You can make burger soups and stews as well, just brown and season the meat and dump it in the stock pot and simmer. I make mine thick, you know chunky style. Our family favorite is sheppards pie, I brown and season the meat with spices, add some chopped onions. Mix in some BBQ sauce if you like.

Ground jerky can be accomplished with out the fancy tool. Just merinade the meat in either a wet or dry mix, for a min of 24hrs in the fridge. Take out the meat, place wax paper on the counter, then ground meat on top of the wax paper, another piece of wax paper on top and roll it with a rolling pin to about 3/8" thick. Simply cut into strips and you be done.