Do you brown your mince?

FTGFOP

A while ago I realised that when I was going through the "brown some mince'" step for things like bolognese that I wasn't really browning the meat at all. I was just taking it to grey. Which didn't achieve anything that wasn't going to happen by simmering in tomato sauce for ages.

I'm reformed now and make a point of browning the mince as opposed to cooking it through.

I was curious to know if other people had this epiphany (or always knew the difference brown and grey and never needed one)? :pac:

brick tamland

Depends on the receipe and the quality of mince for me. If there is a high % of fat in it I'll normally brown it though to be fair.

Minder

I find that mince will start to release water before it fries fully, so I use a large non stick pan and allow it to get really hot. Then add the mince with no oil. The mince will release enough fat to fry the meat and seriously hot pan gets it fried before it starts to stew.

Also if its getting watery and grey, raise the heat to drive off the water and the meat will fry in that fat after the water has gone.

Name Changed

I usually fry the mince in it's own juices, with no oil.

HoPpiE

I always brown the mince beforehand, allowing the Maillard reaction to take place, thus creating a more desirable flavour.

FTGFOP

Yup, the maillard reaction. Once Good Eats put that info in my brain I wanted to implement it wherever possible.

Thanks for responding folks. I was worried this thread would sink like a proverbial with no votes on the poll.

Something I should have said in the OP was that another way to look at the 'browning' stage is as an opportunity to ditch a lot of the fat out of the mince. I've lived with people who do that. Makes perfect sense.

rubadub

Minder wrote: »

Also if its getting watery and grey, raise the heat to drive off the water and the meat will fry in that fat after the water has gone.

Or else add it in smaller batches. I get mince and shake it out so it separates into individual strands, but a little on at a time and keep dumping it out into a second bowl. Then add it all back in again at the end.

I was trying to find a way to partially dry out the mince before hand, I hate it being so watery. I am guess you could lay it out on a plate in a fridge, when you have a open pack of mince the exposed areas do seem to dry out. So if I separated out the stands and put it on a large plate for a few hours I expect it would dry.

I have also put it all out loosely on a large baking tray and into a oven on the hottest setting, takes only a few minutes to brown.