I cooked up some American Chop Suey for lunch today, using hamburger
from the local market. I've now come to the conclusion that this ground
beef is just weird. It's 15% fat, so I generally add a small amount of
olive oil to the pan before I start to brown the meat. But, as is usual
with this ground beef, it never browns. Here's the sequence of events: I
heat the olive oil in the frying pan, then I add the beef. For a few
seconds it sizzles normally and then it starts releasing water, enough
so that it's actually boiling and it never browns again. Does this mean
the meat has been watered? If I cook it for a really long time the
"water" boils off, but the meat by this time has turned into little
crumbles and never becomes browned - the crumbles just get harder.