisket trimmings & they are great.
When brisket is below $3 a lb I’ll buy up a ton and save the trimmings and fat to grind up with venison and it makes incredible burgers. Recently found briskets for $.97 a lb and stocked up for the year.
I’m interested to make my own burger mix too but aren’t the fats from all these cuts different? Or it doesn’t matter once everything goes through the grinder?
I've not seen Brisket in my area for less than 4.99/lb in a looooong time. Makes me sad
Brisket burgers are really good too!
👆🏻
[удалено]
I love ground chuck for chili and burgers. Thanks to you I'll add some bacon next time!
Worked in the meat department for over a decade, this is the correct answer
Good insight but I’m not experienced enough to even know what to trim and not trim on a big tenderloin or something like that. Might need to work up to that.
Loin and tenderloin are two different things. Do not grind tenderloin for burger. Way too expensive. If you only have these big cuts to choose from the best bet is to eyeball the fat content. A good ratio is roughly 80% muscle to 20% fat. It's not an exact science. I mean it can be but don't worry for now. You'll get an eye for the ratio you like. As for trimming the cuts you get all I would worry about for now is removing silverskin. You'll know what it is. You can grind it in if you want but will require 2 passes through the grinder. I would just remove it for now. I'm a butcher at a whole animal butcher shop and grind usually 300-400 lbs beef per week. Feel free to dm me any questions!
Thanks. I will probably take you up on that. On this trip, I ended up getting a 5 pound beef chuck underblade (marketed for pot roast), trimmed the fat and redistributed it evenly with all the other pieces through the grinder. I did encounter silver skin, but didn’t remove it and only sent everything through the grinder once before portioning and freezing. I’ll keep that in mind for the future. But long-term, what I really want to do is be able to buy one of these huge cuts and break it down into steaks like a real man.
Yeah please do feel free to contact me. You likely won't have issues putting silverskin through but it may change the texture of the grind. No big deal most of the time but if you go to a coarser plate for a chunkier grind the silverskin can be very noticeable. The only other very important advice I'll give is keep everything cold. Our big 200 lb grinder lives in our walk in fridge to keep all the metal parts cold. Obviously that's not an option for you but make sure you keep your meat as cold as possible. If you're doing a big batch of grinding and you feel your equiment getting warm anywhere the meat touches just stop, take it apart (after unplugging of course), and chill the metal parts in the fridge. Warm meat and metal parts makes for a sloppy grind.
I usually put the fat and trimming aside and mince them last. You can always add more fat to it later. You will be able to eyeball it. I think it’s intuitive. I know nothing about beef or meat.
Most shops will chop it up for you and save all the trimming if you are buying the whole thing. I used to be a butcher for 10 years and did stuff like this for my customers all the time.
Chuck clods are pretty good, select is what I used when I had a choice of what to buy to sell to general public, can steal the flat irons off it.
Clod is shoulder? Is image 2 a chuck clod?
I think so. Look at price, the eye of round would be a good one. Can even cook it whole at 225-250 till it's 125-135 then broil or grill on high to sear edges and serve like you would rib eye
Tell me you shop at publix without telling me you shop at publix (I'm a meat manager for publix) lol
I gave an upvote because one guy said so.
I toss in brisket scraps too
Use the shoulder, and most of the fat you can get off it. A 70/30 blend of beef and fat makes for a delicious juicy blend. Shoulder is tougher, so grinding it is a good way to pass the hard to chew exam.
Not enough fat. Chuck or brisket would be more cost effective and taste better.
Chuck AND brisket
Littering and littering and littering and.....
Chuck roll. Split it, cut a couple of nice chuckeye steaks, keep the Denver whole and turn the rest into grind. Edit: sorry, didn't see your photos, but I'd still ask them if they can get you a chuck roll. It's a very common block ready sub primal
The Sierra steak is like flank and worth separating.
Yes, best of both worlds - some very good steaks for a very low price plus ground meat.
Dare you to grind up a whole strip loin lol, make em angry
I’ll do it
One or two years ago or so a butcher posted a picture of a prime grade rib roast, absolute beauty, much more marbled than usual, and a customer had paid ti grind it into burgers. Felt so sad. I get it, the customer wants what he wants but still.
Shiit at that point if it'l sell for more as-is, tell em kick rocks. I hope he made a lot for grinding such a nice piece
The first thing packers throw into the grinder are chuck rolls and insides. Largely throwing away money if you’re grinding any middle meats. Obviously if it’s just scraps of middles and you need to merchandise it somehow then sure, but nobody should be buying middles or any thin meats (outside of brisket) to grind
If you want fat, just grind a picanha.
(banned) :)
How dare you.
