Healthier Hamburger... Boiled?

[Maverick2272]

Well, to brown it you would need to add some fat - would you like to brown your boiled beef in olive oil? I dunno, seems like a lot of trouble for not a lot of benefit.

Tell you what - you try it and let us know what you think

Me and my big mouth !

Now i gotta go get some ground beef...

 

[gadzooks]

I guess I'm not very sophisticated. I grind my own beef, usually chuck, which is pretty lean, and brown it in olive oil. Leave all the fat on/in. Browning is a good time to caramelize onions, add peppers, garlic, etc. Then I build my sauce on top of it. A little bit of arrowroot powder gets rid of any oil slicks. My neighbors back in Philadelphia, the Pileggi's, used to soak up the oil slick with Italian bread, a treat in itself.

 

[Michael in FtW]

Well, humm ... boiling the ground beef might remove more fat than browning and draining ... but it also leaches out nutrients into the water that would not be lost in browning. So to answer the question in two parts:

Can you remove more fat by boiling? Possibly - although if you ground your own using a well trimmed cheaper grade and cut of beef, like select grade chuck roast - not much fat to start with.

Is it healthier? Only if you're talking about the fat content - but certainly not healthier when you consider the nutrients you are tossing out with the boiling water.

When you look at bullion, consume, or beef tea - the flavor and nutrients are in the water - the meat used to make it is then discarded because it has no nutritional value - like the vegetables you use to make stock.

Flavors are created during browning, Malliard browning reactions - reactions between natural sugars, fats, and proteins, which will never be created during boiling. The more flavorful stocks are created by roasting and browning the bones before using to make a stock.

If the cook was having to add bullion back to the boiled beef - that was just to add flavor back to otherwise tasteless and nutritionally deficient ground beef texture.

Oh - yeah - also considder that a healthy balanced diet needs some fat in it ... about 30% of the daily calories should be from fat.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

I can not weigh in on this but hear me out. In Praire du Chien Wisconsin there is a joint on the main drag that sells ""Water Fried Burgers"" and on week end you wait for over a hour to git one.. They take a ordinary grill and plug up the drain hole and add the burgers and then they smash them and add water and in the center of the grill they add a huge amount of sliced onions and let them cook till well done and then they start to serve. You order them mit or mit out with onion or not. Across the river in Elkader they have the two mit wagon same thing and they all ways have a line waiting. No here is the kicker they both make enough money during the summer and early fall to spend all winter down on the beach in Florida. They also have one in Lacrosse Wisconsin. It may only be a local thing but they sure taste good I know I have waited with the rest. My DW and I consider it a real treat to git a couple and sit out in the sun and eat. Nutritious ?? But they sure tasted good.

 

[attie]

I used to work at a little Italian restaurant.
The cook BOILED the hamburger she used in her
lasagna, spaghetti and other dishes.
She said it was healthier because almost all of the
fat is removed, and since she added spices and some
beef bullion, flavor was retained.

Does anyone here boil their hamburger instead of browning it?

Do you think it would be significantly lower in fat?

Well-------------I gave in and just had to look at this thread ----- I was thinking " Who in their right mind would boil a mince Pattie before using it on a burger"
WRONG so to me it's boiled mince.

I think most of us down here would boil it, scoop the floating fat off and continue on

 

[attie]

I can not weigh in on this but hear me out. In Praire du Chien Wisconsin there is a joint on the main drag that sells ""Water Fried Burgers"" and on week end you wait for over a hour to git one.. They take a ordinary grill and plug up the drain hole and add the burgers and then they smash them and add water and in the center of the grill they add a huge amount of sliced onions and let them cook till well done and then they start to serve. You order them mit or mit out with onion or not. Across the river in Elkader they have the two mit wagon same thing and they all ways have a line waiting. No here is the kicker they both make enough money during the summer and early fall to spend all winter down on the beach in Florida. They also have one in Lacrosse Wisconsin. It may only be a local thing but they sure taste good I know I have waited with the rest. My DW and I consider it a real treat to git a couple and sit out in the sun and eat. Nutritious ?? But they sure tasted good.

Dave Hutchins, for such an Australian name you have such an American accent, what an enjoyable post. I once new a person who owned a fish and chip shop that opened at 4.30pm and closed at 7.30pm, they lined up down the footpath to get served but when it got to 7.30 he just shut the door in their faces and went home -- like your people, it's all about what people want and the quality of course.

 

[sparrowgrass]

Why not brown your beef, add your liquid ingredients and skim (or chill and lift) the fat off later? Best of both worlds.

