Beef Soboro: An Easy ground beef Recipe for a Weeknight Dinner (2024)

FAQs

How to make fine cooked ground beef? ›

Boiling ground beef is the best way to cook it so that it comes out in small, fine crumbles. Trust me, this is the secret to all those amazing tacos and pasta sauces at your favorite restaurant! It's also a healthier option, because the boiling process helps separate the fat from the meat, and it comes out quite lean.

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.

After you add the ground beef to the hot pan, let it cook untouched for several minutes. Many cooks make the mistake of constantly stirring ground beef as it browns, but this agitation drives moisture out of the meat, creating a tougher texture.

Before you cook, you could try to season your meat with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano (dry seasonings) or Worcershire sauce to the ground beef depending on your recipe.

Ever wonder why some taco meat found at restaurants or in chili is ground SUPER fine and how they get it that way? That is the result of actually boiling the hamburger first. This method of cooking brings the temperature of the meat up slowly and prevents it from clumping, keeping it finely ground.

Seasoning Ground Beef

The meat needs to be seasoned no matter what you're going to do with it. In the recipe below I add salt and pepper at the end. You can also add it midway through. It doesn't matter much.

Different types of meat require different spices. Beef tastes great when seasoned with oregano, rosemary, sage, garlic or a combination of these seasonings. Poultry gets an added burst of flavor with spices like paprika, lemongrass and saffron.

When you brown ground beef, do you ever keep the fat in the pan, or do you always drain it? It depends on what I am making. If you want just the meat no oil, then drain it. If you are making something that could benefit from the fat like, sautéed veggies, that go with the meat, use the remaining fat.

Vinegar can tenderize meat by breaking down its connective tissues and proteins, making it more tender and easier to chew. Additionally, vinegar can add flavor to the meat, especially when used as part of a marinade or sauce.

Why do you put baking soda in ground beef? ›

However, by gently tossing a baking soda solution with the meat (about ¾ teaspoon baking soda to 2 tablespoons water for 2lbs of grind) and letting sit for 15 to 20 minutes before cooking, beef loses less liquid, browns faster and tastes better.

Whether or not to put an egg in a burger recipe is a matter of personal preference. Adding an egg to the burger mixture can help to bind the meat together and give it a slightly richer flavor, but it is not essential to making a good burger.

Velveting is a simple process of using baking soda or a mixture of egg whites, cornstarch and oil to marinate and tenderize economical cuts of steak, chicken and other meats before cooking. Velveting meat softens fibers to reduce toughness and enhance juiciness for maximum flavor and tenderness.

Additionally, cooking ground beef from frozen can cause it to lose a lot of its juices. That's because cooking ground beef from frozen will take longer which results in the evaporation of all the delicious juices. This leads to dry and tough meat.

Add Some Fruit. In addition to acid-based foods, plant enzymes in fruits like pineapple and kiwi can tenderize meat. Like with lemon juice or vinegar, you don't want to leave these foods on beef for too long—it will make the meat soft. You can blend fruit to create a marinade.