Old timer in Omaha told me to always chill my grinder before breaking down pork belly

I thought he was just being fussy, but tried it on a warm day last week and the fat didn't smear at all. Anyone else find temperature control makes or breaks a clean grind?

3 comments

3 Comments

caleb_stone1mo ago

Kenji's book says the fat starts melting around 50 degrees.

wyattrobinson29d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, here we go again with the temp confusion. It's hilarious how Kenji probably wrote that in Celsius because he's all fancy and science-y, and now we're all sitting here wondering if our burgers are gonna be solid pucks or dripping grease. 50 degrees Celsius is like 122 Fahrenheit, so yeah, that fat is definitely starting to melt there. But 50 Fahrenheit? That's basically fridge temp, my steak would be a brick. I swear half the cooking arguments online come down to people not specifying which scale they're using. Someone needs to make a bot that automatically converts temps in these threads before we all lose our minds.

rose_craig971mo ago

Hang on, are we talking Fahrenheit or Celsius there?