To ask you if you boil and cool your mince meat before cooking it?

[BigRedBall]

Because this is what mine looks like after boiling and cooling, and I took the pic after removing another heaped spoonful. It's sheep mince from my local butchers which sells halal meat (not that makes a difference). It's always the same.

I wonder what makes it have such high fat content. I think it was meat from the leg.

Sheep mince?

It's 'minced lamb'. Shepherds pie anyone? As in sheep (Cottage pie = beef)

I do mine in a big sauce pan with no water added and it gently cooks (and browns as you stir it) in it's own FAT and juices.

I do drain off some fat if there seems to be loads and add a bit to the mash if we're having SP but i don't understand the disgust over meat fat.

There's nothing wrong with sheep mince, aka mutton, and fat content isn't necessarily a measure of 'quality'. Some dishes, like burgers don't want to use lean mince as they would be dry. All those fancy expensive gourmet burgers will be made from fatty mince (thanks to the poster that said mutton, I couldn't remember the name before).

All those keema curries, or meatball/kebab/burger shaped things in curry houses will be made of minced mutton including all the fat. I keep meaning to seek out some mutton or hogget shoulder to slow cook, which would be lovely.

You know when you think , nah surely she didn't say she FUCKING BOILS MINCE.

Fat adds flavour; it doesn't make you fat and there is no need for draining, boiling or rinsing! As for quality, we pay about £7/kg for wonderful, dry-aged rare-breed grass-fed gold-plated beef mince from our butcher. Extra-lean supermarket mince is a rip-off.

That said, I suspect rinsing/boiling mince might be a cultural thing, like chicken-washing.

Wait, I don't eat it boiled. After it's boiled a bit (in salt water), I brown it with onions and garlic and ginger and then do whatever I need to. I made mince curry today, so I added spices and stuff with the onions and then added the meat and browned it with the water from the boiling. I added a can of chopped tomatoes. Fried it a bit until the oil came up and it was made. Then sprinkled some coriander and garam masala on top.

I'm laughing at everyone exclaiming how bland my food is! The curry is anything BUT bland! It's amazing and my kids have just eaten it with some boiled rice.

I would be really sad by all these rude comments, but I KNOW how good my food tastes. I have friends come over again and again to eat.

And Henry I don't care if this gets deleted but:

Fuck off. Fuck right off.

No, I fry mine with onions. But, I worked in a hospital and in a pub kitchen where both boiled it. They'd turn high quality mince grey. I have some sympathy for the hospital. It's pretty hard to saute the mince for 700 people. It can be done, the Army does it for more people than that. But, it's hard work. The pub kitchen I have no sympathy for. The landlord was an idiot and that's the only method he knew.

Surely the salt is worse for your health than the fat you are trying to get rid of?

Not really. If I added 10 tablespoons then maybe.

Now excuse me, I need to go and eat my bland mince .

I'm pretty sure that's all the spices you've added bigred, I imagine the mince itself is cooked to buggery.

Also I'm Indian and have never boiled mince for a curry, neither has my mum or granny.

I've never ever heard of anyone doing this!
I just brown mine off then drain then do whatever I'm doing with it.

It might not be bland but it isn't getting flavour from the meat

x post, Enormous beat me to it.

You're basically putting mince in for the texture rather than taste

I don't boil it but I do rinse in boiling water.

Lamb mince is around 20% fat. If I'm feeling virtuous I make my shepherd's pie filling the day before and chip the fat off the top before adding the potato, as the fat rises and hardens when it cools. Usually we just eat it as we don't have red meat or loads of cheese that often so I'm not too bothered about our saturated fat intake.

I have NEVER seen a recipe start "First, rinse your mince and boil it."

Could someone volunteer to do a taste test?

This is interesting, from a nutritionist and chef

"You are correct; boiling mince will remove a lot of the fat; it will also remove a lot of other things, including flavour, vitamins and minerals. In short, you will be left with cooked protein with the look, taste and texture of rubber. As well as being a source of protein, meat is an important source of iron, zinc and vitamin B12. The aim when selecting and cooking meat is to preserve and maximise intake of these vital nutrients while minimising intake of saturated fat. My advice is to purchase lean meat. While it is more expensive, you need less of it as less weight will be lost in cooking (from fat and water). You will also not need to boil or do anything else to it in an attempt to remove fat. Brown it (if you need to) without adding any more than a light spray or teaspoon or two of oil, then bulk out with vegetables and/or legumes to further dilute any fat and increase nutrient value. And if you do use fatty mince, it is better to dry fry in a non-stick pan and then drain off any fat, than to boil and risk losing nutrients and flavour."

www.healthyfood.co.nz/articles/2009/june/ask-the-experts-boiling-mince

My nan cooks it the day before because that somehow reduces the fat content? I just cook it then and there and remove fat during cooking

How is it lacking flavour when I'm using the water it's been boiled in to cook it? When I'm in a hurry I do cook it the "normal" way, and there's no difference in taste.

Bland as in no flavour of meat.

I remember dm telling me how they used to boil mince in the olden days.

OPs like this make me wish there was a button on MN that then highlighted all the OPs future posts so I knew to ignore everything they say.

That is how unreasonable you are.

Also please stop pouring the fat down the sink, If you must then put in the bin. Google fat bergs, it's clogging up our sewers and costing millions.

This has to be a wind up, surely? Boiling mince and then cooking it? Surely boiling it is cooking it?

Oh god this just gets worse.

Boiling it, cooking it, and then adding the water it was boiled in too.

BigRedBall

So, if not a recipe - where did you get the idea of boiling mince and then cooling it down, and then cooking it again? It just isn't something I have ever come across before.

I use lots of recipes - I love cooking and trying out new ones - and do a lot of cooking without too. I was using the recipe book as a comment as they will usually tell people different ways to cook food, etc. But, as said before, I have never seen boiling of mince.

I assume you don't do much refreezing of mince dishes either.