96/4 Ground Beef
Ok, I went to a local Smart n Final looking for hamburger that I could cook up quickly into burgers after a hard day at work. There was this chub pac of 4% fat hamburger that I grabbed. I took it home and made burgers out of it. Worrying about the lack of fat I seared them off gently, and turned the heat down and finished the burgers to 140 degrees, approx. 5 mins. total. Took them out and covered them to rest to raise the temp. The result...cardboardy, grainy, tasteless, chalky, nasty. Has anyone out there used this 96/4 type of hamburger? Any success stories?? What on earth is it here for???
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
15 Comments:
I have bought it in the past, but only for meat sauce or chili--something I'll be draining the fat from anyway. If you still have any of it, maybe you could mix in some raw bacon to add some fat and flavor.
beth1 at 1:46AM on 08/02/09
Well I'm not sure what a "chub pac" is but if it's that plastic tube of meat I have never bought meat that way. I wouldn't buy meat in a package I couldn't see through. But I actually made burgers last night on the grill using 96/4 and they were great. I use it all the time. I suspect you overcooked them. We eat burgers medium rare and they come out juicy, tender and flavorful with just s&p added.
tapioca at 6:26AM on 08/02/09
It's the only ground beef my mother ever used and what we use with the exception of burgers, where we use chuck. We always run it through a strainer to drain the fat to use immediately or to freeze for storage.
We use it for chili, pastitsio, in pasta sauces, occasionally in curry when making hamburger [Japanese] curry, soups, shepherds pie, tacos, burritos, mabo tofu, etc., as well as in sides sparsely with green beans/tomatoes/onions, korokke, dolmades, gyoza, ...
Cassaendra at 9:06AM on 08/02/09
Haven't use 96/4 ground beef, but routinely use 99/1 ground turkey, though mostly for dim sum. It's infinitely better when I add a couple of T olive oil per pound, and I don't mind the trade-off of animal fat with olive oil. I believe it would also help to mix in a little soaked bread to your mix when making burgers. Add onion, put cheese in the middle. All these things will give you a more moist burger even with little fat in the meat.
lemonfair at 10:25AM on 08/02/09
Lean meat does not make juicy burgers. Should be a minimum of 15% fat ratio. 25% is perfect. Not healthy, but it sure makes a great burger.
CJ McD at 11:09AM on 08/02/09
Recently in 'Cook's Illustrated', they recommended making a panade of crustless white bread and water (maybe milk?) and mixing into ground meat, before forming patties. Also, grated onion helps to add moisture. But why bother to make burgers, if using 96/4 mixture? Chuck is so much tastier and juicy, even if cooking to med. well.
duncan1205 at 12:55PM on 08/02/09
I like my burgers cooked to a no more than medium, and preferably medium-rare. But if I'm going to cook ground meat to that doneness, I want to know that the meat is a decent quality, so I buy from my local butcher shop where he will grind to order, or I grind my own. The stuff in a plastic tube, I don't think I'd trust so much. That stuff, I'd probably want to cook until it's done, which isn't great for a burger, IMO.
And if I'm going to eat a burger, I'm fine with the fat content. It's not something we have every day, so when we indulge, we indulge. If we were living on burgers, I might rethink that policy. But if we were living on ground beef, I'd probably be stretching it by making chili and meatballs and meatloaf, anyway.
I've never seen 4% fat ground beef around here. But I don't think I'd use it for burgers, in any case. Meatloaf, where you're adding other things and the fat drains out -- that would be fine. Or sloppy joes or chili. But when I make a burger, I want a burger, not a meatloaf patty with bread and other stuff mixed in.
dbcurrie at 2:41PM on 08/02/09
If you need to put milk-soaked breadcrumbs in there, it's a meatball, not a burger. I like 96/4 for alot of things, but burgers is definitely not one of them.
Embackus at 3:33PM on 08/02/09
Yeah. Ground beef with fat content that low ain't for burgers, man. No bueno.
sailordave at 3:33PM on 08/02/09
Go to your local butcher shop or grocery store,pick out a fairly lean boneless chuck roast and ask them to grind it ONCE for you.When you're ready to cook the burgers,very gently and lightly pat them into burgers 1"thick.Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper and cook them to medium rare or medium.Let me know if these ain't the best burgers you ever ate.
onepercent99 at 6:43PM on 08/02/09
Fat is where all of your flavor components that identify beef as beef, turkey as turkey pork as pork or whatever as whatever are. If you read the string no one has success making it taste good without another source of fat. Buy 80/20 for a decent tasting burger, 70/30 will have more flavor but shrink more, and unless it has been irradiated, cook it to 156 so you don't get e coli, listeria, or salmonella.
Meat guy at 8:55AM on 08/03/09
Meat guy is my hero... that being said, I always roll the dice by cooking mine medium rare. Of course it helps grinding my own hamburger, and never with anything less than 20% fat.
Pavlov at 10:07AM on 08/03/09
OMG, I'd never buy 4% ground beef. You could use those rubber patties as coasters. If you buy low-fat ground beef again, you need to add fat to it - like olive oil. You might as well add a heart-healthy fat. This would be THE ONLY way I'd consume 4% beef. The lowest I'll go is 85/15.
therealchiffonade at 10:17AM on 08/03/09
96/4 would also be good for... meatloaf, where you don't want it sitting in a lot of fat, but have other ingredients in there for moisture.
anysuchname at 12:50PM on 08/03/09
Meat guy - how can you tell which meat is safe (been irradiated)?
Does anyone advertise it? I thought they were avoiding that label because of bad pr.
peekpoke at 3:04AM on 08/22/09