Thanks to your video, I properly cooked my ground beef tonight for the very first time. The flavor is unparalleled! Wow, what a difference! Thank you so much.
@lciummo1 animal fat is all we used. Then big business decided they needed to use the excess oil they weren't using on machines. It wasn't that long ago that people knew oil was for machines and fat fed people. Carnivores are some of the healthiest people on earth.
Go easy on that non stick. Also you can get some sear without breaking it up. Just sear, then flip and sear the other side. Then break up and season. Now you've got seared bits with the option of not making completely dry beef
I was thinking the same thing, namely there has to be at least microdamage on the nonstick surface. I've been cooking the same meat (Aldi I assume) in the same way but backwards. Namely after saute-ing a chopped onion I've put in the meat and gone thru your procedure in a steel skillet and spatula. The meat does taste boiled but on day 2 the leftovers are not bad. I'll try your method tomorrow but I'm going to let the meat sit at room temp for at least one hour to hopefully delete some water and stickiness.
Better yet use stainless steel! EDIT: I had another thought. Those chopper things are plastic so they probably don't cause much harm to the non-stick surface. I still think stainless steel is a better option though.
Evaporate your water slow with the lid on. Once water evaporates add 2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, with the lid on. The beef fats will melt and you will have better tasting soft tender meat. This way dries it out. The pan should never be dry like that and burnt. Cook for 50 yrs here.
Thanks, interesting, but that doesnt make sense, how can you evaporate the water if the lid is on? The water will stay and start boiling the beef? When do you remove the lid, and when do you drain it of the water thats collected in the pan?
I never considered that if there was water coming off the beef, and you didn't evaporate it out of the pan, then you were essentially cooking the ground beef at the temperature of boiling water instead of oil. Neat! And thank you for filling in the gap in my cooking knowledge!
For the desired reaction to occur with the protein it requires some water, but it has to be at a temperature higher than the boiling point of water - superheated steam. If there is no superheated steam present with dry beef, then the temperature will go higher and a different reaction will occur (caramelization of the sugars) that produces unhealthy carcinogenic chemicals. You can dry age the beef in the fridge on a rack to reduce the amount of water production. In summary, what you do NOT want to do is slowly heat the beef so it releases its juices as liquid water, boil it dry, and then toast it.
I try n tell people all the time your not browning your hamburger meat your greying it, and when it calls for browing your meat in a meal like hamburger helper i cant stand when people gray it😂 thanks for showing people how to properly brown there meat. I discovered this about 5 years ago n thank god i did. Because this man is excatly right about it tasting ten times better 😋
Yes, if you're going to be combining the ground meat with a wet element, like a soup or a sauce, then you have to brown it. But if you're going to eat it by itself with dry seasonings (as in taco meat, for example) you can "grey it". That way it's not dry. It all hinges upon adding a moist component to the meat after you've browned it. Thanks for watching!
Yes! And then they drain it, or worse yet, wash it! Yes, I have heard that. 😮 My mom taught me to really brown the beef. Been doing it for 50 years. So flavorful 😋
@@RebekkaHay how would they add it into the meat? It comes out of fresh chicken as well. animal tissue does contain a lot of water. Our bodies are 90% water, and that's not only the blood
@@SandyCheeks63564 Chemicals. Even salt, which is the basis of brining. And there are some chemicals which are better than others. I can tell you as an old guy that when I wasn't, you put chicken or hamburgers in the pan and very little(if any noticeable) water was released. I used to cook burgers just by laying down salt in the pan and letting the burger provide its own oil to fry in. Now, those meats swim in water and I have to dump it out often multiple times, watching it very closely to be sure nothing is steaming or boiling, a clumsy and irritating process at best. It is not natural at all to have your meats swimming in water when you try to fry them, bake them, etc.
If I am frying, which I don't do much these days, I drain off the extra liquid as I brown the meat and add it in again later. If you are adding liquid to the meat then the meat's own liquid is the best thing. The liquid is not water, unless you have an unscrupulous butcher, in which case you should change butchers because they are charging you the price of meat for water.
@@paulmurrayiv I wasn't either until I bought the Mueller skillet made in Austria. For me, it's only non-stick skillet on the market and not much difference from cast iron cook/sear-wise except for the "aura" of cast iron.
Thanks for these tips. We live on ground beef. We cook and keep it in the refrigerator to use for most meals. Hubby mixes it with eggs and an array of steamed vegetables for breakfast. Taco Tuesday is 3-4 days a week. I notice that sometimes the meat has more flavor and now I can see how to cook it to get that flavor every time. I am ordering the tool you recommended.
Agree with other comments about this ending up dry. Best way I've found is to sear the entire ground beef on both sides before breaking it up. Leave the lid on to get the cooking process started in the middle which will help brown once you break it up. Once the sear is done on both sides, break it up and add 1/2 tsp baking soda and salt to taste, which is 1 tsp salt per pound for me. Baking soda will exponentially increase the browning process and you wont end up with dry and crispy beef bits. I've done it with and without baking soda, it does make a difference but you can also do the same steps without and it wont be as dry.
Always substitute any oils with GHEE/clarified butter,its got a 450f degree smoke point and its the healthies type of oil for the body,and adds flavor.
@Gertyutz All the milk solids are removed. Clarified butter is when one cooks the butter on medium low heat until it bubbles and the solids all stick to the bottom of the pan. It is then strained into a preferably glass container through a sieve that has been lined with cheesecloth. One can cook with clarified butter. Ghee, on the other hand is the exact same thing, only one continues cooking the clarified butter to the point of it being deep golden, almost brown. My friend puts her on the stove on low for 45 minutes and just leaves it alone. I do mine while stirring and standing over it for 20-30 minutes. At my house clarified butter cooks in 10-15 minutes, but I prefer ghee because it is almost sweet and caramel-ly. ❤
I buy the same organic beef. Same packaging. I open it up and put the entire pound on 3 sheets of paper towels and press medium to remove some excess blood and water. Then I cut into 4 squares, 1/4 lb each. Take each o e on a separate piece of paper towel and smash flat and round to form a burger. Then season that side using everything seasoning then, flip onto a sheet of parchment paper and season the other side. Do the other 3 the same way and place them in a one gallon zip lock style bag and place in fridge for at least a day. After 25 or 48 hours, remove and fry on a hot cast iron skillet to medium rare. Approximately 2 min per side. A very thin pad of organic butter on top will melt in 30 seconds. Add 1 slice of organic cheese. Let rest for 3 minutes. Place on organic bun ( I make my own organic bread) its easy and cheap. And you got a delicious, healthy quality burger with flavor. Ive been doing this evey week for years. If you're going to eat, eat healthy. Total cost for the 1/4 burger and fixings.... Approximately 2.50.
