Could the meat have been frozen prior to purchase???

I know I've frozen hamburger meat and after defrosting and cooking it sometimes it gets watery..

Linda

lyndaluu2: Thanks for your response. No, it was sold as fresh meat. I think I'll give the manager a call.

It's very possible in factory processed ground beef. But if they said it was a fresh grind from the meat cuts, then there should be a problem in their marketing skill!

I buy from our local Albertsons..Ground beef..it's the mornings trimmings and leftovers that get ground up for their hamburger. Best stuff in my area. No grit, gristle or water.

My guess is that the pot was too small for the amount of meat you were cooking and the meat started to steam instead of brown. The heat might not have been high enough either. If you continued to cook the meat over higher heat eventually the juices would have evaporated and the meat would have browned.

Ann

I was scrolling like mad to say just what Ann said. If you don't brown the beef quickly, the juices ooze out faster than the meat cooks and it steams.
Just try an experiment. Heat a small skillet and put intop it 1/4 pound of ground beef. See how fast it browns.
Now take that same skillet at the same heat and add a pound of ground beef. It will stew and steam before it browns.
Linda C

I know for a fact that a lot of the ground meat I buy at Meijer's is frozen meat that's ground, and I get the same thing. My pan is plenty big (I usually use a huge electric skillet)and I get tons of water from it. I am buying the 96% lean ground meat, but even when I was buying the fatter meat it was the same thing. It is very aggravating, but Meijer is the only place I have found the 96% lean, which is what I need for my Weight Watcher plan.
Sherry

We've had water running out of meat for several years. I was told that it was from hormones used to cause a water retention in the animal so it would weigh more. I don't know if that could be true in some countries or if it's just an urban legend.
I know when I was younger, the meat didn't seem to give off so much water.

But I was reading an article online that said the leaner the meat, the more water you may find when you start to cook it.
Apparently muscle meat is 75% water....something I didn't realize. Interesting facts on the link below.

SharonCb

Here is a link that might be useful: Water in Meat

May be that it's just where I get my meat but the only time I have a liquid problem is when I crowd the pan and it starts to steam before it browns. There are actually some dishes where I want this to happen and will even add a bit of water or broth to make sure it happens this happen.

Most dfishes I want the ground meat to brown up quickly , without a lot of liquid so I do the meat in batches.

I had to bring this thread back because I just had the same thing happen! I bought 93% lean ground beef at the same place I have for years (Price Chopper) and for the first time ever, so much water cooked out that it didn't brown, but steamed! I bought a 5 pound package and used different amounts at several different times - I estimate that for each 1 pound that I cooked, about 1/2 cup water cooked out - when I cooked 3 lbs of it for a pot of chili, I drained off 1 1/2 cups liquid! I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that it was on sale for 1.99 a pound? Tell you what, from now on I'll pay more and get it from a reputable butcher! I'm really getting annoyed with the tactics that stores and manufacturers are using to lower the quality of their products, but lead us to think we're getting the same thing we always did!

Cindy

All meat has some water in it. Ground meat will cook more water out of it during browning.

As others have said, though, federal law allows a certain percentage of water to be added during processing.

i always thought they added water to the meat during processing.

I'm sure they do add water during processing and that's OK - but the last batch I bought really had more water cook out than I've ever seen before!

Often times a bargain is not a bargain but consumers have a hard time really determining how they've been shortchanged. Meat always has some water, as all the water in the body is not carried in the vessels. You need to know your butcher's practices or select meat you want made into hamburger but even then you will find water liquid in cooked steaks. We are having an insidious inflation, have you been noticing packaging contents decrease without notice unless you make it a point to know how much it should have contained. What used to be a pound is now even getting closer to 10 ounces. I have some old recipes that called for a can of such or so with no idea as to how many ounces that was. I'm still trying to get over the shock of the new "quart" size mayo or "half-gallon" ice cream even though the price is still a lot higher. OTOH, how are we gaining so much weight?

Oh yea, terrapots! And I really didn't come here to air my complaints today, honest :) .... but another one that really gets me is canned tuna fish! In the last 25 years that I've been cooking, it's gone from 6 1/2 oz down to 6 oz, and now half of that is water/oil too! I remember the good old days when you could make 4 sandwiches from a can of tuna!

I think so! I've lived a long time, I'm 82. All the meat I buy today seems to have a ton of water added. It didn't used to be that way. Should be illegal, but (apparentl?) it ain't. Crooked meat suppliers, what's new