DH drains but his meat looks gray. I reduce thru cooking and my meat is brown, I wouldn't say overcooked b/c not crispy. However not sure which is better or correct way to cook it

Cooking and browning ground meat depends on the application. I brown meat for chili, but I cook i gentley for bolognese.

Makes sense. We mostly it use it for taco salads

There is some natural water in beef. Some will drain out quickly and should evaporate quickly. If you have more than a little water coming out, perhaps it was added. You can also render out the fat if you're using a higher heat, which brings water with it, which you can also steam off. As was said, you can end up overcooking and drying out your beef that way. If you want lean, it's best to start with lean meat.

Here's the kicker: When the juices, both fat and water, separated from the beef, the flavor (carried in the fat) and the seasoning leak out with it. If you pour it off, you're losing all of that.

That said, when I've had to use fattier beef--which some people like but I don't--I have been known to render it out and drain most of it off, then go back and season the meat. That's harder to do without getting the meat overcooked and dry, however. It's easier to buy 15% or 10% fat and not bother with it.

Re gray, I'm not sure that comes from draining. It usually comes from steaming. Caramelization starts at 350° F. If you put your meat in a cooler pan, and it has liquid draining out (or added to the pan), it'll steam in the liquid before it has a chance to brown. If your pan is at least 375°, so the chill of the meat doesn't bring it down too far, you'll get brown. If it releases a large amount of liquid instantly, that's the time to pour it off, so you can still brown.

I'm sorry. I'm not very awake and this is longer and more convoluted than it should be. Let me know if it doesn't make sense.

Start browning, pour off liquid into another pot, reduce liquid while continuing to brown the meat in the original pan, combine reduced liquid back with browned meat. That's my process.

I usually cook hamburger until it's nicely browned with the liquid naturally evaporating. It gets absorbed into the meat.

Quick, what do you call a cow with no legs?? Ground beef!!

"Quick, what do you call a cow with no legs?? Ground beef!!"

Groaned beef.....

Took me forever but finally got it.haha

so, does it make a diff whether you drain it cook off. Doesn't seem to

ETA. I use mostly 90% lean, do not like it leaner

I do smaller batches in a bigger pan when I'm being particular about it browning rather than graying. When I care less and there's a lot of liquid I'll pour it off, let it separate, and pour the water back with any other liquid I'm using. But truth be told that just seems like the right thing to do, and most of the time that I'm using ground beef there are other ingredients/flavors involved that would make the benefit negligible if noticeable at all.

With 90% lean, there shouldn't be enough natural liquid to need to pour it off. Perhaps, like FOAS implied, you need a bigger pan? The main reason for not pouring it off is to maintain flavor.

I mix ground beef with tapioca flour, and dark soy sauce.

No grey meat, and no watery liquid, and no need to brown.

What do you get if the cow has a missing leg?

Lean beef.

dcarch

Ha

If you're only going for appearance, then yes, soy sauce will cover the gray so you don't have to brown it, but I still think you get flavor from browning it so that's my preference for most applications.

Browning ground beef takes time. I use fresh only and get it out of the fridge at least 1 hour (preferrably 2 hrs) before browning it. The water (not much of it anyway) evaporates completely and the beef gets dry-looking and nicely seared. Flavourwise it's definitely worth the trouble.

If you are accumulating watery liquid in a pan when browning beef, you are crowding the pan and steaming rather than browning.

i brown it. i do only buy pastured ground beef -- rather leery of how many cattle were chopped up into it in the supermarket. Usually I think my beef is 90+ non-fat. I usually don't need to drain it, because of that. I'll add seasonings and sometimes onions or mushrooms, but no breading/flour of any type.

I never need to drain my own beef, and I do have to be careful not to overcook it, it's extremely lean

When using commercial beef, though, I let the liquid evaporate. If I used it for taco salad, I think I'd add seasonings, cook until still moist but not sloppy and then use it. When I was still fussing about cholesterol and saturated fat, I drained it off, but eventually realized that it was mostly liquid and not so much fat, and that the beef was far more flavorful if I didn't drain it.

I even had a nutritionist once tell me to boil ground beef, then drain in a colander before using. Ugh. She wasn't a very nice lady, either, so I think she loved telling people awful things like that!

Annie