What you gain in crispiness you lose in softness. Whether you want to take it to this level depends on what you're going for. In some Middle Eastern and Italian dishes, often cooks are going for a silky soft texture rather than this kind of seared crispy texture. And I've seen Kenji suggest you should go somewhere in between the two extremes. To each their own!
I love when videos use my exact same skillet. I never realized I wasn't properly pre-heating my skillet until I got this one. I've been cooking my ground beef like this for my Shepherds(Cottage) Pie and it has made a huge difference.
Make sure you don't over heat your pan. Using Teflon should be reserved for "sticky foods" and ones where Maillard browning isn't required. If your Teflon smokes, like this demonstrated, you're releasing the most toxic poison you have in your home. Best to use a seasoned cast iron or carbon steele
@@DucatiKozak I never put mine higher than 4-5 of 8 on any of the burners since the T-FAL instructions specifically said medium heat only. It takes longer but, I'm a patient person. However, I did find that even on medium heat the pan gets hot enough and as I previously mentioned the preheat ring changing color helped me get very good searing on steaks and such as soon I I put them in the pan. I used to put the meat on way too soon. However, there has to be something to be said about cast iron since it's been around for centuries.
@@sinusnovi3826 I'm not a professional cook or even an advanced one that has all the gadgets. But, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express one time and have survived 61 years. I do have a meat probe thermometer because you definitely need that for air frying. I am just saying that this skillet made me aware of how I was not preheating enough until I got it. I guess since I have your attention if I had a infrared what would be the correct preheat temp for searing?
@@RedBud315 you can use the infrared thermometer for a lot of tasks (ex. checking: the temperatur of the refrigerator/freezer; room temperatur by targeting a piece of furniture; wall temperature for avoiding Tau point; body temperature (fever) by targeting to the palate) and they are cheap. I also use a meat probe wired thermometer, especially for sue vide or roasting in the oven. And I use a non wired meat probe for occasionally checking the core temperature of other cooking processes. Preheat of the skillet (pan?) to Maillard reaction a beef steak I recommend at about 210° Celsius, never more than 250° Celsius in coated skillets. But you can check this more accurate for your pleasure if you target your Tefal pan temperature indicator during preheating
Wow, I've been boiling ground beef for spaghetti and taco meat all wrong; for the most part flavorless until adding too much seasoning to get some taste from my 'cardboard' ground beef. So glad I subscribed to your channel. It has made me a better grocery shopper. If I only went to a chef's school instead of auto mechanic school many years ago I would have fulfilled a dormant passion for being a professional chef. Love your simple but very informative style.
It's that curly hair/straight hair thing I think =) I'm a decent cook (& retired social worker) but have wished many, MANY times that I knew more about auto mechanics! As in, how many thousands & thousands of dollars I might have saved if only I knew more than the basics. *Although back in the day, I actually could do my own brakes, change out an alternator or water pump, etc~ not anymore, as cars & trucks are much more complex & computerized, w/all kinds of sensors & such..no way for the layman. Older vehicles it was still possible to look at things & figure out how to take apart & put back together, not so much anymore. I miss that '57 Chevy Apache we had in the 80's, or the '73 Super B VW I had in the 90's~ they made sense dang it! =)
Thank you for this, i was about to stop eating ground beef because of the horrible aftertaste i was getting from “boiling” it, tried it today and its so much better!
PFAS coatings are actually very safe to use, its the production of PFAS teflon thats terribly dangerous for humans AND the environment. Adam Ragusea has an excellent video on it if you want to learn more
Non-stick coatings wear out after a while, that coating went somewhere; which would be into the food. I'll use non-stick occasionally but generally avoid it.
I always do this when I use ground meat for lasagne, chili, bolognaise etc. It doesn't matter if it seems dry as it's going into a sauce anyway! Way more flavoursome.
I have an electric skillet. So what you are saying is cook at around 220 degrees until the water is gone, then add a little oil and raise the temperature to around 350 to start the Maillard process and it takes about 15 minutes. That is using 15% fat in your ground beef... THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE TIP. I am tired of having uneven sizes in my cooked ground beef. Awesome!
I tend to agree with cooking ground beef to the level recommended by Kenji Lopez-Alt in his video on the subject. Desired umami flavor can be introduced (depending on the dish being prepared) by tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce or paste, mushrooms, etc. It does not all have to come from the meat.
This is exactly how my home economics teacher in high school taught me to cook ground beef 50 years ago. Great video, makes ground beef so much more tasty.
Thank god they invented the ground meat chopper. Before this invention I was throwing the whole beef patty in the frying pan praying that it would crumble by itself, which never happened. I ended up serving a sort of uncooked meat loaf all the time. I felt so hopeless before the ground beef chopper.
It did once for me - but it was the consistency of sand. I figured it was 100% pink slime to be that fine. I like it well chopped but that had absolutely no texture.
Thanks! Very informative indeed! I'm all about the well-cooked burger meat in my dishes. Sometimes I add a splash or two of Worcestershire sauce while browning. Big sub here!
I do lots of different things w ground beef. Will definitely try this next time. And getting the “ground beef chopper” tip was worth the time on its own. Thanks for that.
No need to cut the package and dull your knife. The plastic pulls apart. Just find the area that is pre-cut for this. In this video, its on the bottom right of your package.
I had that same Oxo chopping implement. The meat kept sticking to it so that I couldn't really use it. Seeing you using it so successfully almost wants to make me want to get it out and try again -- if I hadn't donated it somewhere 5 years ago! I manage with a wooden spatula.
