"Maverick" > wrote in message
...
> "--" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > "Ellie C" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >> 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 sounds like you are starting with too low a heat, or put too much
> > ground beef in the pan at once, or are using a pan with low thermal mass
> > (e.g, aluminum vs iron), or using too small a pan, or a combination of
the
> > above. The hint was the release of water - a sign of a pan chilling
> > sometime
> > during the process
> > The meat browns because of its immediate contact with a source of
heat
> > large enough to fry the surface before the source cools below frying
> > temperature-
> > e.g., you need a large slab of metal that holds heat (there is a
reason
> > iron takes longer than aluminum to heat - its storing that heat from the
> > burner instead of immediately passing it on), enough oil to "deep fry"
the
> > surface (the hot oil transfers its internal heat to the food until it
> > cools)
> > , etc.
> > The idea is to have a pan capable of keeping temp, and not dumping all
> > the
> > meat in, thus to keep the meat from "chilling the pan"
> >
> > To brown well, use a 10" iron skillet with a layer of oil on the
bottom
> > heated to medium high (that's roughly just before smoking, and where a
bit
> > of meat sizzles when dropped in), and put in just enough meat at a time
to
> > thinly cover the bottom.
> > I can't do much more than a half a pound at a time in a 10" iron.
> >
> > Seasoned iron does a much better job of browning than teflon coatings,
> > stainless, or aluminum.
> > In one experiment we did with iron, stainless, and aluminum, the same
> > amount of meat wouldn't even brown in an aluminum or teflon pan, was
so-so
> > in stainless, and browned evenly and fully in seasoned iron.
>
> Ok. I'm probably wrong but why would you want to add oil if the hamburger
> already has %15 fat? It will provide it's own oil.
Its oil (fat) is mixed in with its proteins and sugars. Using oil
1) keeps the pan seasoned and
2) assures that the proteins and sugars do not touch the metal directly (and
then stick) but rather touch oil on the pan.
Also, I agree with
> using a thicker/heavier pan than a copper pan. I use a 10" teflon sauté
pan
> to brown 2lbs of ground beef and a pound of sausage, all at the same time,
> when I make my spaghetti sauce and I've never had a problem browning the
> meat. I've tried using my SS skillet but it is not high enough to hold it
> all.
I have a hunch that "one man's browning might be another man's cooking",
and so there is a wide variety of what actually is called browning.
What some of my friends call browning is not certainly steaming, and it
indeed does keep much of the juice and avoids that boiled-meat taste, but
it does not add the flavor of "gently carmelized" meat I want when I brown.
Just a hunch there is a wide variation in what people (accurately) think
of as browning.
>
> Something to think about.
>
> Bret
>
>
>
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