/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.13900904]

When browning ground beef, I've always heard not to overcrowd the pan.
Is it just because waterlogged beef takes longer to cook all the liquid off, or will doing that actually ruin the meat?

[Anonymous No.13900914]

>>13900904
When it's too crowded instead of browning you're just steaming it.

[Anonymous No.13900917]

>>13900914
Right, but all that liquid is just water and will simmer off after a while. But does that make the meat tough or anything?

[Anonymous No.13900932]

overcrowding a pan causes the ambient temp to drop so no browning will occur

[Anonymous No.13900933]

>>13900917
By the time the water is simmered off the meat is already gray and rubbery

[Anonymous No.13900936]

>>13900933
But then, all that's left is the little bit of actual fat that rendered off, and the beef, right? Couldn't I then brown it? Obviously it's not ideal.

[Anonymous No.13900981]

browning means direct contact with the surface area
you should do them in portions, don't just dump everything in

[Anonymous No.13900985]

>>13900904
It's faster but that's about it. Even top chefs will post videos of them overcrowding the pan, letting the water cook out, and then browning it from there as the fat renders. It isn't a steak or anything, you'd really have to do some wonky ass shit to ruin the texture of cooked mince.

[Anonymous No.13901001]

>>13900985
yea most of the flavor comes from whatever you're doing with the ground beef, generally all that will change from grey vs properly browned ground beef is the texture.


If i'm making spaghetti meat sauce or beef tacos or some shit, it's not gonna be a big deal if i end up with grey steamed ground beef instead of seared browned ground beef.

[Anonymous No.13901030]

>>13901001
Steamed grey beef vs seared browned beef absolutely makes a huge differen in tacos lol

[Anonymous No.13901033]

>>13901030
not in generic american-ized tacos

I agree in the hands of decent chef it obviously will make a difference, but for the average home cook, it wont fucking matter, it'll be bland meh food either way.

[Anonymous No.13901034]

>>13901030
OP here, the recipe is taco soup.
I hedged my bets. Let it cook overcrowded until it was nearly brown then drained off the liquid and returned it to the heat to sear.

[Anonymous No.13901049]

Good trick I picked up was to sear the beef brick (right out the.package dont break in up or anything) as a whole on both sides to a deep brown, then break it up a little bit at a time, getting good browning each time before breaking it up more. It helps minimize too much water being released at once and.maximizes the maillard reaction.

[Anonymous No.13901055]

itt : people who undercook food

[Anonymous No.13901056]

>>13901049
That's a good idea, thanks. I'll try that next time, but my method seems to have worked fairly well.

[Anonymous No.13901060]

>if it's slightly beyond browned it's grey
i hope all of you niggers die painfully

[Anonymous No.13901076]

>>13901060
Learn to cook faggot, if it's grey then you didn't even get the maillard reaction needed for browning in the first place.

[Anonymous No.13901085]

>>13901076
it's not "grey" if you slightly miss browning you double nigger, grey you have to boil for like 20 minutes to achieve not the 8 minutes required to cook in a pan

[Anonymous No.13901100]

>>13901085
Bitch it's not about "missing" browning. You can't brown meat in a steam cooker.

[Anonymous No.13901110]

>>13901100
we're talking about when you slightly overcrowd a pan

[Anonymous No.13901126]

>>13900904
yes but it also boils the beef and you dont want it boiled because its nasty and it doesnt brown
you should also not add any salt until its done because it has the same effect

[Anonymous No.13901135]

>>13901110
If your pan is overcrowded to the point that it's steaming, then it's not "slightly" overcrowded. Learn to cook.

[Anonymous No.13901142]

>>13901135
fuck off you retarded faggot, the point is if you slightly overcrowd a pan it doesn't suddenly go from browning to grey

[Anonymous No.13901233]

For me, it's steamed grounds.

[Anonymous No.13901248]

>>13901135
once all the water cooks out it will brown even if it has been previously steaming.

[Anonymous No.13901296]

>>13901248
This is basically what I was asking in the OP.

[Anonymous No.13901317]

>>13901296
nooo don't you understand if there's any water at all it instantly turns grey

[Anonymous No.13901323]

>>13901296
I answered you an hour ago, what are you still doing hanging around listening to retards who don't know what the fuck they're talking about?

[Anonymous No.13901481]

>>13901323
I wasn't, I asked the question after I had already started cooking. This was mostly for future reference.

[Anonymous No.13901689]

>>13900904
I've been doing that for the past couple weeks to make myself a nice reserve of ragú.
I Drop ~1kg of mixed beef/pig meat in a pan both some chopped veggies, definitely overcrowded, turns grey in a few minutes, meat drowns in its own liquids, the liquids boil off and the meat browns, then I proceed with the rest of the sauce.
Really it just takes longer, but at least you don't have to do it in batches.

First time I was even lazier and simply let the liquids boil off and left the meat grey because i though I already fucked up. The sauce turned out to be extremely bland, but all other times I browned it properly even if it was overcrowded and it came out delicious.

I didn't think you could feel that much difference, being the sauce drowned in tomato sauce and a bit of milk, but boy was the grey meat a fucking big load of cardboard.