I pour the water off into a bowl, then when the mince is browned and Im ready to make the sauce, I return it. It saves time and the meat doesn’t dry out so much before it sears and seals.
i always take half my fully cooked crumbled ground beef and sear it create these little crunchy bits and fold it back into the tender crumble... the contrast in textures and flavours is great
We used to learn this by watching the Food Channel back in the 90s. I cook like this already, and so do my children. Your videos are well-produced and you are a good teacher. There is no excuse for not knowing how to cook.
mannn. awesome vid. i was wonderin y my ground beef usually tastes better the longer i cook it. thought i was doing it right by barely cooking it. seems i was wrong this whole time. thanks!!!
Great video!! I've been watching another cooking chef and this reaction is what he's after on steaks. Good to see it's the right thing to do on hamburger as well. Also, I'm ordering a chopper and better wooden spoons. I've never had much luck getting hamburger into smaller bits so that alone was great to learn. Well done!! Marvelous camera work and voice presentation!!
Thank you for this really amazing video! I never much thought about it like this and I am 68 years old. I’ve cooked a lot of hamburger and this just makes sense! Thank you again!
Just subbed today after finding a “how to choose produce” video and had no idea the steps involved with something like ground beef. Thanks! My husband is going to thank you as well 😂
Is there development of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) when that cooking method is used? You seem to know what you're talking about from a chemistry perspective, so I thought I would ask.
of course there is. AGEs are the products of Maillard reaction. there is a lot of research on how steak temperature influences amount of AGEs in it. This cooking technique just takes it to the extreme
I discovered this a long time ago on my own. 😊 Same with onions. They’re so much sweeter and tastier when you fry them longer…just til slightly browned.
It doesn't matter if you pre-heat or not. And yes, if it's lean and there is no fat in the bottom of the pan, you have to add fat to fry it (oil or butter or fat). But keep in mind that the milk solids in the butter can burn. So it's better to use oil, ghee, or fat than butter.
We buy pounds of freshly ground chuck at an Asian market. I then, using a form, make them into 3.75 x 0.75 inch burgers then place in freezer bags and freeze. When time to use one or more they defrost overnight in the fridge. If I'm going to make a crumbled beef dish, I fry the burger on medium-high for 1.5 minutes per side and remove it or them from the pan, where I break up the seared burgers, still very rare in the middle but quite crusty on the outside. So, we now have crumble that feature all these textures and different tastes. It, the crumble, will then be added to whatever dish it is intended for, and will get a few more minutes of cooking time. But, far more often, I also make freezer burgers from ground lamb leg, pork shoulder, chicken thighs. So, when defrosted, I will combine two or more of these burgers in a ratio I think suits the planned meal . To avoid having chicken as the center of the reassembled burger, I make separate burgers of chicken & pork and beef & lamb. The chicken and pork burger is fried longer than the beef and lamb.. When crumbled, they are all mixed together.
Hey, I got a tip for you too. Between step 2 and step 3, put the beef that is cooking into a food processor. Then, bring it out and continue stage 3. Here's why. You've got a lot of chunks that are non-uniform sizes. Trust me -- if you put it into food processor and bring it back out, then you will have perfect seared beef. Because in stage 3, it'll cook many times faster, and the resultant beef will not look like 5:03. It'll be just like Taco Bell's ground beef, and I think that that's one of their secrets -- putting the ground beef into a food processor. For us, that's how we love it, especially perfect for beef enchiladas, soft tacos, etc. It makes it perfect and uniform.
As a carnivore for 6 years now I concur. I used to enjoy ground beef rare as possible but after a few years now I like it over done. It’s the only cut I eat over grown it makes it so much more palatable. I add a bunch of tallow after the water evaporates too
“better browning through science” in Cooks Illustrated magazine. They suggested briefly soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water to raise the pH on the meat’s surface, making the proteins better able to attract more water and hold onto it during cooking. It was also noted that the high pH level should speed up the desirable Maillard reaction (basically, the precursor to caramelization).
@@harald-albert8303no it really is not. Our ancestors eat animal fats for 10000s of years In the last 100 years companies lobby seed oils onto consumers to profit off an industry byproduct. They used that junk in lubricating machinery until they figured out how to refine the odor out of it. No way is that healthy.
@@harald-albert8303 Animal fat is very good for you, beef tallow as an example is a rich source of nutrients. All these processed oils and fake butters you see for sale with fancy labels are poison.
I thought i overcooked it the first time I tried (and I probably did a bit), but the next time I pulled it off the heat earlier and it was not nearly as flavorful! Then I looked it up and found videos like this one and cooked it to the perfect sweet spot. Now I plan on eating it multiple times per week this way
Best way to do it is put it into a hot pan and DO NOT chop it up. The whole surface will brown nicely. Flip the block over and do the same and let that brown. Then chop it up. Thank me later.
If I want to make ground beef with some delicious ingredients like peppers onions, potentially tomatoes should I cook it to that point first and then add the other ingredients
I know how to cook my ground beef, thanks. Never put more than 250 grams in the pan at a time. Make into multiple pieces and sear each piece until the outsides are browned and *then* seperate into smaller pieces. This beef looked dry and tasteless.
Same here. I will see if this old dog can learn something new. I do have one of those meat choppers and I don't pound, I gently smash the meat and just keep doing that until I get the size I want.
Good advice. The reason you don't overcook a steak is because it gets tough, but ground beef doesn't have this problem. In fact, connective tissue aside, you want ground beef from a tough cut, since it usually has more flavor.
it also looks dry as dust, since you've evaporated all the "juices" off, too. No thanks, I'll add some soy sauce or Worchestershire for some added umani and color, but I won't have to fry it down to pebbles.
Who crumbles ground beef without mixing it into something else that already contains water? It is crumbled beef, it gets mixed into something that has plenty of moisture. Even if it were for taco meat, you add liquid at the end, after it's already browned and gotten that nice charred flavor.
To Brown Ground Beef I found it best to make it into a thin layer on a baking sheet and put it in the oven and this will brown the top if you want both sides browned then take the meat out of the oven and take it off the baking sheet and wipe the tray down put a cooling rack in and flip the meat and put it back in with brown side down... Also a great way to make a bunch of smash burgers, or sliders all at once.