 

[GrillingFool]

Interesting responses!
I am going to have to test this, next time I make spaghetti or something. My brain says that browned hamburger probably doesn't bring a lot to the flavor plate of a dish, at least in dishes with lots of other flavors going on.
In something where the meat is the main player, it might be less tasty boiled.
I guess that in many dishes, I consider burger to be more of a mouth feel "filler" ingredient, rather than a big flavor and nutrient provider. As in spaghetti... if it aint got hamburger, (for me) it isn't good spaghetti. Chili without burger, no way! etc etc

I also wonder just how much less fat you would end up with. But definitely worth an experiment!

I doubt I would ever become a burger boiler, because browning becomes bothersome without wonderful wasteful fat frying onions or other aromatics!

 

[suziquzie]

I don't think I would even try it!
Meat+fire=YUM

 

[Maverick2272]

Aww come on Suz, where's your sense of adventure!! LOL!

 

[VeraBlue]

Sounds counterproductive to have to return the flavour of meat with bouillon when it was the cooking process itself that removed the flavour to begin with

 

[GotGarlic]

Interesting responses!
I am going to have to test this, next time I make spaghetti or something. My brain says that browned hamburger probably doesn't bring a lot to the flavor plate of a dish, at least in dishes with lots of other flavors going on.

I really disagree with this premise. There are certain ingredients and methods that add a "depth of flavor" to a dish that, while you may not taste the specific flavor individually, if the dish is lacking it, it just won't taste as good. I'm thinking of something like the chocolate in a mole sauce, or cinnamon in a tomato sauce. There isn't enough to make itself known, but the sauce tastes better with it.

 

[mcnerd]

I would place boiled meat in the same category as Tofu. You would not eat it by itself, but would use it with other foods where their flavors will be absorbed and dominate. There are uses for boiled meat, but not as an everyday recipe item.

 

[TATTRAT]

I am going to have to test this, next time I make spaghetti or something. My brain says that browned hamburger probably doesn't bring a lot to the flavor plate of a dish, at least in dishes with lots of other flavors going on.

What you are missing though, is once the meat is caramelized, and you add the other ingredients, like wet ingredients, it is like degalzing, and you are getting some of the meaty goodness/fond to come off the beef and add flavor to the dish. Where as simmering boiled beef in a sauce is doing nothing more then cooking the beef more. You are building the layers of flavor

 

[GrillingFool]

Not really Tat.
That would only apply if you continued cooking in the same pan as you browned it in.
Which would certainly not be done if one were attempting to reduce the fat content
of the dish....

Not that I disagree about the fond and flavor, however, for some dishes.

 

[GotGarlic]

Not really Tat.
That would only apply if you continued cooking in the same pan as you browned it in.
Which would certainly not be done if one were attempting to reduce the fat content
of the dish....

Why is that? I routinely drain off any fat after browning ground beef and continue the recipe in the same pan. This way, I get the flavor from the fond and reduce the amount of fat in the finished dish. And don't have to dirty another pan

 

[GrillingFool]

OK, never mind.

The premise of my question was simple:
Can one boil their hamburger to achieve a lower fat meal?

Sure, it isn't a popular or apparently accepted methodology. I am VERY
aware of the flavor and taste aspects now. Sure, you lose something,
but you also gain.

Think outside the box, people!

 

[GotGarlic]

OK, never mind.

The premise of my question was simple:
Can one boil their hamburger to achieve a lower fat meal?

Sure, it isn't a popular or apparently accepted methodology. I am VERY
aware of the flavor and taste aspects now. Sure, you lose something,
but you also gain.

Think outside the box, people!

I thought about it and decided the entire idea didn't appeal to me. Reminds me too much of boiled beef, meaning roast, which to me is deliberate destruction of a really tasty food item. I think there are better ways to reduce the fat content of a meal, and that's by considering the entire meal, not just a single ingredient.

You also said:

...since she added spices and some beef bullion, flavor was retained.

Does anyone here boil their hamburger instead of browning it?

Do you think it would be significantly lower in fat?

So the ensuing discussion is not just about fat content, but flavor and whether anyone here boils their beef.

If you're not concerned about the flavor, go with someone else's suggestion and use tofu.

 

[Maverick2272]

Tofu has flavor... I use it all the time in stuff. Why we picking on tofu now?? LOL.

 

[GotGarlic]

Tofu has flavor... I use it all the time in stuff. Why we picking on tofu now?? LOL.

I've used it before, too. To me, it's like a very bland cheese - it has no flavor till you add something to it, but it does pick up flavors easily.