[Anonymous No.13901722]

once something greys it by definition cannot brown

[Anonymous No.13902659]

>>13901722
If I let meat boil in its own liquid it turns grey, then once the liquid evaporates it turns brown. What's so strange about that?

[Anonymous No.13902837]

I've never had the meat turn grey but I have gotten pungent almost gamey taste browning taco meat, could that be from overcrowding?

[Anonymous No.13902845]

the grey to brown transition leaves you with very dry pebbly beef. If you sear it before the liquid escapes completely you'll retain some moisture and fat.

[Anonymous No.13902865]

>>13902845
This. Just get your pan really hot and do small batches.

[Anonymous No.13903025]

Lol nigga just COOK the ground beef. Cooking isn't exactly rocket science.

[Anonymous No.13903053]

>>13900936
Yes. You can crowd the pan all you want, keep cooking past all the water boiling off and brown the meat. If you're not just having dry beef and are making chilli, ragu etc you're going to be reintroducing some form of liquid with stock/tomatoes or whatever and you'll rehydrate the beef and cooking it for a long time, so it's not going to be tough.

[Anonymous No.13903275]

>>13901135
Retard

[Anonymous No.13903296]

>>13900917
YES. You want to brown the meat via direct contact . If you steam it you wind up with dry rubbery mass without delicious browning

[Anonymous No.13904387]

>>13900904
Ever wonder why old people's houses always smell weird? like that awful semi-familiar smell of cooked food but it smells.... different? disgusting?
>friend works in aged care
>part of job is to help extremely old people do food prep so they have pre-made meals through the week
>most people over 80+ fucking love boiled ground beef for some reason
>tastes and smells like absolute shit
>smell permeates absolutely everything, all of their belongings, the clothes they wear, their furniture
>thinks "well at least then they can use it for nachos, tacos, spaghetti sauces etc"
>his face when the 90 year old geriatrics literally eat the boiled ground beef as-is, no seasoning/sauce with maybe some mashed potato on the side

[Anonymous No.13904511]

just get yourself a nice big cast iron or dutch oven and cook your hamburger meat in that. those things hold so much heat that even when overcrowding you get a sear pretty easily. if you think im gonna sit there and take an extra 20 or 30 mins to cook in batches youre crazy

[Anonymous No.13904524]

Wait, do you people wait until the water and fat evaporate? I have always drained my ground beef.

[Anonymous No.13904536]

>>13903296
IT BROWNS AFTER THE WATER COOKS OUT, FUCKTARD

[Anonymous No.13904586]

>>13904536
This

[Anonymous No.13904621]

>>13904536
see >>13902845

[Anonymous No.13904685]

Make sure your pan is hot and add a little bit at a time. If you add too much the pan cools down and the meat stews. I dice my mince and add a cube at a time.

[Anonymous No.13904694]

>retards fuck up beef
>blames other people's method that works perfectly fine
That's all I'm seeing in the loser cope you faggots keep spouting about a little steam coming out.

[Anonymous No.13904712]

>>13900904
Ground beef in a pan you already scruwed up

[Anonymous No.13904830]

>>13901049
>sear the beef brick (right out the.package dont break in up or anything) as a whole on both sides to a deep brown, then break it up a little bit at a time
Damn, I'm going to have to remember this. Sounds like it would work really well.

[Anonymous No.13904898]

>>13901049
thank you
Thank you.
>thank you
t h a n k y o u

[Anonymous No.13904906]

Could /ck/ be anymore retarded? Its not a fucking science. Put beef in pan. Beef cooks.

[Anonymous No.13904942]

>>13900904
the fluid will eventually cook off but by time it does the meat is overcooked and rubbery

[Anonymous No.13904985]

>>13901049
good way to get food poisoning

>>13904906
>follow /ck/ genius ideas
>have undercooked food (pink in beef)

[Anonymous No.13905000]

I tend to push all the meat around the outside and make a little water puddle in the center to dry up

[Anonymous No.13905006]

>>13904387
they cant taste anything anyways
the soft texture is easy for them with dentures or no teeth or difficulty swallow, and its got calories and proteins. youre the fucking retard in this fake story, bub

[Anonymous No.13905104]

>>13900904
I never brown ground beef because it ruins the texture. I prefer just to add meat stock instead.

[Anonymous No.13905304]

>>13904985
just imagining your faggot bitch ass whining to a waiter about your slightly pink hamboiger that you immediately cut open to check like the little faggot you are

[Anonymous No.13905313]

>>13905304
enjoy the intestinal parasites you thirdie brown nigger

[Anonymous No.13905318]

>>13904985
>food poisoning
after it's browned on both sides you break it up and finish cooking, no food poisoning

[Anonymous No.13905321]

>>13905318
>we brown it then turn it gray
epic?

[Anonymous No.13905336]

>>13901085
Damn you're dumb. Beef doesn't go brown without maillard reaction, it goes straight from pink to grey. Browning gives it flavor. Yes it still has flavor anyway even raw, browning is just an extra step you can take for something nicer.