A method that I do is to use a small George Foreman cooker. Fry 3 strips of bacon in the cooker keep flipping until done. Set bacon aside, cook quarter pound seasoned burger in the cooker for 3 minutes, flip burger, cook another 3 minutes. The residual grease from the bacon helps get the perfect sear on the burger. The bacon turns out better than pan fried.
Step 1. cut directly into the packaging shoving in as much plastic as possible into the meat. Step 2. Take the most uneven/wobbly pan for maximum unevenness in the heat transfer. Perfect ground beef.
Thanks for this vid!! Now I know why my dad really fried the hamburger patties (he cooked for us as kids) till they were a deep brown color - to bring out the true flavor of the beef. Now I can enjoy the TRUE flavor of hamburger meat!!😋😁😋
I tried this approach tonight. I was using 85/15 meat, and all this approach did was dry it out. I actually had to add some oil in the end to get it to brown, but even so it was the driest most disappointing ground beef I have ever eaten.
This is a method that you only use if you're going to add this beef to something wet like a soup or a sauce. If you're going to eat it by itself, then you don't take it this far.
I’m a ‘58 baby and in the sixties and seventies it was referred to as ground round , round steak ground up and it was flavorful and delicious we didn’t use this’d taco seasoning full of sodium just salt and pepper maybe onion powder, then the meat cheese lettuce and tomato so good , stuff started tasting funny to me in the eighties as I recall,
I’m sorry people think they need to make negative, unsupportive comments. I was taught “ if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Some of these people need to learn that.
Yes, unfortunately, some people have such low self esteem, that they become allergic to seeing other people succeed. They can't do anything creative themselves, so they have to try to destroy the creativity of others.
Even for tacos and such, I take beef to this point, then add water (most srasonings instruct you to add water with the seasoning, in fact) and simmer covered on low until the water is gone; this makes sure everything is tender, and it distributes both the browning AND the seasoning throughout the meat.
I'm going to tell you, great grandma, do the same thing, and you right the flavor are so much more intense in the spaghetti sauce delicious what a difference. Fried all the fat off of it. I was looking like what the world is she doing she not going to drain the fat. I left her alone it was the best tasting spaghetti sauce I ever had! No Lie ❤
Thanks to your video, I properly cooked my ground beef tonight for the very first time. The flavor is unparalleled! Wow, what a difference! Thank you so much.
Thanks for watching!
Also, frying a burger, try using Beef Tallow for your oil. It adds incredible flavor. Seek grass fed tallow.
Heart attack in a pan!
@@lciummo1That’s total bullshit. Tallow is the best thing for you. All animal fats are. It’s the other shit that will kill you.
That’s all I use.
@@lciummo1- Nope.
@lciummo1 animal fat is all we used. Then big business decided they needed to use the excess oil they weren't using on machines. It wasn't that long ago that people knew oil was for machines and fat fed people. Carnivores are some of the healthiest people on earth.
Go easy on that non stick. Also you can get some sear without breaking it up. Just sear, then flip and sear the other side. Then break up and season. Now you've got seared bits with the option of not making completely dry beef
This is a great tip. Thanks!
That's what I do
I was thinking the same thing, namely there has to be at least microdamage on the nonstick surface. I've been cooking the same meat (Aldi I assume) in the same way but backwards. Namely after saute-ing a chopped onion I've put in the meat and gone thru your procedure in a steel skillet and spatula. The meat does taste boiled but on day 2 the leftovers are not bad. I'll try your method tomorrow but I'm going to let the meat sit at room temp for at least one hour to hopefully delete some water and stickiness.
Better yet use stainless steel! EDIT: I had another thought. Those chopper things are plastic so they probably don't cause much harm to the non-stick surface. I still think stainless steel is a better option though.
I tried it the way Foodchain showed us and it came out great! Instead of bland/boiled like it used to
Evaporate your water slow with the lid on.
Once water evaporates add 2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, with the lid on. The beef fats will melt and you will have better tasting soft tender meat. This way dries it out. The pan should never be dry like that and burnt.
Cook for 50 yrs here.
My thoughts exactly. I'm not sure I'd want crunchy, dry, burnt bits of beef in my chili or spaghetti sauce.
I add animal fat to cook my ground beef. 😋
Thanks, interesting, but that doesnt make sense, how can you evaporate the water if the lid is on? The water will stay and start boiling the beef? When do you remove the lid, and when do you drain it of the water thats collected in the pan?
I super agree. How to you sear meat after it's cooked. Dry burnt meat not for me
@@theinfochannel8512
Its just like sweating onions before caramelizing. Low heat covered with salt then open and fry..
I eat ground beef all the time, and love it, but this technique made something I'm excited to eat again. Thanks for the tip!
You beat ground beef to the point where it told you it was grape nuts
I totally agree. It doesn’t even look or resemble hamburger anymore.
Yes they do look like grape seeds
😁looks like them but I bet it tastes waaaay better
Right
It is quite tasty! Especially when you add a few over easy eggs!
I never considered that if there was water coming off the beef, and you didn't evaporate it out of the pan, then you were essentially cooking the ground beef at the temperature of boiling water instead of oil. Neat! And thank you for filling in the gap in my cooking knowledge!
For the desired reaction to occur with the protein it requires some water, but it has to be at a temperature higher than the boiling point of water - superheated steam. If there is no superheated steam present with dry beef, then the temperature will go higher and a different reaction will occur (caramelization of the sugars) that produces unhealthy carcinogenic chemicals. You can dry age the beef in the fridge on a rack to reduce the amount of water production. In summary, what you do NOT want to do is slowly heat the beef so it releases its juices as liquid water, boil it dry, and then toast it.
I cannot eat ground beef unless it’s cook this way. The man speaks truth.
I try n tell people all the time your not browning your hamburger meat your greying it, and when it calls for browing your meat in a meal like hamburger helper i cant stand when people gray it😂 thanks for showing people how to properly brown there meat. I discovered this about 5 years ago n thank god i did. Because this man is excatly right about it tasting ten times better 😋
Yes, if you're going to be combining the ground meat with a wet element, like a soup or a sauce, then you have to brown it. But if you're going to eat it by itself with dry seasonings (as in taco meat, for example) you can "grey it". That way it's not dry. It all hinges upon adding a moist component to the meat after you've browned it.
Thanks for watching!
