That's always how we got ground beef back from the butcher when we raised our own cows. Easier to stack in the freezer. Seems normal to me.

Anonymous wrote:I just bought a meat chopper OP and I love that thing.

Do you mean a handheld chopper or a grinder? I've wondered about those handheld choppers, since I regularly need to chop meat for someone with severe dental issues, and putting steak in a food processor is overkill.

I just bought a meat chopper OP and I love that thing.

Anonymous wrote:I butcher my own cow.

I am a cow. I hack off a haunch as I need it. Grind it with my molars. Super fluffy.

Use a wooden spatula, OP.

Are you talking about the grass-fed beef? Are you cooking it right? I think it has less fat, or some difference like that where you have to be careful how you cook it. It can get tough if you aren't careful.

I butcher my own cow.

I grind my own meat.

The ground beef I get from Whole Foods is not compressed at all, except when I freeze it and then I do need to work it with a spatula in the frying pan as it thaws.

Love them. So much easier to store in freezer.

I dislike them and find it tougher

I've never gotten those squares of meat before. But I don't like the prepressed burgers. Those never taste as good as the ones that I season and shape myself. They have an odd texture, too.

All meat oxidizes when exposed to air.

No. I hate the styrofoam and the meat oxidizes when in those Styrofoam containers. Plus i get my beef direct from farm to butcher ans the squares help me stack it in my freezer neatly.

Or am I just overly picky? I swear that when I buy those 1 pound squares of ground beef the meat is so compressed it's hard to work with and it doesn't flake apart in the skillet with a spatula. You really have to work on it to break it up. And even after I've done that I swear it's not as much volume/as fluffy as traditionally packaged ground beef on the tray.