cooking

OAMC Trick: Browning Ground Beef

Posted by tricia on 08.31.09 | 24 Comments Short Link: http://onceamonthmom.com/?p=3396  Print This Post

I don’t know about you, but I really struggle with all of the browning of ground meat on our cooking days. It just seems like it takes two gigantic skillets to cook most of the meat and even then it ends up all over the stove. I have often wondered if there is a better way. Well, I think I might have found one!

Ground Beef (or Turkey) added to crock pot.

I tried a little experiment for this last month’s cooking day and I am happy to report that it was a SUCCESS! I placed the ground beef (in my case it was ground turkey) in a crock pot with 1 cup of water. The water helps to “steam” the ground beef. I turned the crock pot on high and let the ground beef cook for 6-8 hours. About half way through I took a look and it was all clumped together so I used a spoon to break it into pieces so the middle would cook better. After 8 hours, I stuck in a meat thermometer to make sure that it had reached the desired temperature.

I forgot to take a picture, but let me just say, at the end of the 8 hours I was really skeptical. It had clumped into one giant meatball with the liquid surrounding it. I didn’t want to lose all of that beef so I continued on. I used a strainer to drain the meat (catching the broth in a bowl for freezing) and then returned the meat to the crockpot. I used my Pampered Chef Mix N Chop (it was PERFECT for this) to break up the meat.

Ground Turkey (or Beef) broken up with Mix N Chop

It turned out GREAT! I stored it in the refrigerator overnight as I had cooked it the day before in case of disaster. Then, on our cooking day, I simply saute some onion, added it to the meat and voila! Browned ground meat!

My cooking partners thought I was AMAZING! So another great use for your crock pot and hopefully a time saver on your cooking day. On September’s menu I will be inserting directions that include cooking the meat this way overnight. If you find you don’t like this method you can stick to the old way, but I highly recommend giving it a go.

Here are the instructions:

1. Add raw meat to crock pot + 1 cup of water.
2. Cook on high for 6-8 hours or until meat reaches desired temperature.
3. Drain meat.
4. Break meat up with chopper or spoon.
5. Use as browned ground beef in recipes.

**Additional Note: Several readers have posed the question of the “danger zone” in cooking your beef this way. I wanted to respond as I have thought through this several times and waged the idea of crock pot cooking. I want to emphasis that it is important to use the 1 cup (or more if you think needed) of water when cooking your beef this way. The liquid gets “in between” and the meat cooks in the water, thus the surface area of the meat is being penetrated with the heat of the hot water, thus not placing the meat in the “danger zone” for as long.

In addition, it is important to cook the meat on HIGH, not low, when preparing it. We must always be cautious of raw meats being in the danger zone but we have cooked meats as in stews and other meats in our crock pots for recipes for years. Always use common sense and best practices when handling meat. If you are uncomfortable cooking your meat this way, feel free to bake, boil, or brown it on the stove top instead.

Related Posts:

• Labels: September 2010 Menu (OAMC, Once A Month Cooking, Freezer Cooking)
• Instructions: September 2010 Menu (OAMC, Once A Month Cooking, Freezer Cooking)
• Grocery List: September 2010 Menu (OAMC, Once A Month Cooking, Freezer Cooking)

24 Responses to “OAMC Trick: Browning Ground Beef”

1. curvaliscious says:

   August 31, 2009 at 9:15 am

   As soon as I started reading your post I thought to myself that you should use the crock pot. I never brown my beef before using it in a crock recipe so it stands to reason that you would be able to brown it on its own in there. Good thinking!

   Reply
2. Joy@Frugal Menu Mamas says:

   August 31, 2009 at 9:25 am

   I love this idea! While I don’t do OAMC (yet), I do buy large packages of ground beef and brown it all at once. What a time saver the crock pot would be. Question though, how many pounds did you fit in your crock pot and what size crock pot was it?

   Reply
   • tricia says:

     August 31, 2009 at 10:51 am

     Good question. I cooked 9 lbs in a 6 quart crock pot. It was a bit tight but it worked. I have another crock pot I could have used too just was trying to conserve space.

     Reply
3. Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect says:

   August 31, 2009 at 9:30 am

   How many pounds did you do at once? What a great idea!!

   Reply
4. Kristen says:

   August 31, 2009 at 9:52 am

   I learned to brown meat in the microwave. I usually brown it either in my white Pyrex dishes or in a large pottery “crock” that I have. I just put it in (covered) for several minutes at a time and break it up as I go along. Just another idea for you.

   Reply
5. Kathryn says:

   August 31, 2009 at 10:32 am

   I’ve not tried the crockpot technique, but I have been using my big roaster oven that is big enough for a large turkey. I can do 2 of the big rolls from Sam’s Club at the same time–usually not quite 20 lbs. Its the first thing that I start for my cooking day, and like you, I have to keep breaking it up.

   Reply
   • tricia says:

     August 31, 2009 at 10:51 am

     Another great idea an time saver!

     Reply
6. Angela says:

   August 31, 2009 at 10:33 am

   You could always do it in the microwave too

   Reply
7. Stephanie says:

   August 31, 2009 at 10:51 am

   How many lbs of ground beef were you able to do at one time?

   Reply
   • tricia says:

     August 31, 2009 at 12:01 pm

     9 lbs in a 6 quart crock.

