Rinsing & Blotting fat from mince.

rubadub

Lean mince costs a lot in supermarkets. It is cheaper to get round or rib steak and trim it yourself and then cut it up fine, or liquidise it for burgers.

I was wondering if there was a way to reduce the fat. I was thinking of steaming the mince thinking the fat would just drop out, not sure if it will.

I found these sites which rinse the cooked beef in 150F water, which is around 65C. Also interesting was that when different fat % mince was cooked they came out fairly similar.

http://foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_Files/Reducing%20Fat%20in%20Ground%20Beef.pdf

http://www.beefnutrition.org/uDocs/Reducing%20Fat%20in%20Cooked%20Ground%20Beef.pdf

EileenG

Back in the bad old days when I used to eat low fat, I used to wash my mince. All I can say is that it is a huge amount of trouble and makes an amazing mess. Just disposing of the fatty water without glogging up the drains is a day's work.

I'd say either buy the lean, or just drain off the fat that runs off easily, and forget the washing.

jam_mac_jam

I think you will block up your sink, and it sounds a bit disgusting. I dont know if mince is that hugely fatty that you are going to need to do that. I drain it when I am cooking it but there is usually very little, you really shouldnt be buying cheap mince anyway. yuk. you dont know what's in there.

rubadub

EileenG wrote: »

Back in the bad old days when I used to eat low fat, I used to wash my mince.

I have a diet pretty high in fat, that is the reason I would like to lower it in some places, it is more watching calories and trying to increase protein than trying to go "low fat". I got some mince and did it just a while ago and it worked out OK. I can see it could clog drains, I wonder if I left it to cool would it all separate and form a skim that could be lifted off the top of the water.

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

it sounds a bit disgusting.

It does a bit but would be fine in spag bol I put curry sauce on mine. I just put it back in the pan and fried it up again, you could see very little fat was left.

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

I dont know if mince is that hugely fatty that you are going to need to do that.

Well the mince I got was 25% fat, I could eat 500g in a day so that would be 125g fat from meat alone if I did not strain any fat off at all, and that ontop of fat from other sources, I get a lot from nuts.

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

you really shouldnt be buying cheap mince anyway. yuk. you dont know what's in there.

You don't know what is in the expensive stuff either. If a butcher got the cheap stuff and wrote "round" on it and charged 4 times the price would be happier. Same goes for chicken fillets, some have a black & white view supermarket=bad, butcher=good, and have the same hangups about price, wary of cheap meat. As I was saying before you can just get proper round steak and trim it yourself, at least you can see what went into that. Of course many will have a butcher they can trust, but do not put blind faith in pricing structures, just look at beer and electronics prices! quality and price do not go hand in hand.

I am always amused at some concepts about meat. Many would have no problem eating cows but not horse or dog. Some will think it is fine to eat pigs in the morning, but are disgusted at the thought of eating chicken or beef. Some are disgusted at the thought of eating certain animal parts/organs, I find the concept of eating any part of an animal as bad as another, cows muscle or intestines are just as appealing/unappealing sounding to me.

I might try and just drain some and see how much comes off, collect it and weigh it.

fatal

Whenever I use hot water to defrost frozen mince, a white fat like layer forms on top of the water when the mince has defrosted.The longer you leave it in the warm water,the more white stuff there is on top of the water.Correct me if im wrong but i've always thought that was the fat.

Khannie

Head to your butchers. Supermarket mince is absolutely horrible.

If you're wondering how to tell the difference: The colour's a dead giveaway. More red = less fat.

Other than that: Use a little bit of water to brown the mince. The fat just oozes out of the supermarket muck. Not so with any butchers mince I've had. Of course, some butchers do sell higher fat mince, but I haven't seen any in ages.

Faith

fatal wrote: »

Whenever I use hot water to defrost frozen mince, a white fat like layer forms on top of the water when the mince has defrosted.The longer you leave it in the warm water,the more white stuff there is on top of the water.Correct me if im wrong but i've always thought that was the fat.

Just a health and safety note, defrosting meat in hot water is very much not advised. It starts to actually cook the outside and bacteria start to grow rapidly. You should defrost in cold water if you must, or ideally in the refrigerator.

rubadub

Khannie wrote: »

Head to your butchers. Supermarket mince is absolutely horrible.

some butchers do sell higher fat mince, but I haven't seen any in ages.

So you have a good butchers and bad supermarket experiences. This was what I was getting at before, many seem to say this, but just be careful.

I know an ex-butcher and the stories he told me would disgust many.

Khannie wrote: »

If you're wondering how to tell the difference: The colour's a dead giveaway. More red = less fat.

In his place they used a red powder dye to redden up the mince for this very reason, also allowed pork & chicken off cuts to go in the mix. This butchers was very popular too, very busy. Less busy ones would be even worse I reckon, especially single owner ones where discarded meat is his personal money down the drain.

