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I wonder if some of that has to do with how cooked it became during frying... meaning muscle tissue is mostly water. If you grill a steak to medium rare, you're only desiccating the outer edge, leaving most of the water content intact. But with ground beef, how do you know when it's done? If it's done so that it's browned and crispy, much more of the water content would be removed than in the steak example. On a side note, most recipes that I've seen using ground beef have you fry until browned, and then some water is reintroduced, the pan covered and cooks for a few minutes so that the water is absorbed - it's not saucy, but the meat is much more moist. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think it has anything to do with the meat being on sale...

"Lean ground beef" has no real definition in markets in the USA at least. Here the fat/lean percentages are front and center on the package, though if they're by weight or by volume I don't know. 80/20 is common, you see 90/10 and 75/25 around as well. If it is getting crumbled into tiny bits and fried I'd expect to lose almost all of the fat and some water too...

Did you try this, @ElsieD ?

This is old, but no one answered me. Advice please?

Yesterday Ed bought some New Zealand 'lean ground beef' on "Special" (aka: on sale) 450 g. 2 packages, total weight 900 g. He fried them on the stove in the normal fashion and the after cooked weight was 573 g. That's a loss of 37.5%. In US terms, that's 32 oz of meat and left with 20 oz after cooking. Of course there's always expected to be some water in the meat...but so much? Was there more because the meat was on sale? Is it ever worthwhile buying meat on sale or is so much loss simply to be expected, no sale or sale? All thoughts on the subject are welcome.

I find it very annoying that after Christmas you can't find Cranberry and White chocolate shortbread cookies, or at least not the ones made by a local bakery and carried in a number of grocery stores. They taste homemade. It is almost like someone made a rule that shortbread is only served during the Christmas holiday period. So I had no choice but to bake a batch this morning. My idea of breakfast. Cranberries and Callebaut white chocolate, chopped into chunks. Moe just told me these are better than the ones I was missing.

and those ribs were placed on the Yoder ; along w a turkey breast . these were wrapped . hopefully Ill get a final pic. BTW : The WHPS has moved , just a mile or two . Now it has its own beach and , as they call it in New England , a Groyne : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groyne looking forward to some fishing in the Spring. then a trip to Bleu : its the Official WHPS Restaurant. The view from WHPS at dawn.

after the trim. tallow ?

Indeed there was.

Hello @JAZ, I have many of your cookbooks which I dip into regularly. Shortly I'll be having major surgery, so I'm wanting to pre-cook meals and freeze them. Could you please suggest what to consider when choosing between your recipes for which dishes will freeze best? Right now I'm intrigued by @Smithy's post for Instant Pot: Spicy Chickpeas with Sundried Tomatoes and Olives. How well does that freeze? (I'm not a very knowledgeable freezer) TIA

Do you freeze this dish after you've cooked the beans? (Thanks. You popped up in my research for freezable meals.)

As an afterthought to the Christmas 2025 thread, I'll mention that my rocket-scientist friend (the one I'd visited with on NYE) brought me a calendar as a small gift. What kind of calendar, you ask? Why, one with images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, of course. What else? https://lroc.im-ldi.com/images/downloads ETA: Not food-related, I know, unless you subscribe to the whole "moon=cheese" hypothesis, but I'd missed my chance to sneak it in with a food-oriented post, and thought some of y'all might still find the images pretty cool.

@ElsieD, we had lots of lore about great British pies, so a reverence for them (deserved or not). The Pie Room pays tribute, and develops wholly new content, I think. Lots of Dutch favourite cooking in your youth?

A chicken stew that a friend brought me. Good winter supper!

The book is interesting but the title perhaps somewhat misleading. It's basically a recipe book of classic French cooking as cooked in a 2 Michelin star restaurant by French chef. Certainly not a guidebook for beginners as you have described yourself.

My usual Saturday night catch up with the other Caroline changed to Friday this week. Taramasalata, dolmades, crudités and pita bread. Enough.

Mine were in occupied Holland.

I don't know. I'm just glomming on the photos. And finding the text charming. Famous British pies! (My parents were in London in WWII).

@blue_dolphin Did you ever find containers that were suitable?

Lovely meal!

Thanks for this - I got an eggplant in my Odd Bunch (similar to Misfits) box. My husband isn't a fan but maybe he would like it this way. I did think of parm - your version looks very appetizing compared to some I've seen. I assume that is toasted breadcrumbs on top?

Does he have any tricks for making edible pastry?

Ricotta alla Milanese all’onda. Butter, shallots, saffron, nano vialone rice, white wine, chicken broth, Parmesan. Endive salad, sliced pear and St. Agur.

Attendees Chocolot Kerry Beal alleguede curls RanaMN Melani RobertM DianaD

To an extent it depends what sort of butter we're talking about. I only usually buy salted butter, which is difficult to find here, so I buy a few packs at a time and freeze them. The one in current use just goes into the fridge in its original packaging and lasts as long as it takes me to get through it. Certainly weeks. Living in the tropics, I'm careful not to leave it out any longer than necessary. Unsalted butter I'd be more careful with. Also with my annual treat of artisanal French butter imported at great expense !