Originally Posted by
astanley
Depending on how homogeneous you want your grind, you may want to consider placing your cubed meat in the freezer for 30 minutes before grinding. This helps the product stay stiff as it goes through the die, and lets the mix be a bit more "even" between meat and fat (versus pate-like, which will have a gritty texture when cooked).
As it happened, I put everything in the freezer during the time it took me to determine what I had initially done wrong and cleaned everything up.
If you can, some quality leaf lard mixed in with the beef fat will compliment the ground meat flavor nicely and create a more "complete" flavor package.
It is very difficult to find leaf fat where I am, so I think getting some would involve asking for it specifically and waiting for it to arrive (if at all). I had household chores that need procrastinating immediately, so that wasn't an option.
Thank you for the tips. I will consider them for next time.