Yes! And then they drain it, or worse yet, wash it! Yes, I have heard that. 😮 My mom taught me to really brown the beef. Been doing it for 50 years. So flavorful 😋
I pushed over the meat and let the puddle of water cook away and then continued browning. So good!
You realise that all this water is added by the butcher? Beef and other meats don’t contain excess water that needs to be cooked off.
@@RebekkaHay how would they add it into the meat? It comes out of fresh chicken as well. animal tissue does contain a lot of water. Our bodies are 90% water, and that's not only the blood
@@SandyCheeks63564 Chemicals. Even salt, which is the basis of brining. And there are some chemicals which are better than others. I can tell you as an old guy that when I wasn't, you put chicken or hamburgers in the pan and very little(if any noticeable) water was released. I used to cook burgers just by laying down salt in the pan and letting the burger provide its own oil to fry in. Now, those meats swim in water and I have to dump it out often multiple times, watching it very closely to be sure nothing is steaming or boiling, a clumsy and irritating process at best. It is not natural at all to have your meats swimming in water when you try to fry them, bake them, etc.
I drain it.
If I am frying, which I don't do much these days, I drain off the extra liquid as I brown the meat and add it in again later. If you are adding liquid to the meat then the meat's own liquid is the best thing. The liquid is not water, unless you have an unscrupulous butcher, in which case you should change butchers because they are charging you the price of meat for water.
I never thought I'd be watching a video on how to cook ground beef lol.
Lol
When you're on Carnivore diet with ground beef often a daily staple, you look for all the ideas and recipes as you can just for variety.
@@Hacker-xe8yv haha makes sense, not a fan of the non stick though
@@paulmurrayiv I wasn't either until I bought the Mueller skillet made in Austria. For me, it's only non-stick skillet on the market and not much difference from cast iron cook/sear-wise except for the "aura" of cast iron.
I'm 80yrs and still learning.
Thanks for these tips. We live on ground beef. We cook and keep it in the refrigerator to use for most meals. Hubby mixes it with eggs and an array of steamed vegetables for breakfast. Taco Tuesday is 3-4 days a week. I notice that sometimes the meat has more flavor and now I can see how to cook it to get that flavor every time. I am ordering the tool you recommended.
I own that chopper and use it a lot. It is great.
My father taught me this sixty years ago. “ You always need to give the mince a good roasting”! I’ve followed this advice ever since.
Agree with other comments about this ending up dry.
Best way I've found is to sear the entire ground beef on both sides before breaking it up.
Leave the lid on to get the cooking process started in the middle which will help brown once you break it up.
Once the sear is done on both sides, break it up and add 1/2 tsp baking soda and salt to taste, which is 1 tsp salt per pound for me.
Baking soda will exponentially increase the browning process and you wont end up with dry and crispy beef bits.
I've done it with and without baking soda, it does make a difference but you can also do the same steps without and it wont be as dry.
Always substitute any oils with GHEE/clarified butter,its got a 450f degree smoke point and its the healthies type of oil for the body,and adds flavor.
I have tried to,like ghee,i don’t care for ghee, my daughter loves ghee
Is the butterfat removed while processing butter into ghee?
@Gertyutz All the milk solids are removed. Clarified butter is when one cooks the butter on medium low heat until it bubbles and the solids all stick to the bottom of the pan. It is then strained into a preferably glass container through a sieve that has been lined with cheesecloth. One can cook with clarified butter. Ghee, on the other hand is the exact same thing, only one continues cooking the clarified butter to the point of it being deep golden, almost brown. My friend puts her on the stove on low for 45 minutes and just leaves it alone. I do mine while stirring and standing over it for 20-30 minutes. At my house clarified butter cooks in 10-15 minutes, but I prefer ghee because it is almost sweet and caramel-ly. ❤
It's too expensive 😫
@@iamantiwar2003 Not if you make your own from regular unsalted butter. There are many videos on You Tube.
I buy the same organic beef. Same packaging. I open it up and put the entire pound on 3 sheets of paper towels and press medium to remove some excess blood and water. Then I cut into 4 squares, 1/4 lb each. Take each o e on a separate piece of paper towel and smash flat and round to form a burger. Then season that side using everything seasoning then, flip onto a sheet of parchment paper and season the other side. Do the other 3 the same way and place them in a one gallon zip lock style bag and place in fridge for at least a day. After 25 or 48 hours, remove and fry on a hot cast iron skillet to medium rare. Approximately 2 min per side. A very thin pad of organic butter on top will melt in 30 seconds. Add 1 slice of organic cheese. Let rest for 3 minutes. Place on organic bun ( I make my own organic bread) its easy and cheap. And you got a delicious, healthy quality burger with flavor. Ive been doing this evey week for years. If you're going to eat, eat healthy. Total cost for the 1/4 burger and fixings.... Approximately 2.50.
Ronald, Wendy and the Burger King do not approve of your secret.
What you gain in crispiness you lose in softness. Whether you want to take it to this level depends on what you're going for. In some Middle Eastern and Italian dishes, often cooks are going for a silky soft texture rather than this kind of seared crispy texture. And I've seen Kenji suggest you should go somewhere in between the two extremes. To each their own!
Yes, most ground beef gets added to something moist with high water content like a sauce. So, that's when you would employ this technique.
Perhaps mix one soft batch and one crisp batch to satisfy an unique signature dish?
It only dries the surface, which re-hydrates if you add a sauce. The increased complexity of flavour is truly worth it.
If you have 80/20 ground beef, it doesn't dry out
@@pelqel9893 Once something is caramelized, nothing is getting in. Caramelization is basically a sealant.
I love when videos use my exact same skillet. I never realized I wasn't properly pre-heating my skillet until I got this one. I've been cooking my ground beef like this for my Shepherds(Cottage) Pie and it has made a huge difference.
Make sure you don't over heat your pan. Using Teflon should be reserved for "sticky foods" and ones where Maillard browning isn't required.
If your Teflon smokes, like this demonstrated, you're releasing the most toxic poison you have in your home. Best to use a seasoned cast iron or carbon steele
@@DucatiKozak I never put mine higher than 4-5 of 8 on any of the burners since the T-FAL instructions specifically said medium heat only. It takes longer but, I'm a patient person. However, I did find that even on medium heat the pan gets hot enough and as I previously mentioned the preheat ring changing color helped me get very good searing on steaks and such as soon I I put them in the pan. I used to put the meat on way too soon. However, there has to be something to be said about cast iron since it's been around for centuries.
no matter what skillet: I always use an infrared thermometer to check the heat.
