Homemade Ground Pork - Olga in the Kitchen (2024)

Making homemade ground pork is an easyprocess to always have ground pork at home whenever you crave fresh meatballs.This simple tutorial will show you how simple it is buying, grinding and storing ground pork meat at home for many future dishes.

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Ground Pork Recipe:

Let me start by saying that I have never purchased ground meat from the store, whether it’s pork, beef or chicken. Many people think why go through all that trouble when you can buy ready ground pork. Here’s why: when I work with meats, I like to know how clean of meat I’m eating, making sure there are no blood vessels or any unnecessary little things were included in my ground meat. I am very picky when it comes to meat!😀

Also, when you prepare it yourself, you’ve got the solid meat and a bit of fat, which makes cooking flavorful and not dry. The best way to satisfy my expectations is to buy meat myself, grind and store by freezing. You can even use this ground pork to make homemade sausages.

Why I Make Homemade Ground Pork:

Here’s what I do…every time or whenever I need ground pork, I look for a sale on natural pork; it must be natural and not regular (taste is different). I purchase 5-10 packs and each pack is about 3-5 lbs. I prepare it, grind it, set aside good amount of ground pork to cook meatballs in the oven same day and freeze them to enjoylater, weigh out remaining ground pork to my desired amount (depends on the recipes I usually make), place in ziploc bags, flatten a bit and freeze.

Every time I need ground pork, I take it out into the sink before bed and use it in the morning, just don’t let it sit for whole day in the sink – refrigerate once thawed if you cannot use it ‘now’. My husband prefers fried/fresh meatballs over frozen, so a lot of times we thaw a bag of ground meat, mix in required ingredients and fry on a skillet. Sounds like dinner 😀 , but for us it can be breakfast, lunch or dinner! When you have meatballs at home, fresh or frozen, you always have something to eat!

You can follow the same process to make ground beef and ground chicken. You’re going to need anelectric meat grinder. (I’ve been using this pork grinder since 2013; my mom and sisters have the exact same one. Wouldn’t recommend it unless I really loved it 🙂 ).

Ground Pork Ingredients:

• natural pork meat
• cold water

How Do You Grind Pork at Home?

1. Cut pork meat into 1.5-2” pieces, disposingany blood vessels or little unnecessary things and place pieces into large sieve. Optional, but I like to rinse meat pieces in cold water to wash off any blood etc. Leave in sink for any excess water to come out from sieve for 5-10 minutes until you’re ready for the next batch.Line paper towel with a cloth towel or cutting board. Transfer washed meat onto the paper towel, and with a second piece of paper towel, patdry any excess water.

2. Grind cut meat pieces, and weigh out ground meat into plastic freezer bags. (For example, I do 2.5 lb for oven meatballs, 1.5 lb for fried meatballs, 8 oz for meatball soup, etc. )

Freezing Ground Pork:

3. Press bagged ground meatdown to about 1” thick so it thaws faster whenyou need it. Refrigerate any ground meat you’re going to use same or next day and freeze the rest. (Avoid storing ground pork meat in the refrigerator for more than 2 days).

Common Questions

Is it cheaper to grind your own meat?

Grinding meat at home is not necessarily cheaper, but the flavor is a whole lot better and you have more control over grind size and quality.

Is it worth getting a meat grinder?

Our meat grinder is not only used to grind meat, but we also use to make cookies and use for other needs. Maverick meat grinder comes with several attachments that are very handy. It is definitely worth it getting a meat grinder, in my opinion.

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