How to Mince Meat

Preparing Meat for Cutting

Buy inexpensive cuts of meat. Choose shoulder or flank meat for minced beef, pork, or lamb. Stick with dark meat for chicken and turkey. These cuts are cheaper and have the right amount of fat for proper mince. Better cuts of meat like rib eye or chops are not usually ground up. If you are not sure exactly what to buy, ask the butcher or a person at the meat counter of your local grocery store.

Trim off remaining connective tissue. When you get the meat home, check it over for any tendons, connective tissue, or cartilage that may still be on it. Use a sharp knife to cut off these portions and throw them away. When you grind up the meat, these tissues will be noticeable in the mince if you don’t remove them.

Leave the fat on the meat. Proper minced meat contains fat, so be sure not to cut all of it off while you are cutting the other parts. It’s okay to cut some of the fat if you are aiming for a lean minced meat, but it will mince and cook better if you leave some of the fat on it.

Using a Food Processor

Cut the meat into chunks. Using the sharp knife, cut the meat into one to two inch (2.5 cm to 5 cm) cubes. They do not have to all be the same size, and they don’t all have to be exact cubes. Use 1-2 inches and cube-shaped as a guide that can be adjusted to the specific pieces of meat you’re using.

Freeze the meat and the food processor for 20-30 minutes. Lay the meat chunks in a single layer on a baking sheet. Place them in the freezer to firm up. This should be at least 15 minutes and up to about 30 minutes. They should become firm but not frozen. Place the blade and bowl of the food processor in the freezer, too. Chilling the meat gives you cleaner cuts and keeps the fat from melting during the chopping process. The same concept applies to the food processor. A cold blade and bowl chop better.

Place the meat into the food processor in small batches. To make sure the food processor runs well and chops the meat evenly, don’t fill it excessively full. Throw a couple of handfuls of meat into the processor at a time. The size of your food processor will ultimately determine how much you can mince at one time.

Pulse the food processor until the meat is chopped. If your food processor has a pulse setting, use this as opposed to a setting that runs non-stop. Pulse the meat at a speed of 6-8 for a few seconds at a time, checking the meat after 3-4 pulses. The meat should begin to form a ball around the edges. It is better to leave the meat less chopped than to over-process it. If you end up with a smeary paste, you’ve definitely processed it for too long.

Chopping Meat by Hand

Slice the meat into long chunks. Using a sharp knife, cut the meat lengthwise into long chunks. Use either a meat cleaver or another chopping style knife. The slices should be about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick on all sides, so if you have a thicker cut of meat, trim it down to this size. The pieces can be as long or short as you want.

Cut the meat into thinner strips. Now cut the strips lengthwise again to half of their current size. You want the strips to be thin before you start mincing the meat further. Lay the cut strips out in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

Freeze the meat for 20-30 minutes. Just as you would when mincing meat with a food processor, chill the meat before you begin to cut it. You’ll get cleaner cuts and better chopping with cold meat. Chill for at least 15 minutes to firm up the outer edges without freezing the meat solid.

Grab two knives. For fast and efficient mincing of the meat, use two sharp knives that are meant for chopping. The sharper the knife and the bigger the blade, the easier it will be to chop the meat. If you only have one knife that is good for chopping, perform the next step with one knife.

Chop the meat. With a knife in each hand, chop down onto the meat repeatedly with hammer-like motions. Scoop the meat into a pile, and turn it in a circle as you go. Continue chopping, piling, and turning the meat unto it reaches a consistency of tiny pieces. If you are mincing a lot of meat, you may want to perform this step two or more times with a portion of the meat. If you try to chop too much at once it will not work as well. Always practice safety when you are chopping meat with sharp knives. Be sure to keep both hands out of the way of the knife in the other hand. Be careful not to cut yourself. Remember: accuracy before speed.