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.

Garam masala is made from ground spices...mace, peppercorns, cinammon,
Nutmeg, cardamom (black and green)- you buy those whole and make your own blend or you grind what?

Fatty mince is the most delicious. I get the 20% fat kind if I can

Why is everyone getting all het up with my cooking?

Because you invited them to give their opinions on your idiosyncratic method of cooking mince (twice) and included a picture of congealed fat.

That looks rank is their any meat in that lard!

I use to come home from school boil frozen mince and serve dry with shit loads of salt

Now I buy lean mince brown it off without any oil then drain

Incidentally I made a terrific brinjal curry last night.

That sounds fab unidentified. I'm hoping to make saag this week. Saag paneer if I can track down paneer.

m.soundcloud.com/adamdannyjojo/ten-years-of-the-dose

Saag paneer is heavenly. True comfort food

The picture bears a worrying resemblance to the abomination that my grandmother used to serve up for Monday tea. She called it "A nice mince and gravy". We called it "Something that even the dog wouldn't eat". This creation did however, involve mince having the bejesus boiled out of it.

I still cannot imagine any circumstance where boiling mince could ever make it edible or indeed hasten the cooking process significantly. You brown mince in a pan and drain off any wild excess of fat. That way you don't end up with a pan of fatty scummy water either.

I think it'd be wise, OP, to revisit your mince methods. You are giving yourself a deal more work in order to produce a much less edible result. Just brown it then add some sort of liquid that isn't nasty boiled water.

Curry spices need fat in which to fry in order to bring out their flavour (or dry-frying at bhigh temperature). Also, you won't get the Maillard reaction when boiling mince - this is what makes mince go brown - as opposed the grey - and adds flavour. I don't understand what's so wrong with the fat that you feel the need to remove it? I use the fat that comes off lamb mince to fry my aubergine slices for moussaka - trying to keep every little bit of flavour that I can - and you're throwing it away!

I know FDM, it's a travesty! But then I adore really fatty cuts of meat cooked properly

I blitz about the same quantity of veg (normally onions, carrots, celery and broccoli stalk) to mince. This soaks up any excess fat and avoids any draining. I fry the mince and veg but if I was making meatballs in tomato sauce I sometimes boil/simmer them in the tomato sauce without baking or frying them first.

Everyone cooks things differently; if people like what I cook then it doesn't really matter how I made it.

I've never heard of a whole garam masala. Where might I buy such a thing?

I also don't mind being told to fuck off. In fact, I quite like it - especially when I know that what brought it about was my absolute rightness!

OP, please don't put that fat stuff down the drain. I saw that TV programme about down in the London sewers and I'm still appalled at the images of ginormous fat balls with' bits' stuck in it they have to dispose of. And I'm talking fat balls the size of a double decker bus

Fatbergs they call em, rumby

Dr John briffa

It's a paleo type diet guru. You might like his style.

Boiling mince is very 1950s.... It's 2015 btw. Case you didn't know

Ugh.

SIL does something similar - she fries the mince as normal, then washes it. Down the sink goes all the lovely flavour.

Weirdo.

Never heard of anyone boiling mince before today!

What's with all this Washing, Rinsing, Boiling of meat before 'cooking' it , then adding every conceivable herb / spice to give it taste!!!!
Whatever your dish , chilli, curry , bolognese or just plain mince surely the main ingredient / flavour is meat otherwise why not just use quorn ?

I find this all very weird, but you learn something every day

I like the fat it makes the food taste nicer.
I hate the smell of boiling meat....its horrendous!

It was me - not the op - who mentioned it going down the sink. I wasn't being entirely serious I used to do it though

Surely mince should have fat in it, that's what makes it tasty. I worked as a nipper in an award winning family butcher. Used to watch him make the mince and he added fat for taste (ok and probably to make it go further), just like his sausages as it tastes bloody good. Be curious to know if the ultra lean mince and sausages (the expensive stuff) you get now actually taste any better then the more fatty ones (though obviously healthier).

Mum's dish was to brown mince and onion, drain any fat. Add water and bisto and carrots (tatties too when in the mood) and simmer away. Bloody gorgeous simple old fashioned grub.

I've just caught myself singing 'Boiled Beef and Carrots'.

Never have I boiled mince, and I never will.

What a lot of farting about! Just buy good quality meat from a good butcher (not halal). Dry fry it rather than adding more oil if it bothers you that much. I sometimes do that and then toss in onions, mushrooms and anything else I am using.

I then sprinkle in about a rounded dessert spoon of plain flour so that my stock will thicken nicely when I add it. I make the sauce by barely covering the meat with boiling water, stirring in a good stock cube, adding a good dash of Worcestershire sauce and then let it simmer for a few minutes.

Meat needs some fat. That tenderises it and gives it flavour.

Boiling it first like in the OP is not only unnecessary, it reduces it to rubber and desroys far too much of the nutritional value.

Rubber Madras, anyone?

Another one who's absolutely horrified at washed, boiled mince and some dodgy sounding mince curry.

Please stop boiling mince, you may as well use bloody quorn for all the difference it would make.