Bob wrote:
> Ellie wrote:
>
>
>>Yes, I agree completely. Typically, I would use seasoned iron, which is my
>>favorite. But since in this case I would be adding tomato sauce I didn't
>>use my iron pans. What surprised me is not that the meat produced some
>>water, but that there was so much more than I have ever seen, and this
>>seems to be the case consistently. My husband has commented on it as well.
>>We're both retired and have been cooking a lot of years. We're comparing
>>this to previous experience.
>
>
> I don't have anything to contribute to the central discussion about the
> hamburger; I think it probably was adulterated with water, and there wasn't
> anything you could have done to brown it. But this caught my eye:
>
>
>
>>Typically, I would use seasoned iron, which is my favorite. But since in
>>this case I would be adding tomato sauce I didn't use my iron pans.
>
>
> You used a copper pan because you didn't want to use iron with tomato sauce?
> But isn't copper a reactive surface also? Or was it coated on the inside?
> My experience has been that if cast iron is seasoned well enough, the
> seasoning prevents the chemical reaction with acidic ingredients; maybe the
> iron pan would have been a better choice (because of the heat retention
> which others have mentioned).

I wasn't worried at all about reactivity. I don't like to put liquid
into my iron pans.

>
> Oh, there is one other thing: Hand-grinding meat isn't that big a deal,
> unless you're grinding a LOT. If it was really difficult to grind beef using
> your hand grinder, then maybe the grinder wasn't set up properly. (Or maybe
> it was just poorly designed or poorly built. How long was the crank?)
>

You are probably younger and stronger than I am; and you're probably
taller as well. With the grinder on my table it's just a bit too high
for me to get proper leverage on the handle. Not about to build a
special table for the grinder. ;-)
> Bob
>
>