[Anonymous No.13905343]

>>13905313
Only white people (discounting lower class subhuman American/anglo ""whites"" which you're likely one of) and east Asians are comfortable with eating sanely cooked meat instead of neurotically overcooking everything in fear of food poisoning.

[Anonymous No.13905354]

>>13905343
seething wog confirmed

[Anonymous No.13905362]

>>13901142
I can tell you know nothing about cooking so I'll help you out. Grey is the natural color of cooked beef, it doesn't necessarily mean overcooked. Browning is what happens the beef is cooked with direct contact or dry heat, causing a maillard reaction which develops flavor. If you cook the beef without direct heat, i.e. by boiling/steaming it, you will have cooked meat but without any delicious browning.

I think you're confusing grey meat with overcooked, but that isn't the issue here, we aren't talking about steak which is cooked in minutes, we're talking about something which will likely be stewed for hours and softened. If the meat is grey, it isn't overcooked, you just don't have any of the nice crust you get from browning. This crust dissolves into your stew/sauce and gives a load of flavor.

With steak we want to avoid grey meat because it's a quick cook, so we keep it tender by keeping the inside rare. With slow cooked meat, you want to avoid grey because that means you missed out on browning it. If it helps to think about it this way, you could totally overcrowd the pan, let the meat go grey, and then continue to let it brown once the water has evaporated.

[Anonymous No.13905367]

the non-white does not fear the parasite as he himself is one

[Anonymous No.13905368]

>>13905321
It can't go from brown to grey you fucking dunce. Once it's browned it's browned. Grey is just the state of cooked beef that you've neglected to brown.

[Anonymous No.13905370]

>>13905362
>I think you're confusing grey meat with overcooked
Grey inherently means overcooked. It's a negative colour in cooking and thereby means overcooked since /ck/ is obsessed with undercooking

[Anonymous No.13905371]

>>13900904
I was watching Bon Appetite, and chris made lasagna. to brown well he made the meat into balls first and let those brown and all sides, and then broke it up afterwards
I tried it and it works really well
done it ever since

[Anonymous No.13905388]

>>13905370
OK so now you've willfully ignored everything I said in favor of your own ignorance I can be confident you're trolling. Have a nice day, don't go outside, wash your hands.

[Anonymous No.13905398]

I absolutely refuse to believe if I chuck some ground beef in water it's gonna turn grey grey is not a colour that beef can turn makes no sense there is only pink or brown it probably turns light brown

[Anonymous No.13905424]

>>13905398
This is what people mean when they talk about grey. You could call it light brown if you like, to me it's somewhere in between. But the point is it needs cooking beyond this point to be browned, or it needs cooking in the absence of moisture.

[Anonymous No.13905437]

>>13905398
>>13905424
And this is beef that has started to brown. The darker more charred parts, they impart flavor. Notice that some of the meat is still "grey" or perhaps light brown, this is the intermediate stage, when the meat is partially cooked but not browned. If you overcrowded your pan, it will be a lot harder for any of the meat to fully brown and you'll have a pan full of grey meat.

[Anonymous No.13905439]

>>13905437
Forgot image

[Anonymous No.13905466]

>>13905424
THAT
IS
NOT
GREY
YOU
COLOUR
BLIND
NIGGERS

[Anonymous No.13905475]

>>13905437
flavour*

[Anonymous No.13905560]

>>13900914
But what if I'm making steamed hams?

[Anonymous No.13905571]

>>13900914
the water will evaporate eventually, ideally the fat should render out after that and make the ground beef crispy after that.

[Anonymous No.13905644]

Hear me out.
You take the mince
and cook it like a big burger from the square package blob.
Once you have a nice crust, you split it, put the middles down the pan and repeat untill its done.

[Anonymous No.13905740]

>>13905644
no, you're supposed to mince the block in the pan while it is heating up, as the water content evaporates and the fat renders out, add the onions and let them brown together until the meat is crispy.

[Anonymous No.13906071]

>>13905304
like independence day?

[Anonymous No.13906178]

i dunno, i just boil the beef directly in the tomato sauce

[Anonymous No.13906181]

>>13906178
you know you don't JUST brown ground beef for a pasta sauce right?

[Anonymous No.13906265]

>>13906181
i'm not much of a taco person sorry

[Anonymous No.13906288]

>>13906265
You can do beefy mac n' cheese, chili, shepherds pie, dirty rice, etc.

You're not limited to sketti and tacos

[Anonymous No.13906721]

>>13905362
see >>13902845

[Anonymous No.13906796]

>>13902845
I like it that way for meat sauce.

[Anonymous No.13907802]

>>13905466
you're not white either

[Anonymous No.13907860]

>>13907802
Gotta love americans calling people niggers. Bout time they go the way of rome

[Anonymous No.13907901]

>>13905740
I think you're better off putting the onions in first at a lower temperature and then turning up the heat when you add in the ground beef/pork.
Also I don't even understand how you people can manage to "gray" ground beef. I've never had this problem even with like 2 inches of ground beef in a pot. Do you people not agitate it while cooking it? Or are you using such a low temperature that burning isn't even a consideration? All I can imagine is some twilight zone tier bollocks.