Can You Grind Meat With Silver Skin? -

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Contents

Silver skins are very popular with venison meat, and one of the popular questions asked by deer hunters is “Whether or not they can grind meat with silver skin?” If you are wondering if it’s possible to grind your meat with silver skin then here’s an answer for you.

Yes! Silverskin can grind alongside the meat, but it usually grinds better in a sharp meat grinder (such as this LEM Stainless Steel Big Bite Electric Meat Grinder), so endeavour to sharpen your meat grinder (or get one that can do the job) for the best result.

How to grind meat and silver skin in a meat grinder

Perhaps you are bent on having the combo of silver skin and meat in your burger, the steps I will be explaining below will help you have a proper mix of silver skin and meat. However, note that your grinder will have to be very sharp if you want the best result.

Step 1: Refrigerate your meat and meat grinder

It has been widely suggested that you refrigerate your meat and parts of your meat grinder before you start grinding. This will help to aid a smooth grinding process besides the fact that cold meat is way easier to grind than normal meat at room temperature.

Step 2: Set up your grinding equipment

Immediately you bring out your grinding parts from the refrigerator, set up your grinding equipment, and ensure your meat is slice-ready for grinding.

Step 3: Put the meat along with the silver skin

Once you are sure the meat is cut to fit the size of the food tube of your meat grinder, put it into the machine, but as I stated earlier, the only way you can get the best result is if your meat grinder is very sharp. It has also been suggested by professional chefs to grind your meat at least twice.

A sharp meat grinder (such as this LEM Stainless Steel Big Bite Electric Meat Grinder) will grind your meat with the silver skin so well that you wouldn’t even notice the difference. If your meat grinder isn’t as sharp as it should be for this process, continue reading to learn how you can sharpen your meat grinder blades and plates.

How to clean your meat grinder after use

As stated earlier, you must clean your meat grinder immediately after use, not just for the purpose of hygiene, but for the grinder’s shelf life. The following simple steps will help you clean your meat grinder with relative ease.

Step 1

After grinding your meat and silver skin, get some pieces of bread and grind them through the food tube. This will help absorb the oil residue in your meat grinder and also remove some meat residue – do this while the grinder is still assembled before dismantling it.

Step 2

Dismantle the parts of your meat grinder and soak them in warm soapy water for at least 30-minutes. Do this to ensure you don’t have to scrub too hard with the sponge.

Step 3

Get a sponge and a bottle brush to clean the meat grinder thoroughly. The bottle brush will help you access areas that your sponge won’t be able to access.

Step 4

Rinse properly, and ensure your dry the washed parts with a clean towel. Do not assemble the parts together if the parts of the meat grinder aren’t dried properly to prevent rust.

How to remove the silver skin from the meat

Removing silver skin from your meat shouldn’t be a problem as long as you have a very sharp knife and some pieces of paper towels to help you grab the silver skin when it starts becoming slippery. You aren’t advised to freeze the meat before this procedure to get the best result.

Step 1

Using your thumb and your index finger, grab a hold of the silver skin on your meat then place your knife underneath and slice through. Continue this process even if you are through with that particular segment and you happen to find other portions of silver meat.

Step 2

Separate the removed silver skin from the actual meat and dispose of it properly. The only time silver skin might have any use will be with the meat, and not when separated.

How to sharpen your meat grinder

There basically three ways you can sharpen the blades of your meat grinder, and they include the following;

Using a sandpaper
Using a belt sharpener
Making use of a sharpening stone

Any of these tools will sharp your meat grinder blades, but you will be needing the following tools as well:

Gloves
Screwdriver
A soft cloth or clean rag
Sandpaper (120 grit or higher)
Glass sheet
Water

Step 1: Pick a flat location – preferably outdoors

The first thing to do before sharpening your blades is to ensure that the location you intend to use is flat. You can also choose to do it outdoors or anywhere that’s properly ventilated for your own safety, but the key here is ensuring that the surface is flat.

Step 2: Dismantle your meat grinder

Follow the operation manual of your meat grinder to properly dismantle the parts. There have been cases of not knowing where a particular screw fits when it’s finally time to assemble, or worst still, missing parts. Endeavour to be extremely careful while carrying out this step.

NB: ensure you wear your gloves during this exercise to avoid any form of injury.

Step 3: Test for the sharpness of the blade

Before you go ahead to sharpen the blade, try testing the current sharpness by using your scrap paper – you should get an idea of how sharp you need your blade to be by doing this.

Step 4: Sharpen the blade

Using your sandpaper, sharpening stone, or belt sharpener, rub the surface of your blade on the sharpening surface. Ensure the edges are making the required contact with your sandpaper, and ensure you uniformly rotate the blade to get the best result. Continue this process until you have achieved the desired result.