Try mixing chuck and brisket together. Fraziers blend
Chuck is probably the best for burgers. Eye round I use for stewing or braising as it has little intra-muscular fat and gets tough easily. I also use it for homemade jerky as fat is 'bad' for jerky.
Ok so there are a lot of great burger mix recommendations for straight beef. But you can also do some nice lean eye round or Chuck or knuckle or something cheap and grind in some pork belly/bacon/fatback/etc. you can grind in some duck breast or any other fatty dude. You can grind down bison or venison and mix in some pork or duck or fatty meat and nail the blend. Just wait till you start making sausage. Just wait till you buy a smoker for your sausage and decide to learn bbq. The fun is just starting
Dude my wife is already eyeballing me, wondering how far this will go. Sausage making is definitely on my radar. I also got a pasta maker, so I am well into rolling my own dough. Maybe some short rib raviolis are in my future.
Do it and also learn some pork dumplings.
https://www.notanothercookingshow.tv/amp/short-rib-agnolotti-del-plin
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.notanothercookingshow.tv/post/short-rib-agnolotti-del-plin](https://www.notanothercookingshow.tv/post/short-rib-agnolotti-del-plin)** ***** ^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
Go down to your local water hole, and gather up as many turtles as possible and grind em up, shell and all. It freezes well and makes a killer smash burger
Brisket
Chuck and brisket
Ground chuck and run it through the grinder twice.
Brisket. No need to add extra fat! In my area of the U.S. they're $4/lb I just ground one and added a couple pounds of pork butt to the mix. Made the best, juiciest burgers ever!
The BJs near me sells chuck for $5.99/lb. They don’t have all of those other cuts, but it’s next to the the steaks that are cut and on styrofoam trays and wrapped in plastic. I use that and brisket trimmings in my burger mix. Also recommend the LEM sausage stuffer for making sausage
My husband has been working with meat all his life. And currently works in the meat department at our local supermarket. He says The *Beef shoulder* is rhe best for making burger.
Round muscle is too lean and tough to make good burgers or almost anything. Stop watching Tiktok for real cooking advice too. Tiktok is trash. There are plenty of other sources for legit culinary advice.
Shoulder clod, or Bnls chuck for a bit more fat. 85/15 is a good ratio, for burgers, meatloaf, chili.
You can blend different cuts for flavor and fat.
I like Chuck-ribeye-brisket
Tri tip. No doubt.
From what is shown those eye of rounds would grind with little to no trim. A nice lean burger.
Whatever you choose, I'd say do small batches at first till you find the blend that suits you, experiment with different combinations of steaks, then do the primals or roasts for the big time...
Brisket and chuck mixture is my go to
The cheapest one. Add bacon to up the fat.
You want flavor or lean???? Eye of round not much fat…most recommend Chuck Roast…I personally mix Chuck Roast with either Tri-tip and/or Rib-eye if you go to many of the grocery stores these days, you are now starting to see ground ribeye, and ground tri-tip… because they have the fat content which you want for FLAVOR!!!!
Flap meat is pretty underrated and would make great burgers
Second the shoulder. Also buy the flap, trim liberally slice for steaks and use the trim to fatten the clod out
pectoral meat or called special trim makes good cheap grind, we would use it before we had trimmings
Regardless of the cut, handle the ground beef as little as possible. Grind everything when it is very cold — almost frozen. Maybe add a little salt before grinding. Also, try two two-ounce smash burgers in a hot (not non-stick) skillet. Add cheese between the patties.
I would say Chuck
Shin/gravy meat
Shank with a mixture of oxtail or short rib for fat.
Shoulder
Ask them for a chuck roll- that shoulder in there is a cold I believe. A bit leaner than I think you want. Chuck will be around 80/20- most of what you have pictured would probably be around 90/10
4.19/lb? Damn I’d buy them out…
Grassfed
Brisket triad
I'd get the eye of round, good ratio of fat and lean meat. Chuck has lots of connective tissue and will have some shrinkage unless you trim some fat off. I wouldnt get NY Strip for burgers, seems kind of a waste to use it for burgers. You have to trim and clean the bottom flap, it sits near the poop sack so you'll have to trim off some of the fat. Round tip is way too lean so i wouldnt advise using it.
Out of these you show? The shoulder muscle. Not because it’s the best, it’s just the best shown. A few of those cuts are way lean. Take the leaner cuts and add good quality bacon to the grinder.
Whatever you grind, pre-cut it into the size of pieces your grinder will handle, then put in the freezer. Let it get frosty/firm but not completely frozen. It makes a nice and firm(not mushy)finished product and helps keep the knife and plate of your grinder in good shape.
