Beef Cooking and Buying Tips

When cooking ground beef for Tacos or other Mexican dishes, cover the meat with water in a saucepan, break up with a fork, or potato masher, season well with beef and chicken boullion, and garlic powder, when cooked, drain off fat and water and you've got tasty meat without all of the fat. (You won't miss the good taste of the browned meat, I promise.)

Freeze ground meat in 1 pound portions and place into freezer storage bags. Flatten out to the edges of the bag and remove all the air before zipping and sealing, then freezing. These flat bags of ground meats stack neatly laid flat or standing on edge in the freezer. If you want a smaller amount it's easy just to break it off then reseal the bag. The meats also thaw quicker when stored this way.

Instead of buying the more expensive beef stew meat, purchase a chuck roast on sale and cut it up yourself.

Place a few pieces of dry bread in the broiler pan when broiling meats to soak up dripping fat. This can eliminate smoking fat as well as reduce the chance that the fat will catch fire.

To make nice round hamburgers, place a round meat ball between wax paper and mash with a clear dinner plate. You can watch your progress and make hamberger size to your specifications. This also makes patties ready to freeze and easy to seperate when ready to thaw.

Meatloaf on a stick: Wrap meatloaf mixture around a stick. Wrap meat with alumininum foil. Hold over a campfire until done. Also bring complete biscuit mix in a zipper bag add water and squish to mix. Stretch with fingers into a strip and wrap spirally around stick and hold in other hand to go with meatloaf.

Trim fat from beef after cooking as leaving a layer of fat preserves
juiciness.

Slow cookers and pressure cookers are ideal for less tender cuts of beef.

Salt beef after cooking or browning (unless it's added to the dredging
flour) as salt draws moisture out of beef.

For easy storage and thawing of ground meats, before freezing divide the meat into several equal parts and place between pieces of wax paper. Use a rolling pin to flatten meat into a thin, wide patty. Layer the wax paper and rolled out patties and store in a large freezer bag. Not only do the thin patties take less freezer space than the store wrapped heap of meat, they also take less time to defrost and you can defrost only the amount you need! Especially handy if you're buying in bulk and only cooking for two!

Use moist heat methods such as braising, simmering, stewing or poaching to cook less tender cuts of beef.

Make sure meat for stew or chilis is cut to uniform size so the pieces cook at the same rate.

Dredging beef in flour helps seal in flavors and moisture, espedcially for cuts that are very lean.

The key to browning beef before moist cooking is to do it slowly, as a slow browning adheres to beef better than a quick one.

A tight cover is imperative for retaining the steam necessary for moist heat cookery.

Dry cooking methods like broiling, roasting, pan frying, sauteeing, grilling work best for more tender cuts of meat.

Patting beef and steaks with paper toweling before cooking makes for better browning of the meat.

Browning beef prior to cooking by moist heat methods adds rich color and flavor.

Grill beef over medium, ash covered coals. To check for temperature,
cautiously hold the palm of your hand over the coals at cooking height. Count the number of seconds you can hold your hand in that position before the heat forces you to pull it away. It should take about 4 seconds for medium heat coals.

Moist heat means gently simmering, not boiling, which keeps the meat from shrinkage and keeps it moist and juicy. We've all had dry pot roast. This was most likely due to boiling rather than simmering.

While not needed for tenderization, moist cooking methods can be used for ground beef when making chilis or soups.

Browning usually requires a small bit of oil, and always if the meat has been dredged in flour as it will otherwise stick to the pan.

Moist heat and long, slow simmering in a tightly covered pan results in fork tender meat.

Cooking bags, such as those made by Reynolds, are great for moist cooking beef and can actually reduce cooking time. They also greatly reduce the mess to be cleaned up afterward!

Age your beef by placing in non-reactive container. Leave uncovered in ref. for 6-8 days. After aging bring to room temp and season. Rub oil over all surface. This will seal the meat. Bake at 225-250 until done. This will tenderize the toughest meat.

To prevent the grease that comes to the top in chili and other meat dishes, after browning the hamburger, drain and cover with hot water. Allow this to come to a simmer and drain through a colander. Cook recipe as usual.

For a meatloaf everyone will love- mix together ketchup, worchestershire, and brown sugar (as much brown sugar as ketchup) and pour over meatloaf within the last 20 minutes of baking. It will be a yummy glaze.

Brown ground beef,drain,place in freezer bags according to use for your receipes.When ready to use just take out what you need. Its ready in no time. No fuss, less time preparing dinner.

When defrosting meat, use an ice cream container, the plastic ones the ice cream comes in from the store, there will be no leakage onto the fridge shelves. Also can use with any food being defrosted, but is great for meats as it contains the blood.