Cooking beef patties in sauce, but for an hour? Why so long?

[SEEING-TO-BELIEVE]

this guy says to simmer the patties for an hour. is there a benefit for such a long cooking time?

 

[dragnlaw]

Not sure,
perhaps to reduce some of the sauce.
and/or allow some sauce to be absorbed and get more flavour into the sausages.
to keep them from drying out?

or all of the above!

It's hard to tell as I don't understand what he is saying.
Does he have a recipe written out?

 

[SEEING-TO-BELIEVE]

there is a hebrew recipe in the description.. on youtube..

i will try it soon..

tnx

 

[dragnlaw]

OK, I got it. He does say it is to thicken the sauce and to finish cooking the meat sausages all the way. This also seems to make them tender. I think you will have to try it to find out!

Good luck, let us know how it works for you.

 

[Andy M.]

If that's ground beef, there isn't much tenderizing needed. My fear is the meat will dry out by the time the sauce is reduced.

I often see recipes that call for browning the meat then reserving it until the sauce is just about done, then adding the meat back to heat through.

Also, if the sauce takes an hour to reduce, you may want to consider using smaller quantities of the liquids to start.

 

[dragnlaw]

My concern was that the meat would collapse completely and you'd end up with just a 'meat sauce'.

I was also thinking 'why to finish cooking the meat' - those sausages/patties are so thin just the turning and browning would likely cook them all the way.

If they were thick like a wrist, might be a different story but not those thin sausages.

 

[pictonguy]

They should be ok. They're just going to absorb the sauce and stay tender much like larger meatballs simmering in tomato sauce for hours do. I'm not sure what the temperature was but a simmer is what you want, nothing boiling.

 

[dragnlaw]

That's true, meatballs don't collapse. Didn't think of that.

Good point, thanks pictonguy.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

When I make meatballs, with 1lb beef, ½lb Italian sausage and ½lb veal, I don't use bread crumbs, I use shredded bread. My mother used a box grater to shread day old bread, I use the food processor.

I cook the meatballs by simmering them in tomato sauce for 45 minutes. As they simmer, the shredded bread absobs some of the sauce and they actually increase in size.

If you use ground Italian sausage instead of ground pork, you do not need to season the meatballs!