Cooking with wet meat

[Shel_B]

There are a number of times I'll cook with ground turkey, beef, or pork that has been frozen.  When defrosted, the ground meat is pretty wet.  What's a good way to reduce or, ideally, eliminate that excess moisture.  I have at times let the meat sit in the fridge, uncovered, for a while, and that helps somewhat, but not enough and doing that has its downsides.

 

Sometimes I'll buy the meat already frozen, but more often I'll freeze it myself. In either case, I've got wet meat, and the turkey seems to be wetter than beef or pork.  The meat I buy at the butcher, that's ground by the butcher, is drier by by far compared to the ground packaged meat from places like TJ's or other markets like Costco.  Is the commercially ground meat treated differently than butcher ground meat?

[AAQuesada]

Try placing the meat in strainer set in a bowl with a paper towel on top of the meat 

[TicTac]

Uh....a towel!?

 

Seriously.....

[KennethT]

Yes, I'd use paper towels above and below and press lightly.

[AAQuesada]

5 hours ago, KennethT said:

 

Yes, I'd use paper towels above and below and press lightly.

 

'There's a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is.'

-Douglas Adams

[Kerry Beal]

Salad spinner?

[gfweb]

Salting meat gets some water out.

 

I think I'd salt it and place it on a paper towel in the fridge.

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

Salting meat gets some water out.

 

 

I'm reading the OP as the water is already out and on the surface of the meat.

 

I agree that paper towels are probably the simplest solution.  Alternately, if you're making meatballs or patties, couldn't you add breadcrumbs?  Just wouldn't want to over-do it.  I don't cook much frozen or ground meat though, so just a guess.

 

Some meats have added water or brine, that may account for some of the differences between products.

 

[weinoo]

I'd just smush the wetness back into the meat, as I prep the meat for its final use. 

 

If indeed what you're buying from Costco or Trader Joe's has flavor enhancers added, stop buying that.

Edited August 11 by weinoo (log)

[Shel_B]

Sorry for the delayed response.  I've been involved in a small, time consuming project here.

 

Thanks for all the replies to my question.  Some suggestions I tried prior to my post, and the results were poor.  Other things I may try later, although my inclination is to just spend the additional $$ and buy the meat from the two butchers I use ... at least when cooking for guests.  For my "Tuesday night" meals I can put up with the problem as I'm usually looking for quick and inexpensive, and I'm flexible about the results when just cooking for myself.  The butcher meat is about twice the price of TJ's.

 

 

[AlaMoi]

not a lot of mystery stuff here - to me,,, at least....

 

any frozen meat shows up with some-lots-extreme amounts of 'defrosting liquid" - aka "water"

this is especially true for "ground meats" - the meat cells have all been well busted up by the grinding.

then frozen - which tends to rupture cell walls even more 'severely'

as the meat thaws - all that trapped-once-frozen liquid comes drizzling out . . .

 

in reality, for me,,, not actually a problem.  just use high(er) heat to boil off the water, then lower the burner heat to brown/roast/sear/whatever the beef/pork/chicken/turkey . . .