@@sinusnovi3826 I'm not a professional cook or even an advanced one that has all the gadgets. But, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express one time and have survived 61 years. I do have a meat probe thermometer because you definitely need that for air frying. I am just saying that this skillet made me aware of how I was not preheating enough until I got it. I guess since I have your attention if I had a infrared what would be the correct preheat temp for searing?
@@RedBud315 you can use the infrared thermometer for a lot of tasks (ex. checking: the temperatur of the refrigerator/freezer; room temperatur by targeting a piece of furniture; wall temperature for avoiding Tau point; body temperature (fever) by targeting to the palate) and they are cheap. I also use a meat probe wired thermometer, especially for sue vide or roasting in the oven. And I use a non wired meat probe for occasionally checking the core temperature of other cooking processes.
Preheat of the skillet (pan?) to Maillard reaction a beef steak I recommend at about 210° Celsius, never more than 250° Celsius in coated skillets.
But you can check this more accurate for your pleasure if you target your Tefal pan temperature indicator during preheating
Wow, I've been boiling ground beef for spaghetti and taco meat all wrong; for the most part flavorless until adding too much seasoning to get some taste from my 'cardboard' ground beef. So glad I subscribed to your channel. It has made me a better grocery shopper.
If I only went to a chef's school instead of auto mechanic school many years ago I would have fulfilled a dormant passion for being a professional chef.
Love your simple but very informative style.
Glad the video helped!
It's that curly hair/straight hair thing I think =) I'm a decent cook (& retired social worker) but have wished many, MANY times that I knew more about auto mechanics! As in, how many thousands & thousands of dollars I might have saved if only I knew more than the basics. *Although back in the day, I actually could do my own brakes, change out an alternator or water pump, etc~ not anymore, as cars & trucks are much more complex & computerized, w/all kinds of sensors & such..no way for the layman. Older vehicles it was still possible to look at things & figure out how to take apart & put back together, not so much anymore. I miss that '57 Chevy Apache we had in the 80's, or the '73 Super B VW I had in the 90's~ they made sense dang it! =)
Put salt and pepper and plenty of chili powder cooking the taco meat. You really won't need taco sauce! I never have.
Thank you for this, i was about to stop eating ground beef because of the horrible aftertaste i was getting from “boiling” it, tried it today and its so much better!
Stopped using non-stick pans after finding out it's coated with PFAS (forever) chemicals so only use stainless or caste-iron now.
PFAS coatings are actually very safe to use, its the production of PFAS teflon thats terribly dangerous for humans AND the environment. Adam Ragusea has an excellent video on it if you want to learn more
Same.
@@raven1571Nah. I am done. I still won't trust them and won't use them.
Non-stick coatings wear out after a while, that coating went somewhere; which would be into the food. I'll use non-stick occasionally but generally avoid it.
@@raven1571 Thanks. I'm definitely going to check this out.
I always do this when I use ground meat for lasagne, chili, bolognaise etc. It doesn't matter if it seems dry as it's going into a sauce anyway! Way more flavoursome.
How did I not know this!? I've been eating water-logged soggy ground beef forever, but last night followed this method and it was much, much better.
My family didn’t know this neither 😅 I didn’t know it was a thing my whole life until I started cooking last month and it’s definitely a game changer
Pretty much what I have been doing, but now my understanding is much better. Thank you kindly!😁
It turned out very tasty! I added some sauteed onions and peppers and tomato sauce and cooked that up a couple minutes longer. Came out great!
i never thought of that 😮 ur right! One more thing, by adding back some fats like butter or lard will make it more appetising. Tqvm 😊❤
this has completely changed my tacos!!! NOW, I get compliments constantly and even special requests from my nieces and nephews!! Thank you SO MUCH!!!!
It looks overcooked to me, but crispy and more tasty😊
If it's "more tasty," it's not "overcooked," but cooked right.
I just made a walking taco casserole using this ground beef preparation technique, and this dish is OUT OF THIS WORLD INCREDIBLE! Thanks SO much!
I have an electric skillet. So what you are saying is cook at around 220 degrees until the water is gone, then add a little oil and raise the temperature to around 350 to start the Maillard process and it takes about 15 minutes. That is using 15% fat in your ground beef... THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE TIP. I am tired of having uneven sizes in my cooked ground beef. Awesome!
Thanks for watching!
But I thought he never added any oil or fat. It cooked in it's own moisture and fat?
@@Alloy-p3uhe didn’t because he said that 15% had enough fat already in it and it didn’t need any oil
I tend to agree with cooking ground beef to the level recommended by Kenji Lopez-Alt in his video on the subject. Desired umami flavor can be introduced (depending on the dish being prepared) by tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce or paste, mushrooms, etc. It does not all have to come from the meat.
Unless your diet is restricted and you cannot eat those things in your meat, then you may want to keep it to tallow, beef and salt.
Completely agree. When the bef id overcooked to a crisp, it does not pick up the flavors that you want to develop.
Exchanging water soluble vitamins for some charcoal
And a dose of carcinogens
This is exactly how my home economics teacher in high school taught me to cook ground beef 50 years ago. Great video, makes ground beef so much more tasty.
Thank god they invented the ground meat chopper. Before this invention I was throwing the whole beef patty in the frying pan praying that it would crumble by itself, which never happened. I ended up serving a sort of uncooked meat loaf all the time. I felt so hopeless before the ground beef chopper.
😂
funny lol
It did once for me - but it was the consistency of sand. I figured it was 100% pink slime to be that fine. I like it well chopped but that had absolutely no texture.
@@youdontwanttoknow5203 Ya I want bigger chunks than that... I'd actually eat this meat with a spoon
As my mama always said: 'Sarcasm will get you nowhere.'
Thanks! Very informative indeed! I'm all about the well-cooked burger meat in my dishes. Sometimes I add a splash or two of Worcestershire sauce while browning. Big sub here!
