Video:Tips for Cooking Ground Beef

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Transcript:Tips for Cooking Ground Beef

Hi! This is Jesse Rosado for About.com, and today we're going to be talking about tips for cooking with ground beef. There are many different ways for cooking ground beef. You can grill it, bake it, or saute it in a pan. And here are some tips that'll help you cook it absolutely perfect.

Keep Your Cooked Ground Beef Juicy

One of the biggest challenges is avoiding dry ground beef. So here are some tips to help you keep it juicy. So the first suggestion is to make sure that you don't overcook your beef. For example, when you brown your meat for a recipe, make sure you cook it lightly. That way it won't come out dry. The second suggestion is that when you're cooking beef in patty form, like with hamburger, a lot of home cooks like to push down with a spatula and get the flames going. Essentially what you're doing there is squeezing the juices out of the meat, and a lot of the flavor as well.

Thaw the Ground Beef Properly

Third suggestion is to make sure you thaw your meat properly. If it's not thawed properly, there'll be ice crystals in there, and the thawed ground beef will cook faster than the un-thawed stuff, and therefore you'll have some dryness happening. Another suggestion is to add a little bit of water to it - only about a tablespoon or so - and then just mix it in thoroughly before you cook the ground beef. Some folks think that helps as well.

Cook with Lean Ground Beef

There are different ways to remove fat from your ground beef. The easiest is to have a really lean ground beef. Another way is to take your browned meat and drain it into a paper-towel lined dish after you're done cooking it. Or, if you're baking your ground beef - say a meatloaf recipe - you can bake that on a rack so that it'll just naturally go down through that rack and drain at the bottom of the pan.

Flavor the Ground Beef for Your Individual Taste

When flavoring your ground beef, a lot of folks say that all you need is salt and pepper. There's many other ways to do it though, if you're a non traditionalist. You can sprinkle some hot sauce in there; you can sprinkle some flaky dried spices; you can use some seasoned salt. The point is, just add whatever tastes good to you.

When using ground beef in dishes such as casserole, you'll be asked to brown the beef first. Essentially what that means is you cook it over medium heat, in a saute pan, until it becomes brown but not fully cooked. It'll get fully cooked when you combine it with the other ingredients to finish up the recipe.Thanks for watching.

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