Ground beef, that workaday staple
There are a lot of interesting and delicious cuts of meat available at the grocery store meat case. Recently I have raved about pork tenderloin and chicken thighs, not to mention steak. But one of the overlooked staples of the meat department is good old ground beef.
It's not fancy. It might give you a prion disease. It probably has pink slime in it. Do you care? It's so cheap!
Given the price of meat lately, the cost of feeding a family has gone through the roof in the last few years. Cheaper meats are a treasure, but it's not always easy to know how best to use them.
Selecting Ground Beef
Ground beef is usually sold in several different fat levels. The less fat, the more expensive it is. Frankly, I have done the calculations and found that it's most affordable (at least at the store I frequent) to buy the fattiest ground beef (usually 80/20) and drain off the fat before eating.
I would recommend against getting the leanest ground beef, and not just because of the cost. (I have seen ground beef as lean as 98/2, and it cost a small fortune.) The fat is what gives the meat flavor. If you go for the leanest ground beef, you are virtually guaranteed to end up with a dry, flavorless meal. It's not worth it.
If you want to cut the fat, find another area of your diet to do it. When it comes to ground beef, fat is where it's at.
Image courtesy Flickr/scarlatti2004
Storing Ground Beef
Unlike whole muscle meat, ground beef has had all of the potentially contaminated surfaces ground up and mixed in together. This means that you should handle it carefully, always wash your hands after touching raw ground beef, and use it relatively quickly. Always cook ground beef completely, to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
If you want to make medium-rare or rare burgers at home, you're free to do so. (Unlike a restaurant, which is often prevented from offering rare ground beef due to food safety regulations.) But if you want to do this, I strongly recommend buying a cut of meat and having the butcher grind it for you fresh. Sirloin cuts are most often used for this purpose. Fresh-ground beef will have suffered much less bacterial contamination than beef that was ground who-knows-how-long-ago back at the slaughterhouse before being packaged and shipped to your store.
Now that we've gotten all the cautions out of the way, let's talk about four easy, yummy things you can make with ground beef!
Image courtesy Flickr/artizone
1. Burgers
This is the obvious choice. Scoop out a big handful of meat and form it into a patty by hand. (Really, use your hands. It's the best way.) Try to make it as thin and even as you can.
Drop the patty into a pre-heated skillet, sprinkle the top side with salt and pepper, and cook it for 5 minutes. Then flip it over, season the other side, and cook it until it is cooked through. Usually about another 5-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the patty. Use a meat thermometer to be sure.
2. Meatloaf
I recently rhapsodized about the charms of meatloaf here, so there's no need to retread that topic. Suffice it to say that meatloaf is a fast, easy, and economical way to use a few pounds of ground beef. And you can either reheat the slices or eat them cold. Meatloaf sandwiches are delicious!
3. Mexican Food
Ground beef is great in tacos, taco salads, burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas, and as a nacho topping. You can buy packets of seasoning in your grocery store's Mexican food section, which makes it super easy to spice and cook the meat. Then just spoon it into taco shells, tortillas, or whatever casing is appropriate for the dish.
Here's a tip: you don't have to do it all at once. You can cook up a big batch of spiced ground beef one night, then refrigerate it and use it in meals later on. This can help defray some of the chaos of fixing a worknight dinner.
4. Baked Meatballs
I always thought that meatballs were complicated and time-consuming, until the day I actually looked at a recipe for them. So easy! So delicious! Bake up a batch of meatballs then serve them with spaghetti sauce or this tangy sweet-and-sour sauce that is a potluck staple.
Main image courtesy Flickr/The Big Scout Project