This video changed my life, this guy turned me into a Maillard Reaction legend. Tastes like bacon every single time, I fucking love ground beef now
I do lots of different things w ground beef. Will definitely try this next time. And getting the “ground beef chopper” tip was worth the time on its own. Thanks for that.
No need to cut the package and dull your knife. The plastic pulls apart. Just find the area that is pre-cut for this. In this video, its on the bottom right of your package.
I had that same Oxo chopping implement. The meat kept sticking to it so that I couldn't really use it. Seeing you using it so successfully almost wants to make me want to get it out and try again -- if I hadn't donated it somewhere 5 years ago! I manage with a wooden spatula.
I pour the water off into a bowl, then when the mince is browned and Im ready to make the sauce, I return it.
It saves time and the meat doesn’t dry out so much before it sears and seals.
i always take half my fully cooked crumbled ground beef and sear it create these little crunchy bits and fold it back into the tender crumble... the contrast in textures and flavours is great
We used to learn this by watching the Food Channel back in the 90s. I cook like this already, and so do my children. Your videos are well-produced and you are a good teacher. There is no excuse for not knowing how to cook.
I cook it in ghee butter with home grown organic garlic, rosemary, basil, dill and hot peppers. So delicious!!
Stop lying you don't 😮
I've always cooked my ground beef this way. Makes excellent chili!
I've got a mince masher, and it is brilliant.
mannn. awesome vid. i was wonderin y my ground beef usually tastes better the longer i cook it. thought i was doing it right by barely cooking it. seems i was wrong this whole time. thanks!!!
Thank you for posting this, I always wondered how to properly cook ground beef.
Great video!! I've been watching another cooking chef and this reaction is what he's after on steaks. Good to see it's the right thing to do on hamburger as well. Also, I'm ordering a chopper and better wooden spoons. I've never had much luck getting hamburger into smaller bits so that alone was great to learn. Well done!! Marvelous camera work and voice presentation!!
Thank you for this really amazing video! I never much thought about it like this and I am 68 years old. I’ve cooked a lot of hamburger and this just makes sense! Thank you again!
Just subbed today after finding a “how to choose produce” video and had no idea the steps involved with something like ground beef. Thanks! My husband is going to thank you as well 😂
Thanks for the sub! Appreciate it.
Perfection, I have always cooked my ground beef this way. It is delicious.
Your pan is totally wobbly. I suggest a large wide stay-flat carbon steel skillet. Or maybe a cheaper large Lodge cast-iron pan.
Perfect. This is exactly how I do it myself. However... for different dishes I vary the amount of browning.
Is there development of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) when that cooking method is used? You seem to know what you're talking about from a chemistry perspective, so I thought I would ask.
of course there is. AGEs are the products of Maillard reaction. there is a lot of research on how steak temperature influences amount of AGEs in it. This cooking technique just takes it to the extreme
I discovered this a long time ago on my own. 😊 Same with onions. They’re so much sweeter and tastier when you fry them longer…just til slightly browned.
Do you preheat the pan before adding the beef and if so for how long? If our beef is really lean, is it okay to add butter?
It doesn't matter if you pre-heat or not. And yes, if it's lean and there is no fat in the bottom of the pan, you have to add fat to fry it (oil or butter or fat). But keep in mind that the milk solids in the butter can burn. So it's better to use oil, ghee, or fat than butter.
I'm glad to know I've been doing it right all this time.
We buy pounds of freshly ground chuck at an Asian market. I then, using a form, make them into 3.75 x 0.75 inch burgers then place in freezer bags and freeze. When time to use one or more they defrost overnight in the fridge. If I'm going to make a crumbled beef dish, I fry the burger on medium-high for 1.5 minutes per side and remove it or them from the pan, where I break up the seared burgers, still very rare in the middle but quite crusty on the outside.
So, we now have crumble that feature all these textures and different tastes. It, the crumble, will then be added to whatever dish it is intended for, and will get a few more minutes of cooking time. But, far more often, I also make freezer burgers from ground lamb leg, pork shoulder, chicken thighs. So, when defrosted, I will combine two or more of these burgers in a ratio I think suits the planned meal . To avoid having chicken as the center of the reassembled burger, I make separate burgers of chicken & pork and beef & lamb. The chicken and pork burger is fried longer than the beef and lamb.. When crumbled, they are all mixed together.
Great comment, thanks!
Brilliant. I buy my beef whole and grind it myself. I'll have to try grinding leg of lamb. I love your idea of mixing ground meats after browning.
Hey, I got a tip for you too. Between step 2 and step 3, put the beef that is cooking into a food processor. Then, bring it out and continue stage 3. Here's why. You've got a lot of chunks that are non-uniform sizes. Trust me -- if you put it into food processor and bring it back out, then you will have perfect seared beef. Because in stage 3, it'll cook many times faster, and the resultant beef will not look like 5:03. It'll be just like Taco Bell's ground beef, and I think that that's one of their secrets -- putting the ground beef into a food processor. For us, that's how we love it, especially perfect for beef enchiladas, soft tacos, etc. It makes it perfect and uniform.
My son would say that’s burnt meat lol
It is burnt.
As a carnivore for 6 years now I concur. I used to enjoy ground beef rare as possible but after a few years now I like it over done. It’s the only cut I eat over grown it makes it so much more palatable. I add a bunch of tallow after the water evaporates too
wow I have been cooking my beef correctly! good to know.
I just had a pound of boiled beef for lunch. I wish I saw this an hour ago. Will do it next time. Thanks
Just a few videos in, and I am a subscriber. Excellent content, and spot on delivery. You sir, are an excellent teacher! Thank you 👊
Much appreciated, thank you!
“better browning through science” in Cooks Illustrated magazine. They suggested briefly soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water to raise the pH on the meat’s surface, making the proteins better able to attract more water and hold onto it during cooking. It was also noted that the high pH level should speed up the desirable Maillard reaction (basically, the precursor to caramelization).
The Subscribe button glowed when you mentioned it! Anyway, hahaha. Helpful video. Thank you for this ✨
Yes, I believe that's a new function that RUclips has added to the videos. Thanks for watching!
I've been doing this for years now, once i was watching a turkish recepie and they did this with chopped meat... and well, its perfect...