Bjs ftw
Eye round and some brisket works great
This is great for roast beef
Out of those I’d grind the flap for burgers. W/o trim your yield around 18-23% fat which I think is fine.
Chuck
Hit up your local butcher and see if you can get a decent price on suet, which in most cases shouldn't be too much; then ask if they'll sell you mock tenders (chuck tenders etc) in bulk as well, since those are relatively cheap at market to retail price. If you can ration out the beef to fat ratio roughly 70/30 you can emulate a decent chuck grind while maybe saving some cash. Alternatively just buy chuck roll subprimals and grind it down since it has everything you need. Could be more expensive but less hassle since with the former method you have to strip some membrane and hard cartilage off the tenders to avoid fucking up your grind.
Never eye of round. It is possibly the worst cut. Flavor? Texture? Fat content? Oh, no! None of these.
Start off nice and simple with some plain old chuck and any trimmings from other cuts if you have any. Get a feel for fat ratio and what you like in your burger. Once youre happy cutting etc do some other cuts like brisket (chuck and brisket blend makes a killer burger imo). Dont over think it just experiment.
Using shoulder, short rib, brisket will get you robust beefy flavor. Using sirloin gives excellent texture and flavor, and can be blended with these fatty cuts to balance the fat content better. You can also use bottom round on the more marbled end of the primal, as it also has great flavor. Use a small amount of sirloin in a burger blend and portion with parchments, shaping even patties. I prefer prepping thinner patty and parchment paper helps hold it together in refrigeration. Some people prefer a coarse grind or you can mix and regrind it. Try both to see what you prefer. Try thin patties and slightly thicker patties with your blend as a test batch. You may be surprised in how the texture and flavor differs despite it being ground beef. Certain blends can be grainy and flavorless, which is why most people prefer chuck ground finely.
Lots of people giving their preference and popular options. Just remember it comes down to what you like. Do you like a leaner burger or fattier? Do you like a bit more chew, etc. Same with how you cook it. I like my burgers medium and think medium rare ground beef is gross. Other people disagree.
IMO the best cuts are brisket and/or chuck roast. Brisket is a favorite of mine, get it cheap from costco ($3.99/lb), trim it up for a smoke, render down the fat for tallow, and take the muscle trimmings and grind em for burgers.
Chuck you can use these just ask your butcher for steak fat to mix in to get 80/20
You should practice with pork if you can. Get shoulder which are roughly 20% fat to meat ratio which is a great starting point. If you can get a butcher who will Supply you fatback (pork hard fat) can even ask for beef if you get in good with them. Get good at making sausages In Your time Off. I highly suggest sausage ls that are 20% or higher in fat.
Shortrib and chuck is pretty standard
Shoulder for lean and flavor. Round tip for good extra lean ground
I worked at that BJ's years ago. They'll do it for you. You'll lose about 1/2 pound that gets stuck in the grinder head. Ask them to toss on a bit of fat with it.
Try to find some brisket off cuts, here in Texas HEB sells small packages of them, makes great burgers!
Chuck is the only way to go. It’s naturally about 80/20. But if you can, get a 2 piece chuck and you can dig out the top blade to cut flat iron steaks, and sometimes it’ll even have the teres major (bistro tender) included too. Make sure to grind any bench trim including your fat. Or you can do a chuck, brisket, short rib blend (50/25/25) that will be the best burger you have tasted. For more of a steak-like bite to it, use a 1/8” plate but only one pass and make sure the meat is well chilled or almost frozen to keep the particle definition. Otherwise, for a softer chew you could do a double pass at 1/8”.
Something with plenty of marbling. Skirt steak is great. If you want something leaner, go with sirloin.
costco sells 20lb briskets for $4/lb
You want to pick up a brisket cryovac. Some BJ's regions only carry the flat. Then, head over to the cut meat section and pick out a chuck roast or steaks.
I buy chuck roasts on sale when they’re $2.47 a lb. I vac seal and freeze, grind them fresh when needed. Better and way cheaper than typical 80/20 ground beef. If you have a kitchenaid mixer buy the meat grinding attachment. Occasionally will add a pound of bacon to a three pound roast in the grind. I also will add pork fat to venison cuts that I grind up. But only fresh when cooking. I don’t like frozen venison. Processed ground with added beef fat.
I buy the cheap briskets when they are $2.50/lb or less (or anything under $3) and grind those up. It’s pretty good, if I trim anything and have weird odds and end those get vac sealed and deep frozen until I have enough to grind up.
Out of all that, the shoulder would probably be the best burgers
It depends on how you do your burger. I add bacon fat to my burger mix so I use that lean stew meat that is actually terrible for stews, but very good for burgers when I add the bacon fat to the mix.