I also knew a guy who worked in the deli in supervalu and they did toss out meats by guidelines. I have mentioned this before where the supermarkets probably have guidelines to follow and the people working do not care if stuff seemingly goes to waste. Which burger is more likely to make you ill, mcdonalds or some chipper van.

If you have a good butcher that is great. But just do not presume they are all great, or that all supermarkets are demons.

hcnyla

Why not buy a mincer for yourself and mince the round yourself?

I have a small manual mincer that I got in Bob & Kates in Clane and paid €15 for and it's the bees knees. I mince pure sirloin steak for my burgers! Lovely stuff!!

You can get one from Argos as well.

hcnyla

rubadub wrote: »

If you have a good butcher that is great. But just do not presume they are all great, or that all supermarkets are demons.

This is very true. I worked in a butchers years ago for a summer job and the sh1t that was mixed up and sold as burgers was horrendous. Anything and everything that was left over was thrown into the mix. Very common practice by all accounts.

And I used to eat them myself. Tasted lovely I was a student after all and they were cheap.

rubadub

hcnyla wrote: »

Why not buy a mincer for yourself and mince the round yourself?.

I probably will, have enough gadgets already though!

I do liquidise meat for burgers and cut up round/rib steak really finely for spag bol, a big clothes scissors is great for cutting up meat, and fairly safe.

I looked up "mincing machine" on ebay once, all I got was Julian Clary dvds! no joke...

I think aldi or lidl did them a while ago, some processors have attachments for it.

Sugar Drunk

hcnyla wrote: »

This is very true. I worked in a butchers years ago for a summer job and the sh1t that was mixed up and sold as burgers was horrendous. Anything and everything that was left over was thrown into the mix. Very common practice by all accounts.

And I used to eat them myself. Tasted lovely I was a student after all and they were cheap.

Ditto I worked in a small butchers too and some dodgy stuff went on. slightly off pork chops would be coated in barbeque sauce to disguise the color and sold as bbq pork chops eek.

the tesco healthy living mince is great it cobntains a hell of a lot less fat than the standard stuff!

lindak

Dunnes also do mince that is lean, extra lean and super lean the supper lean is 95% lean ! very little fat comes off it. Although I sometimes buy round steak mince in the butchers and very little fat comes off that also.

Khannie

rubadub wrote: »

If you have a good butcher that is great. But just do not presume they are all great, or that all supermarkets are demons.

Don't forget that the reverse applies also.

A friend of mine worked behind the butchers counter in a large retail supermarket (one of the top 3 in Ireland, or at least it was at the time) and he said he would never eat their meat again given what he'd seen over the course of the summer. There will always be scumbags and people who aren't well paid and don't profit from the business generally don't give a sh*t. Your suggestion that a butcher might use off cuts in mince because it's money out of his pocket could easily be countered by saying that his reputation is worth his whole business. One bad apple etc.

Personally, I've never had a bad experience with a butchers and have had several with supermarkets. We actually brown our mince with a bit of water. The fat content that came out of the supermarket mince was actually what drove me to the butchers in the first place. They can be somewhat intimidating to walk into when you're a 20-something who hasn't got a clue and it's so so so much easier to just pick up your mince in a convenient packet at the supermarket.

I'm now a 30-something and glad I made the effort.

olaola

I heard people boil their mince. Never tried it myself, but I'm sure it works.

I just dryfry mine in a good non-stick pan over a low heat and teem off the fat.

rubadub

Khannie wrote: »

Don't forget that the reverse applies also.

I totally agree, my point is it is not simple black & white, bad apples all over the place

I got some cheap dunnes mince today, had no nutritional values. Seem a lot of water came out. I dry fried and poured the fat off, then I rubbed it with kitchen towels until it was dry (no rinsing).

The pack was supposed to be 800g, I didn't weight before, but did after, it was only 460g! That is a "yield" of 57%. Must give a few local butchers the same test. The cheap tesco mince did have uncooked values, so I really wonder how true they were, e.g. if it said 20% protein and it lost 50% weight in fat and water/juices, would it really be 40% protein.

With a full chicken I got a "yield" of 40% lean meat per weight.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=55576679

Per kilo "dry weight" the mince is only slightly better than the chicken.

Khannie

Good test. Interested to hear how you get on with similar ones.

rubadub

Khannie wrote: »

Good test. Interested to hear how you get on with similar ones.

Big Als now do a frozen raw mince, it was half price so I gave it a go, €2.50 for 454g.

Weighed frozen at 455g. Fried and blotted it was down to 270g. So a yield of 59%, pretty much as before.

Now this did have the nutritional info.
per 100g as sold frozen.
186kcal
Protein 19.2%
Fat 12.1g total
fat 5.9g saturates.

So my resulting 270g should have a protein content of 32.3% if none was lost in the blotting.