By connective tissue I mean gristle, basically. Commercial
burger has a LOT of gristle in it, usually. Which makes tough
burgers. You don't want gristle for things that will be cooked
fast.

You want gristle though, when you are slow cooking. It breaks
down to make gel and is very tasty. Also good for your joints.
Really gristly meat, like ox tails or shank meat,
make the best stew. You can save the gristly
white stuff off your roasts and slow cook it
later. There isn't much though on the Costco roasts: they
are mostly already trimmed.

You want some fat for steak, though that is a matter of
opinion obviously. It's difficult to grill foods though if they
are very low fat, and still have them be tender.

Hamburgers that are totally lean are usually on the dry side.
It's best to mix the burger with something else. Actually this
is true for any hamburger ... adding something like ground
onions makes a better burger! But for making tacos or whatever,
it doesn't really matter how much fat is in it. It drains out
anyway, so it's a waste to have it in the burger. I think
it is done commercially mainly because it's an easy
way to get more money for the burger.

So if all you want is hamburger, I'd probably go with
a round roast, because they are generally the cheapest,
and have almost zero fat or connective tissue.

Also, I find hamburger to taste better if it is not ground
quite so finely. Home grinders in general aren't very
fine grind, so they make outstanding hamburger.
Commercial burger is very finely ground, partly because
it has a lot of gristle in it and it's made from very
bad beef (old dairy cows mainly). The old hand-crank
ones like your Mom's are the best. They still sell them,
and they don't cost all that much.

As for tortillas, I envy you! I've tried, but mine break when
I try to make them. I DO have a tortilla maker, but
clearly I am missing something about the process.



On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 10:09 AM, Karen <laurvick@...> wrote:
> Thank you.
>
> I was thinking of buying the roast merely to grind it up to make burger.
>
> You talk about the amount of fat and the connective tissue; since I want
> lean, I don't want too much fat on the roast, but I don't understand the
> 'connective tissue' part - if I can eyeball it, what am I looking for?  What
> is desireable?
>
> And now I must call my mom and see if she still has her meat grinder!
>
> I bought, for fun, a tortilla maker as I made them all the time as a kid.
> The kids love tortillas and I asked myself why in the world we were not
> making our own?
>
> --