As is the case with any dish that requires ground meat in the Belly Full household, I purchase whole cuts and then grind it myself. Not only do you not know what part of the animal your ground meat came from, but knows what other meat (or non-meat) was pushed through the grinder before my order was ground? I like to control the variables as much as possible and the only way to make sure that the meat was ground with the minimum amount of cross-contamination danger possible is to do it myself.
We received a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer as a wedding gift about 2 years ago so I purchased a grinding attachment for it and works well enough for my purposes. You can purchase stand-alone meat grinders (both electric and manual) if you don’t have a stand mixer. It’s a bit more work to grind your own meat, but I think that being able to do custom mixes with different cuts of meat (i.e. short rib, chuck, sirloin, brisket, etc) is a great trade-off. To ensure cleanliness and reduce cross-contamination, I make sure to wash the grinding attachment in very hot, soapy water with a bit of vinegar diluted in it . . . → Read More: A Case For Grinding Your Own Meat
