Ground beef/hamburger bought on special

[Darienne]

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.

[cdh]

"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... 

[KennethT]

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...

[Alex]

I think this is what happened.  When the meat thawed, it realized it was situated in an entirely different magnetic field from where it started, so it tried to head back home. Unfortunately, only the water was able to escape in time.

[AlaMoi]

actually:

'The USDA defines "lean ground beef" as containing less than 10 grams of total fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol per 100 grams (3.5 ounces) serving.'

 

basically also labelled as 90/10 - which is the meat/fat, by weight.

USDA also has rules about "retained water" in ground beef (and others . . .)

because "grinding beef" generates heat, without 'extra cooling' the fat in the grind will melt.  

ice was popular once, but more stringent & better 'inspections' have resulted in producers using 'dry ice' for cooling, as the CO2 evaporates and doesn't make a mess of the 'retained water' issue.

 

none of which applies to Canada.

Edited 21 hours ago by AlaMoi (log)