I sear my ground beef in bacon fat. Avoid those horrid ‘vegetable oils’ which are industrially processed seed oils, terrible for you.
Bacon fat is not good for you either. It is just as bad 😊
lol
@@harald-albert8303no it really is not.
Our ancestors eat animal fats for 10000s of years
In the last 100 years companies lobby seed oils onto consumers to profit off an industry byproduct.
They used that junk in lubricating machinery until they figured out how to refine the odor out of it. No way is that healthy.
@@harald-albert8303 Animal fat is very good for you, beef tallow as an example is a rich source of nutrients.
All these processed oils and fake butters you see for sale with fancy labels are poison.
@@harald-albert8303 couldn't be further from the truth.
You need to quit listening to MSM
I thought i overcooked it the first time I tried (and I probably did a bit), but the next time I pulled it off the heat earlier and it was not nearly as flavorful!
Then I looked it up and found videos like this one and cooked it to the perfect sweet spot. Now I plan on eating it multiple times per week this way
Best way to do it is put it into a hot pan and DO NOT chop it up. The whole surface will brown nicely. Flip the block over and do the same and let that brown. Then chop it up. Thank me later.
This SHOULD be obvious.
Yet I too was boiling my beef.
Just made some beef with your trick and it is delicious
Good information
Never had popcorn beef before but looking forward to try this recipe
😅
What do you do when it's not chewy enough?
Make it dry
my local winco was selling 83-17 ground beef $.99/ pound…. i have enough to last me until the end of september. this video came in handy!
This video is brilliant cause you are a brilliant teacher. Thank you♡
That's really nice of you to say. I appreciate your support!
That pan is warped beyond repair. Thanks for the very good info.
Use a cast iron skillet and the meat will taste a lot better and cook up quicker.
I've been preaching this for years! Great video!!!
I'm 60+ and that is how my momma taught me to cook ground beef! 👍🏻
If I want to make ground beef with some delicious ingredients like peppers onions, potentially tomatoes should I cook it to that point first and then add the other ingredients
The way you pound that chopper is a good way to DESTROY a non-stick pan and get all that teflon in your meat. Inedible.
I recognize that package! ;) Switched to Grass Fed because it's cheaper than regular beef now where I live.
I know how to cook my ground beef, thanks. Never put more than 250 grams in the pan at a time. Make into multiple pieces and sear each piece until the outsides are browned and *then* seperate into smaller pieces. This beef looked dry and tasteless.
Been cooking for 59 years, great method, and you explained it perfectly. Thank you.
Same here. I will see if this old dog can learn something new. I do have one of those meat choppers and I don't pound, I gently smash the meat and just keep doing that until I get the size I want.
Love your videos. I'd like to see a video on making the perfect hamburger--juicy inside but not raw.
Great suggestion!
Good advice. The reason you don't overcook a steak is because it gets tough, but ground beef doesn't have this problem. In fact, connective tissue aside, you want ground beef from a tough cut, since it usually has more flavor.
it also looks dry as dust, since you've evaporated all the "juices" off, too.
No thanks, I'll add some soy sauce or Worchestershire for some added umani and color, but I won't have to fry it down to pebbles.
Who crumbles ground beef without mixing it into something else that already contains water? It is crumbled beef, it gets mixed into something that has plenty of moisture. Even if it were for taco meat, you add liquid at the end, after it's already browned and gotten that nice charred flavor.
To Brown Ground Beef I found it best to make it into a thin layer on a baking sheet and put it in the oven and this will brown the top if you want both sides browned then take the meat out of the oven and take it off the baking sheet and wipe the tray down put a cooling rack in and flip the meat and put it back in with brown side down... Also a great way to make a bunch of smash burgers, or sliders all at once.
Great comment! thank you
Thanks I needed this I’m cooking this type of stuff for the first time 😂
You should use stainless steel or ceramic pans only.
Dumb question. Why?
A method that I do is to use a small George Foreman cooker. Fry 3 strips of bacon in the cooker keep flipping until done. Set bacon aside, cook quarter pound seasoned burger in the cooker for 3 minutes, flip burger, cook another 3 minutes. The residual grease from the bacon helps get the perfect sear on the burger. The bacon turns out better than pan fried.
Step 1. cut directly into the packaging shoving in as much plastic as possible into the meat.
Step 2. Take the most uneven/wobbly pan for maximum unevenness in the heat transfer.
Perfect ground beef.
You must be fun at parties 😂
Thanks for this vid!! Now I know why my dad really fried the hamburger patties (he cooked for us as kids) till they were a deep brown color - to bring out the true flavor of the beef. Now I can enjoy the TRUE flavor of hamburger meat!!😋😁😋
Yes, this the the basic "secret" of any good burger restaurant. They sear the outside of the patty so that you get that special flavor.
I tried this approach tonight. I was using 85/15 meat, and all this approach did was dry it out. I actually had to add some oil in the end to get it to brown, but even so it was the driest most disappointing ground beef I have ever eaten.
This is a method that you only use if you're going to add this beef to something wet like a soup or a sauce. If you're going to eat it by itself, then you don't take it this far.
I’m a ‘58 baby and in the sixties and seventies it was referred to as ground round , round steak ground up and it was flavorful and delicious we didn’t use this’d taco seasoning full of sodium just salt and pepper maybe onion powder, then the meat cheese lettuce and tomato so good , stuff started tasting funny to me in the eighties as I recall,
Your frypan is warped
Thanks. I'm going to try this, this week :)
I’m sorry people think they need to make negative, unsupportive comments. I was taught “ if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Some of these people need to learn that.
Yes, unfortunately, some people have such low self esteem, that they become allergic to seeing other people succeed. They can't do anything creative themselves, so they have to try to destroy the creativity of others.
Even for tacos and such, I take beef to this point, then add water (most srasonings instruct you to add water with the seasoning, in fact) and simmer covered on low until the water is gone; this makes sure everything is tender, and it distributes both the browning AND the seasoning throughout the meat.
I'm going to tell you, great grandma, do the same thing, and you right the flavor are so much more intense in the spaghetti sauce delicious what a difference. Fried all the fat off of it. I was looking like what the world is she doing she not going to drain the fat. I left her alone it was the best tasting spaghetti sauce I ever had! No Lie ❤