19 Deeply Satisfying Ground Beef Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What can I add to ground beef to make it taste better? ›

80% lean ground chuck (shoulder) will be the juiciest and most flavorful. It's also the grind I recommend for making burgers for the grill. It has the perfect fat-to-meat ratio. These burgers will still be juicy when grilled to the recommended internal temperature of 160 degrees.

Baking Soda is an Easy Meat Tenderizer

Baking soda helps prevent ground beef from drying out, allowing those burger patties to keep their moisture and brown quicker for the most flavorful cookout. Not to mention, baking soda is the ideal ingredient for getting the most out of your Thanksgiving bird.

Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants boil raw ground beef with water and seasonings until cooked through to achieve a super fine texture, and the aforementioned Maid Rite sandwiches (aka Loose Meat Sandwiches, which are NOT Sloppy Joe's!) use steam to keep the cooked ground beef soft after cooking.

Garlic, onion, black pepper, and salt are staple spices when flavoring beef. Garlic and onion are potent, pungent aromatics that play well against beef's deep, meaty umami.

The white stuff coming out of chicken as it cooks is simply extra protein that dissolves in water and is forced out of the meat by heat. Food scientist Topher McNeil, PhD, explains, “The [chicken] muscles themselves actually contract and squeeze out the liquid that's in between muscle cells.”

Lean finely textured beef (also known as Pink slime or LFTB, finely textured beef, or boneless lean beef trimmings or BLBT) is a meat by-product used as a food additive to ground beef and beef-based processed meats, as a filler, or to reduce the overall fat content of ground beef.

However, a sticky or slimy texture — either when cooked or raw — may indicate the presence of spoilage bacteria. You should toss it immediately. To avoid spreading bacteria from one surface to another, wash your hands thoroughly after touching raw meat.

Leaner ground beef (10-15% fat) is a healthier option, while ground beef with a higher fat content (20-30%) provides more flavor and juiciness.

How do you cook ground beef so it's not tough? ›

Baking soda acts as a tenderizer for ground beef, keeps it moist during cooking, and encourages deep browning by raising the acidity level of the surface of the meat. Simply add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to 1 pound of ground beef for more tender meat with better browning.