Ellie C wrote:
> 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.

It's possible water was added but not highly unlikely with plain ground
meat, markets do not want to risk stiff fines for mislabeling. However
with sausage ice is often added, but then the package would say "Water
Added" and what percent. Animal flesh is normally about 75% water, so
if cooked at too low a temperature water will exude and need to
evaporate before the meat can brown... you need to increase the cooking
temperature so that the water naturally contained in the meat
evaporates more quickly than it exudes. You are very likely
overloading your pan... try browning only a samll amount of meat at a
time. Of course you shouldn't be using stupidmarket ground meat in the
first place, get yourself a meat grinder, then you'll know what and who
is in your meat.