[Su-Bee]

I found this info sheet on reducing the fat in ground beef by rinsing & draining it after cooking - the calorie & fat counts they show for before & after the rinsing are pretty dramatically different. The source seems reliable, but what do you guys think - too good to be true?

http://www.beeftips.com/pdf/Reducing...und%20Beef.pdf

[aware210]

i always rince my ground beef.. because alot of the grease comes out in cooking.. so if you rinse it your rinsing alot of the fat way. I season it after wards though.. so if your gonna rinse.. season last so your not just washing away the seasoning

[jtammy]

I always rinse mine too. You can see the fat in the rinse water. Try it - What have you got to lose?

[vixjean]

i wonder if you rinse away nutrients, that's what I have heard about pasta.

[kaplods]

I've done it. There's a way to remove even more fat - instead of browning the ground beef, you boil (simmer really) it in a dutch oven with a couple quarts of water. You break up the meat with a spoon as the water heats up. Then you drain the water (now broth) into a bowl. You empty the collander or strainer into another bowl. So now you have one bowl of ground beef and one bowl of broth. You season the beef and make it into whatever you want and meanwhile cover and refrigerate the broth bowl and the next morning, remove the fat that has risen and solidified to the top, and you make soup out of the broth.

I also brown ground beef with tvp (dry soy protein) to dilute the fat content. If you search on kaplods and tvp you'll find a lot of threads in which I give my full recipe. I can use tvp (fat free) to make a ground beef mixture that's 90 - 95% lean for less than the cost of 80% lean ground beef. Tvp is cheaper than the cheapest hamburger per pound (it's about the same price as 80% lean hamburger per pound, but one pound of tvp is equivalent to 3 or more lbs of ground beef). Tvp can be used alone as a ground beef substitute, but it doesn't really taste like much on it's own. Browning it with ground beef, it really picks up the ground beef flavor and texture.

[mariamherrera]

I always cooked my ground beef and then dump it on to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up al lthe grease! and keep patting it with paper towels until all the grease is gone! icky! why eat the extra grease? I belive it! iv'e heard of rinsing it before but I've never done that! seems no differnt the n soakign up the grease off of pizza!

[Su-Bee]

How would you count the calories for it? Do you think I can use the calorie count on the info sheet for rinsed & drained, or is that overly optimistic?

And Kaplods, have you calculated a calorie count for your ground beef/TVP mixture?

Thanks!

[JuliaDH]

Make sure you use HOT water. It keeps the fat going down the drain and keeps it from cooling off on the meat before it has the chance to rinse away! I also simmer like Kaplods. It helps it cook faster without getting burnt crispies.

[delafax]

I always rinse meat, chicken etc first so that's good news...just an added bonus LOL I also use a paper towel on cooked hamburger.

[kelly315]

sounds like a good thing, I'll have to try it.
I'm so weird about raw meat, though, I'll have to wash my whole sink down after wards.

[RN BSN 2009]

I just buy the leaner ground beefs. Very little grease to begin with.

[kaplods]

Su-bee

I have calculated the calories for using 1 lb of 80% lean, and 1 cup of dry tvp and 1 cup of hot water, without draining the 80% lean. The calories are are 45 calories per ounce, and about 25 calories (about 6g) of fat. 1 oz of 80% lean beef is about 70 calories per ounce, 50 cals from fat so there's quite a savings.

The more tvp you use in proportion to the beef, the greater the calorie savings reduction. Obviously, if you used less or more fatty ground beef that would also adjust the calories and fat. I don't remember the math, as I didn't save it, but I once used 70% lean beef and 2 cups of tvp for 1 lb of beef.

The tvp has no fat, and about 1 gram of fiber per rehydrated ounce.

[bikini bod]

I have never heard of rinsing ground meat. I drain it in a collander but thats its. Wow! you learn something new everyday.

[murphmitch]

I do this all the time. I actually saw it demonstrated on a news program as an effective way to reduce the fat content.

[Heffalump]

Ha! This thread came at the right time for me. Never heard of rinsing ground beef before, but that's because I usually use lean ground turkey or chicken. But my lovely husband has brought home a family pack of ground chuck (now I remember why I do 99% of the grocery shopping - he also bought a bag of Cheetos) that I'm planning to turn into a chili tomorrow, and this tip will save me so much grief, not to mention sat fat calories. Thanks!