How I process large quantities of ground beef…
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I don’t always brown my beef this way, sometimes I use the traditional method of cooking it in a pan and standing over it chopping, stirring, chopping, stirring…yeah sometimes I do that. One thing I ALWAYS do though, is cook large batches at once. I never just cook enough for one meal.
I prefer to brown at least five to ten pounds at once. I then drain off the grease, cool it, and package it in small freezer bags in whatever amount equals enough for a family meal of spaghetti or whatnot. For my family, this usually means a cup to a cup and a half of ground beef. I freeze it and whenever I need it for a meal, simply thaw in the microwave or with whatever I am cooking and I’ve cut out a major step and a decent amount of mess!
If you end up having a meal such as tacos, which required extra beef, simply grab two bags.
Why get out the skillet, thaw, brown, and drain over and over when you can do it once and save yourself tons of time and repeated messes?
This is one of my favorite ways to cook beef as it doesn’t require the attention that a skillet browning does. Also, you can get those nice little granules of beef without having to chop, chop, chop….Its great for large quantities of beef as well and I find the cooking process is done in half the time, with a lot less fat left on your finished product.
Begin with ground beef. Why do I use ground beef instead of ground chuck or lean ground beef? Simple, its cheaper. Grocery prices have been rising rapidly, gas is through the roof and I still have to feed a family of four with the same amount of money as I had before all of this. Ground beef it is!
Using your hand, take a clump of ground beef and submerge it.
Bring to a boil. You’ll need to stir it just a time or two until its all nice and browned and done.
Until I have a whole bowl like this. At this point, I will get a one cup measuring cup after it has cooled and put one cup servings in individual freezer bags to have on hand whenever I need ground beef for a meal.
And look at all this you left behind!! ewwwww
I am trying this today (local grocery store has ground beef on sale for $1.98/lb. which is an awesomely low price for our area). This method works great!!! I also love the fact that I can buy cheaper & fattier ground beef but this method removes so much of the fat from the cooked meat. I plan to add this to my cooking repertoire. Thanks for the tip. 🙂
Kimberly
I tried this today and posted about it on my blog http://theadventuresofaworkingmom.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the great tip!
Christy I passed on this post on Processing Large Quantities of Ground Beef to a friend. I thought it was a cool way to do this. I was at her house and she rinses her meat in water and i thought of this post.
Stephanie:
It was born out of sheer laziness, I swear! Isn’t it amazing what little things thrill us though? hehe
I have this thing about having cooked ground beef in the freezer, its kind of my security blanket. I just *feel* better knowing its there.
What a great idea! You get rid of all that gross grease, and have all that meat that is precooked and ready to toss in a recipe – brilliant!
That really does look gross, doesn’t it? You know whats worse ~leans in and whispers~ I didn’t throw this out last night, was waiting til this morning because the trash runs today anyway. So I was greeted with this pot that had about two inches (seriously) of hardened fat on it…and as a mother, if that is the grossest thing you’ve heard today you are lucky! hehe.
I started not to even put that pic but……well it is junk that you aren’t eating! Its almost like you are cooking your beef and giving it a bath at the same time.
Tina, I am so thrilled that you read my blog!!!
I better go. I promised two kids I’d take them to chic-fil-a today and the natives are getting restless!!!
Have a great day!!!!!!!
~Christy
this is the technique I use when making hot dog chili. Never had the bright idea to use for recipes calling for cooked ground beef. I keep old plastic containers e.i. cool whip, margarine, ice cream and dispose of the drippings into the trash. Thanks Christy!!
I have cooked large amounts of ground beef like this for treats. So handy to have it already cooked and drained and ready to go for any ground beef dish I will be making, and really reduces the fat in the meat. Hint: makes great sloppy Joes and Coney sauce also!!!!
Ewwee that does look gross after, but thats all the grease that we wont eat so thats good. I might have to do this with some of my ground beef and freeze it. Thanks for the information Christy.