Once you are satisfied with the result, rinse your blade using the water available, and ensure they are completely dried before storage or reassembly. If your meat grinder isn’t clean, it is advisable to do a proper clean-up before proceeding to sharpen the blades.

FAQs

What’s Silverskin you may ask?

Silverskin is the skin that helps to separate muscles from each other so that there is easy movement between the muscle groups in animals.

Although there is little nutritional value for silver skin, professional chefs have advised that you cut away the silver skin from your meat before grinding it in your meat grinder.

This is because it tends to interfere with the grinding process of your meat when grinding – especially if your grinding blades aren’t very sharp.

Is silver skin bad?

This has been a very debatable topic amongst food enthusiasts over the years, silver skin has been around for as long as we can remember, and just like everything in existence today, silver skin has its good and bad side.

The good side of silver skin

One of the first things you are likely to hear when preparing deer venison is to remove the silver skin from the meat if you want to enjoy your recipe, however, after my findings, I discovered that while this is essential for some recipe, it also has some positive and negative effects on our health.

Let’s start with the health benefits of silver skin. Silverskin as we know it is can have a very good effect on meat if it’s properly cooked, however, there are other benefits of silver skin as we will soon find out;

1. It increases the ability of the meat to hold flavour

Some chefs have argued that silver skin will help your average meat to hold liquid thanks to the muscle fibres, thereby, enhancing the juice and flavour of your meat when cooked. They also help to thicken the texture of the meat overall, especially when cooked at a very high temperature.

2. Makes the meat more succulent

Another reason you might want to consider leaving your silver skin intact is that the collagen within it converts to gelatin which helps to improve the overall succulence of the meat and everything attached to it.

This is also one of the reasons why chefs who prepare osso buco will never make the mistake of removing the silver skin from their recipe – it forms an integral part of the sweetness of this food.

3. Counter-balances lack of fat

If you have the intention of roosting your meat out in the wild, without having any means to control the heat cooking your meat, it has been suggested that you leave the silver skin in your meat to help compensate for the lack of fat, and also serve as a guide against overheating which can cause your meat to become very dry – except you want your meat that way.

Having said all that, let’s take a look at the negative aspect of silver skin in general:

The bad side of silver skin

1. It takes a while to cook properly

Silverskin takes a while to become properly cooked because it always gets very tough once it comes in contact with heat.

A perfect example will be a backstrap steak, once placed on a grill with the silver skin in place, you can be sure of very tough meat when it is finally cooked. If you want your meat to be prepared on time, the best place to start will be to get rid of the silver skin in your meat.

2. It causes meat to cook unevenly

Silverskin does not melt when cooking, and since it is mostly attached to the meat, what it does is shrink which can cause your meat to twist up thereby causing your meat to cook unevenly.

As a result, even after cooking, the silver skin will still be very much attached to your meat, and because it is difficult to break down, your meat might not be properly cooked since the heat did not penetrate the meat properly.

3. It acts as a barrier to your seasoning having the desired effect on the meat

Aside from the heat not getting the desired access to your meat thanks to the silver skin, your seasonings are also prevented from getting the right penetration to your meat as a whole.

What the silver skin does is that it absorbs the flavours from the seasoning to itself by serving as a divider between the actual meat and the season.

This is one of the reasons why silver meat has lots of flavours locked up in them while the actual meat they are removed from at the end of cooking remains almost flavourless – save the part that wasn’t covered with silver skin.

To stay on the safe side, it has been widely suggested to get rid of the silver skin from your meat if you intend to get the best taste as a whole.

Can you leave silver skin on deer meat?

Yes, you can, but as I have stated earlier in this article, silver skin will only make your meat cook for longer and also make it stronger than it is supposed to turn out whilst making your seasonings not get to every area of your meat. So, it’s advisable to cut it off as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Is silver skin edible?

In a nutshell, silver skin is tough and most people end up swallowing it up rather than chewing it up due to the toughness they encounter during the whole chewing process.

Do humans have silver skin?

Not exactly. Argyria is a skin condition that experts have associated with colloidal silver but is in no way related to what we call silver skin in animals.

Argyria is a rare medical skin condition that occurs if excess silver builds up in your body after a while. It changes your eyes, nails, gums, skin, and internal organs to a blue-grey colour. Sad to say that while other symptoms may fade away, the blue-grey colour on the skin is actually permanent.

Can you eat the silver skin on ribs?

In all honesty, not everyone has the time to remove the silver skin from the rib segment of their meat due to the amount located in such an area. But the real truth remains that if you want to reduce the time factor in cooking your meat, you should consider removing as much silver skin as possible.