Frozen mince (beef)

[BrilliantBetty]

Have you tried it? Is it alright?

Now that I've found frozen onions i'm wondering if my life could be made easier by frozen mince. Spotted a bag of it in Sainsbury's freezer. But sort of assuming it's disgusting?

It would be for cottage pie, spag bol etc.

I feed it to my dog. She's a very fussy Lurcher. She loves it. We tried it. It's horrible. Very gritty.

DS bought some to test out as he thought it would be handy at uni for making smaller individual meals. He made cottage pie and spag bol with it. It was ok. The taste was the same but the texture was much finer than fresh mince once it was cooked. I can see what susiella means by gritty. It wasn't any tougher though, just different.

It was the Waitrose Aberdeen Angus mince.

Why would it make your life easier? You can freeze mince you've bought fresh, in portions if necessary. I don't get it!

It’s less stuck together, so you can just pour it out. But yes, there are funny bits in it.

For real convenience, buy fresh mince, cook off with a little seasoning, portion off and freeze. You can then thaw it to add to whatever. I always treat minced pork this way but nice quality minced beef would work with the same treatment.

I tried it once and its just mush, horrible texture.

I do however buy fresh mince which I freeze and it tastes like normal fresh mince once defrosted. I dont repackage it but you could put it in freezer bags and flatten it out so it defrosts quicker.

Agreed, horrible texture, weirdly crumbly!

Frozen mince wasn’t great, as pp have said it is a finer texture and can seem gritty.
I buy big packs of fresh, then divide them up and freeze in sizes I would use at home. Defrosts fine before cooking. Or cook it through and then freeze if that works for the meals you want to make.

We’ve used it before but not for long, it sort of mushes together. Now we buy large packs of fresh mince and separate and freeze in batches.

It "makes life easier" giletrouge because you can pour out an exact/smaller amount as it doesn't stick together like frozen fresh mince and you can cook it from frozen. Personally, I don't think that the convenience is worth the loss in quality, OP, but it is not so bad that I wouldn't give it a try IYSWIM? You might not mind the texture.

I think it’s horrible and full of gristley bits and little tubes. Decent quality fresh mince is better and others have said, can be frozen in portions.

I like it and use it every week. It's much easier for single portions. Yes it may be slightly mushier than fresh mince but it tastes the same in a bolognese/chilli.

You might find free flow beef, definitely lamb, in freezer sections, and it is easier to use from frozen.

Texture with both might put you off, but they are handy.

the cheap frozen mince isnt brilliant but frozen minced steak isnt too bad in chillis and spag bol

I use it when I'm doing a slow cooker mince based meal, it seems to come out pretty much the same as fresh mince when its been slow cooked for a few hours.

Waitrose’s was not nice. I freeze in portions.

I don't like it and my standards are really low ...

I like it as its easy just to use what you want. Its taste ok if cook slow. Use normal mince too.

I get the 5 per cent one from Iceland

I'd buy fresh mince and freeze it, then defrost it when I want to make something. I chop it in half before freezing if I want a smaller portion e.g. making 1-2 burgers.

Nope, I can't stand frozen mince. As other posters have said, buy fresh and freeze. I don't know what they do to frozen mince but it has no consistency - it's like slop when cooked, IMO.