I note that in the SBD books the recipes call for ground sirloin. However my local Walmart recently started carrying the 96% lean ground beef and the counts on it are quite good - the counts on sirloin (in all categories) are higher. Is there a reason to use sirloin or are the SBD recipes that way because they didn't have the 96% lean ground beef then?
Thanks!
i use sirloin because it is all sirloin...ground "beef" is basically beef floor sweepings. i don't know if there is a reason why SB chooses sirloin over the other stuff, but i would assume the fat percentages are a big reason, so any lean ground meat would work.
Sirloin is usually 85% lean. Ground beef is usually 75%. However, now a days, you can find 93% or even 96% lean ground beef. Which is in fact better than the sirloin.
Beef can come from many parts of a cow and the combination must meet the fat content guidelines. So the total amount of is verified but the mix of saturated vs. trans, etc. may vary somewhat. Ground beef is more regulated for fat content than speciality cuts such as Sirloin.
Whereas Sirloin comes from one part of the cow and is the amount of fat based on its “location” on the animal. Therefore the mix of saturated, trans, etc. is more verifiable.
In the end it really come down to taste.
You can grind your own meat in a food processor - here, ground sirloin is about 4.99 per pound, and I can usually get a round roast for 2.99 a pound on sale. The trick is to freeze it a bit first. Or, alternatively, you can buy regular ground beef and "rinse" it (a la tightwad gazette): cook the meat, dump in a strainer, fill the pan with warm water and "rinse" the beef 2x. Apparently this gets rid of quite a bit of fat.
