Quote:
Originally Posted by chickenmommy
There hasn't been many times I have read a post from you and thought---What? As a matter of fact I think this is the first ever. But-- I cannot imagine that your cooking method wouldn't turn out a dry hockey puck of ground beef. It has taken me years to perfect my hamburger making (only to be told by my doctor that I can't eat it anymore  ) and reheating a burger has been a fail every time even if only partially cooked and then frozen or refrigerated. I love burger juice. In my experience you only get burger juice from a loosely patted fresh burger cooked to rare or medium rare on an open flame.
Sorry for the hi-jack. It was uncontrollable!
Buy chuck on sale and pieces of other scrap beef with lots of beef flavor. Grind it yourself. |
You are correct that it makes a "hockey puck." You are correct that the flavor in meat is carried by the (liquid) fats. You are correct that doctors go nuts over how hamburgers are bad.
Burgers made from scrap meat that has been ground - where, as you suggest, I have been able to inspect the cuts first - makes nice juicy burgers. If I buy ground beef at a stupidmarket, I have no idea where it came from, how many cattle were involved and what condition they were in, and so on. I look upon that meat as unsafe when used at the temps and doneness needed to make a nice juicy burger.
Because I
do not trust that meat, I view it as a cheap (often around $2/lb or less) protein source that must be completely cooked. Once the moisture and fat is largely removed, it is surprising how little protein makes up a burger, but I digress. So how do I make up for the deficit of flavor and juiciness? Homemade bread, a slice of cheese and maybe some mayo, but primarily some sort of sauce. I'm still working on those. (Beef bullion mixed in dry mushroom soup mix to make a thin paste, add mayo, that sort of stuff.)
The "your mileage may vary" at the bottom of the post was in recognition that this is not traditional thinking.
edited to add - I started trying this when I had some sausage that had been hanging around too long and I wanted to make sure it didn't go bad. I was surprised that the sausage patties, when used as hamburgers, were interesting, even though they were dry. Is this gourmet, heck no. But if I am in the middle of a project and need to refuel in less than five minutes and at a moment's notice, it works.
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