3 pounds (1362 g ) lean beef chuck
1 1/4 pounds (568 g) fatty beef, such as short ribs or plate
1/4 pound (114 g) beef suet or other firm beef fat
1/2 cup (112 g) water
2 tablespoons (20 g) whole yellow mustard seeds
2 tablespoons (20 g) minced garlic
1 tablespoon (6.5 g) coarsely ground black pepper
5 teaspoons (30 g) kosher salt
2 teaspoons (10 g) sugar
2 teaspoons (3.5 g) ground coriander
1 teaspoon (2 g) dry mustard
Pinch of ground allspice (0.1 g)
Pinch of ground bay leaves (0.1 g)
Pinch of ground cloves (0.1 g)
1 teaspoon (6 g) curing salt (#1)
I have added the metric measures in parenthesis. For me the meat looked like this:
I had saved the trimmings from some beef tenderloins and added the fresh chuck when I had enough of the fatty bits. I passed it once through the 3/8" plate and noted that it took slightly longer to get a good bind with beef than it does for pork. The test patty from the stuffer tasted very strongly of garlic. I cold smoked them for 8 hours with hickory sawdust and let bloom overnight. They looked like this:
I then poached them for 30 minutes at 170 F. There was a small amount of fat melted after this step. When fried the next day, they looked like this:
They were excellent (unlike my photography). Though only ground once through a coarse plate, they had a fine texture. The smoking added just the right amount of flavor. The garlic was slightly too strong for my tastes (half as much next time) and the black pepper could be bumped up a bit (by half as much next time).
