All You Need Is A Cleaver To Replicate Machine-Ground Meat

There are many delicious dishes to make with ground beef, but you might still be stuck in hamburger mode. There could be several reasons for this: Store-bought ground beef isn't the most appetizing thing, and the variety is limited. If you're into the idea of grinding your own beef (and you should be), meat grinders tend to be bulky, expensive, and kind of a pain to clean. However, this shouldn't dissuade you from grinding meat at home — because it can be accomplished with a simple meat cleaver. 

If you already own a meat grinder (hand-operated or not), you probably know that they require scrupulous cleaning for obvious reasons: No appliance should be an E. coli factory. Cleaning a manual meat grinder usually involves running a paper towel through it to dislodge little meat particles, then disassembling the machine entirely and thoroughly scrubbing each part in hot, soapy water. After that, the grinder pieces should be thoroughly dried before the cross knife, worm, and disc are carefully oiled. Or, you could simply pull out a good cleaver and mince the beef just as fine. It's your call.

You want to grind your meat for every reason: quality control, freshness, and the ability to choose your own cuts instead of whatever's pre-ground at the grocery store. Even when making hamburgers, you'll have the option of curating a blend of sirloin, chuck, and even dry-aged beef — while avoiding the over-the-hill, potentially contaminated pre-ground stuff identified by little more than its fat content. Of course, meat grinders are great for doing this job (and food processors less so), but the most popular electric ones cost way more than a simple meat cleaver. 

So, what exactly is a cleaver? For starters, it's different from a chef's knife or even a butcher's knife. Cleavers are the ones with the larger, rectangular blades. Some are quite heavy: They're made to cut through bone. You won't need one of those to mince meat. Once the beef has been cut into sufficiently small pieces, keep chopping, mincing, and folding the meat back on itself (the large, flat blade is perfect for scooping) until the meat is fine enough to use for a burger or meatballs — finer than ground beef. Best of all, when compared to electric meat grinders, a high-quality cleaver is comparatively inexpensive, a cinch to clean, and can be used for every other food preparation task beyond meat grinding.

If you're looking for one phenomenal, balanced, not-prohibitively-expensive blade that can mince meat as easily as it can julienne fresh basil, you should turn your attention to the classic Chinese chef's knife; ideally one with a stainless steel blade. These knives are shaped like cleavers (and some are also robust enough to cut through bone), but the lighter ones (known as caidao) are designed to be your go-to all-rounder kitchen blade. They can chop, dice, mince, and be used as a scoop.

A well-made Chinese chef's blade can be purchased at any Asian food market or online. Perfectly durable steel blades won't run you more than $100 (though you can spend much more than that if you're so inclined), are easily cleaned, and — if kept sharp and stored properly (neither of which is hard) — will still be used by generations to come. Much of the time, job-specific kitchen gadgets are wonderful things. But, sometimes, you're better off sticking with an all-rounder that can grind meat as easily as any other slicing or dicing job.