Do you like to beat your meat until it is juicy, tender, and just melts in your mouth? I’ve been told it is a pleasurable feeling so I wanted to give it a shot! I enjoyed grilling as a kid, so over the winter break I finally got myself a small gas BBQ grill. This of course means I now have to get all the goodies and toys associated with grilling a damn good steak. Or chicken, or pork. I don’t judge. But where was your mind going when reading that first sentence, hmmm?

I decided I wanted to try making myself a meat tenderizer, or meat beater as I like to call em. I figured it was basically just a wooden mallet with one fancy striking face. Should be easy, right? Spoilers, it was, and this project took me only one weekend (not counting the oil baths).

I started off by milling down the lumber into 2 sizes. The thicker bits were for the head and the thinner pieces were for the handles and the middle piece of the heads. After getting the planned 3 heads ready for glue up I realized I had enough thin lumber to make a 4th head. The layered construction allowed me to leave a hand-sized gap in the heads while I glued them up. I had intended for the handles to be wedged and tenoned but in my excitement I forgot about the tenon part when cutting out my handles. I improvised by adding some walnut dowels, effectively creating that tenon. I mean it was totally planned from the beginning as a little accent piece. Yeah, totally intentional…

I’ve claimed the extra layered runt as my own. I just fell in love with the patterned head and I gave it my favorite handle. I showed a few pics to my family and it sounds like they’ve claimed the others. Contact me if you are interested in having your own custom meat beater made!