     Reply
8. Amy says:

   August 31, 2009 at 1:15 pm

   Great idea!! When I first saw your post, I thought you had put it into the microwave. But the crock pot is a great idea to do the day before. I’ll have to remember that!

   Reply
9. Annie says:

   August 31, 2009 at 1:25 pm

   What a great use for your crock pot!

   I usually do about the same thing in a big stock pot. My chef friend calls it “poaching” the meat and says that all the restaurants do it that way.

   Reply
10. Karen says:

    August 31, 2009 at 1:25 pm

    I’m a HUGE fan of my PC Mix & Chop too! About halfway through when you mentioned the gigantic meatball form of the meat you were working with, I planned on suggesting the purchase of one!

    What a great idea! Thanks for being the guinea pig for all of us.

    Reply
11. Teresa says:

    August 31, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    OMG
    I love this idea. I just got back from the store and loaded 1 crockpot with some hamburg. I was dreading browning it for my chili meal for tomorrow.

    Reply
12. christy says:

    August 31, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    I have done this for a long time now. Especially since I feed 8 on a regular basis (2 of those being very hungry teenagers).
    I was going to link to you about my August cooking. I just started this last week, since I was going to have 2 more teenage boys to feed over the weekend. I have done a recipe a day for about 5 days. Today we are doing french toast sticks and pesto rigatoni.

    Thanks for this site. Between this and the corckpot site I should be set forever. BTW we made 30 poptarts. They were ALL eaten for breakfast the next day. Awesome!!

    Reply
    • tricia says:

      August 31, 2009 at 4:05 pm

      Wow! That is some major adjustments to amounts when you have 2 teenage boys. I must keep that in mind for the future.

      Reply
13. Debbi Smith says:

    August 31, 2009 at 2:13 pm

    Great idea BUT, here’s the problem. The meat is staying in the “danger zone” 40 – 140 for a long time. It takes many hours for it to reach 140 and then you cool it down so it hits the danger zone again, then you warm it back up and it hits the danger zone yet again. THEN, if you are freezing the meals, you are doing a danger zone cycle for a third time. Bacteria grows whenever it is in this danger zone and I don’t think just cooking it, gets rid of this. This isn’t a huge phobia for me and I do this sort of thing all the time and it probably won’t kill you but it’s just something to think about.

    Reply
    • tricia says:

      August 31, 2009 at 4:07 pm

      I suppose that is “true” except for the fact that you cook meats like this in the crock pot all of the time. And when we use it in recipes it rarely gets heated back up before freezing. However, you are right that it should be considered and handled with care.

      Reply
      • Heather says:

        August 18, 2010 at 3:55 am

        I love the crockpot idea, and will definitely be using it, because it’s probably not in the “danger zone” for too long.
        But just fyi, we can’t really compare the other meats we cook in a crockpot to ground beef for this reason: There are bacteria that can be introduced into the meat during the grinding and slicing processes. This is why you can serve a “rare” steak as long as the edges are done, but you would never serve a rare hamburger. Ground meat needs to be cooked through, because it has more surface areas that have had the potential to be exposed to bacteria. And my guess is that since the outside (“risky”) area of a roast, for example browns quickly, even in a crock-pot, it is essentially not in the danger zone as long as the risky areas of the pot of ground beef would be. (Just a little college biology coming back to me. Hope this helps.)

        Reply
14. Dawn says:

    August 31, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    I boil my ground beef. I can put about 7-8 lbs in a large stock pot. Break the beef up a little when putting it in the pot. Then cover with water and add seasonings if you want. Boil stirring occasionally. I put the meat on as soon as I get in from the grocery store. By the time I get finished putting everything away it is usually finished. Then I drain and cool it before separating.

    My favorite part is that the meat breaks up into tiny pieces which makes it stretch further in some recipes.

    Reply
15. Tami says:

    August 31, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    I love this post because whenever Melissa and I cook we always gag at all of the ground beef cooking at once and then we laugh at ourselves:)

    Reply
16. lynn says:

    September 1, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    I used to be a cook at a private school. And I cooked for 800+ people a day. I cooked it in the oven when I needed browned beef for chili, spag. sauce, etc. having to cook 40 pounds at one time was no big deal.

    Reply
17. Michelle Zack says:

    September 2, 2009 at 4:07 am

    I also recommend boiling or baking your ground beef. If it’s still raw in the middle half way through, 3 to 4 hours after you started cooking it, that is a really long time to be in the danger zone.

    Food kept at room temperature more than 2 hours should be tossed as a good rule of thumb. And I hope no one tries the crock pot with ground beef from frozen because that would take even longer and be more dangerous.

    Cooking it ahead is a great idea and will save a ton of time on your cooking day. Baking or boiling will save even more time.

    Also, with boiling you get tiny little pieces, the texture of ground beef in tacos from Taco Bell. With baking it will clump some and you’ll have to break it apart, like a poorly made meatloaf with no bread crumbs or eggs.

    Reply
18. Sliced & Diced: Ground Beef from Once A Month Mom | OAMC from Once A Month Mom says:

    May 26, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    [...] we Once A Month Mom’s love to cook some ground beef. And by love, I mean, have to. I love to cook mine in the slow cooker to make cooking it quick and easy. The thing is, I get so many questions about how many pounds of [...]

    Reply