Making Ground Pork

I have trust issues, especially when it comes to ground meat. It is somewhat of a mystery to me what they put into meat that's been processed. What part of the pig or cow did they use? Did they add anything extra? Who knows?! So I decided to grind my own meat. That way, I know what went into my meat, and I can control the amount of fat that goes into the ground meat.

Since I've been dabbling into pork, I decided to make ground pork. I put my trusty KitchenAid to the challenge with the help of the food grinder attachment. It wasn't an easy or a clean task, but I thought it was well worth it for a peace of mind.


I got some pork shoulder and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes after I cut it into cubes. Briefly freezing the meat makes the grinding process a bit easier - the meat is more firm and less sticky. I started off the first pass with a coarse grind, and wanted to follow with a second pass with the fine grind. The coarse grinding was much easier than the fine grinding, which took a lot more time, so I decided to just do half of the meat in the fine texture. I then mixed the two evenly to make sure I had equal distribution throughout, and it came out well in the end. Instead of making the usual delicious Turkey Dumplings, I made Pork Dumplings with the ground meat!