Michael Ruhlman has reposted his item on making really good hamburgers the best way possible—by grinding your own meat. (He feels about packaged ground beef the way I feel about frozen preformed patties.) But is it feasible/practical? I know people who have a distaste for handling raw beef. They’d rather not know how these things are made. And I imagine cleaning your grinder would have to be a labor of love. And you’d have to go out of your way to purchase a good grinder. My solution: Ask for it as a present. Or even better, to my friends who are getting married and registering products they will use only once (such as, say, a breadmaker or a panini press), register instead a meat grinder! Then invite me over for a test-run. I’ll bring the beef.
Grind your own beef? If you really want to guarantee quality you need to raise your own beef. Then you can breed the ideal bull/cow combination for ground beef quality and raise the offspring to your requirements.
Cleaning grinders isn’t too big of a deal. The meaty bits come off just so you can clean them.