How I process large quantities of ground beef…
I don’t always brown my beef this way, sometimes I use the traditional method of cooking it in a pan and standing over it chopping, stirring, chopping, stirring…yeah sometimes I do that. One thing I ALWAYS do though, is cook large batches at once. I never just cook enough for one meal.
I prefer to brown at least five to ten pounds at once. I then drain off the grease, cool it, and package it in small freezer bags in whatever amount equals enough for a family meal of spaghetti or whatnot. For my family, this usually means a cup to a cup and a half of ground beef. I freeze it and whenever I need it for a meal, simply thaw in the microwave or with whatever I am cooking and I’ve cut out a major step and a decent amount of mess!
If you end up having a meal such as tacos, which required extra beef, simply grab two bags.
Why get out the skillet, thaw, brown, and drain over and over when you can do it once and save yourself tons of time and repeated messes?
This is one of my favorite ways to cook beef as it doesn’t require the attention that a skillet browning does. Also, you can get those nice little granules of beef without having to chop, chop, chop….Its great for large quantities of beef as well and I find the cooking process is done in half the time, with a lot less fat left on your finished product.
Begin with ground beef. Why do I use ground beef instead of ground chuck or lean ground beef? Simple, its cheaper. Grocery prices have been rising rapidly, gas is through the roof and I still have to feed a family of four with the same amount of money as I had before all of this. Ground beef it is!
Using your hand, take a clump of ground beef and submerge it.
Bring to a boil. You’ll need to stir it just a time or two until its all nice and browned and done.
Until I have a whole bowl like this. At this point, I will get a one cup measuring cup after it has cooled and put one cup servings in individual freezer bags to have on hand whenever I need ground beef for a meal.
And look at all this you left behind!! ewwwwwRelated posts:
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jul 18 2008. Filed under Misc.
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Ewwee that does look gross after, but thats all the grease that we wont eat so thats good. I might have to do this with some of my ground beef and freeze it. Thanks for the information Christy.
That really does look gross, doesn’t it? You know whats worse ~leans in and whispers~ I didn’t throw this out last night, was waiting til this morning because the trash runs today anyway. So I was greeted with this pot that had about two inches (seriously) of hardened fat on it…and as a mother, if that is the grossest thing you’ve heard today you are lucky! hehe.
I started not to even put that pic but……well it is junk that you aren’t eating! Its almost like you are cooking your beef and giving it a bath at the same time.
Tina, I am so thrilled that you read my blog!!!
I better go. I promised two kids I’d take them to chic-fil-a today and the natives are getting restless!!!
Have a great day!!!!!!!
~Christy
this is the technique I use when making hot dog chili. Never had the bright idea to use for recipes calling for cooked ground beef. I keep old plastic containers e.i. cool whip, margarine, ice cream and dispose of the drippings into the trash. Thanks Christy!!
What a great idea! You get rid of all that gross grease, and have all that meat that is precooked and ready to toss in a recipe – brilliant!
Stephanie:
It was born out of sheer laziness, I swear! Isn’t it amazing what little things thrill us though? hehe
I have this thing about having cooked ground beef in the freezer, its kind of my security blanket. I just *feel* better knowing its there.
Christy I passed on this post on Processing Large Quantities of Ground Beef to a friend. I thought it was a cool way to do this. I was at her house and she rinses her meat in water and i thought of this post.
I tried this today and posted about it on my blog http://theadventuresofaworkingmom.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the great tip!
I am trying this today (local grocery store has ground beef on sale for $1.98/lb. which is an awesomely low price for our area). This method works great!!! I also love the fact that I can buy cheaper & fattier ground beef but this method removes so much of the fat from the cooked meat. I plan to add this to my cooking repertoire. Thanks for the tip.
Kimberly
I have been doing that exact thing with my ground beef for several years now. I had found out that I had cholesteral and that I had to eliminate as much fat off my diet as possible, so I began finding ways to cut back on fat. I also have a great tip for celery. I use to throw out so much celery because we are only two now ( empty nest ) so I started chopping my celery & putting it in freezer bags. Now when a recipe calls for celery…voila ! I also buy big bars of cheese & grate to freeze…I always have cheese on hand…no more spoiled cheese.
this is GREAT — found it just in time for 4 of us to fix shepherd’s pie for 200 homeless this weekend. THANK YOU for posting, on behalf of we 4 cooks and a lot of people who will enjoy monday night’s supper which will be cooked with even more love now that our backs wont be killing us
This is such a wonderful tip! As a single working mother of two who pulls 12 hour shifts, planning quick meals is an essential. Precooked ground beef in ready to go portions – BRILLLIANT! My attempts at storing up till now have been, well gross and ineffective. Thanks so much
Thanks for another great idea! Just wondering though, you said you freeze it in one cup portions- is that like a 1/2 a pound each?
I gotta tell you though, I have never really enjoyed cooking and did it as little as possible. After stumbling across the website I’ve been cooking more and more and my family is amazed! It helps when you know that what you are cooking is really gonna be good and that is what makes cooking enjoyable! My son said to me the other day “Mom, what has gotten in to you lately? Your food really tastes good!” I had to laugh.
Hi. My mom has cancer so I’ve just started taking over the cooking. I love the idea of freezing ground beef, and I love the idea of cooking it like this. I have found so many great ideas and recipes here.
But I am confused! What do I do with the greasy water?? I don’t know much about cooking but I do know enough to know that I can’t put it down the sink!
Please if anyone could help and is still reading, I’d really appreciate it.
hehe, I’m still here, honest!
What I do personally, when I cook ground beef like this, is pour the water in a ditch out behind my house. I am sure there are a thousand different ways to dispose of it but with this method, that is what I do.
If you have a lot of straight grease (not diluted with water), my mother saves old milk and orange juice cartons. She lets her grease cool and then pours it inside to place in her trash.
You just do whatever works best for you, whether it be stopping your life and taking a trip to a landfill (the nearest one for me is almost an hour away so umm…yeah, I’m not doing that) or pouring it into disposable containers and trashing it or disposing of it on your own. There really isn’t as much as you’d think.
As for me and my house, we pour it in the ditch!
Welcome to Southern Plate. Please give all of my best to your mother and holler at me if I can be of any assistance
Gratefully,
Christy
Thank you so much! I truly appreciate it.
As I said, I’m just getting into the cooking thing and I looked at your post and thought, “Wow! Cool!” Then…”Uh-oh. What do I do with the water?!”
I am thinking I will do what your mom does because I don’t have a handy ditch (darn it)!
Great blog – I was just googling how to brown a TON of ground beef for our cooking co-op tomorrow. This method is going to save me a ton of time and pots!
I just got 3 5-lb tubes of 80/20, but couldn’t work up enough ambition to separate them for freezing (which is why I usually get hamburger by the pound!). With your way, I had them not only separated but cooked in a flash, and I will save a TON of time cooking dinner (your sloppy joes are on the menu this week)! Thanks so much!
Heidi
This is the best thing ever! I’ve got mine on the stove right now and I’m gagging at all of the fat that’s just rising up. It’s amazing I’ve been eating all of that for so long! Gross!
I normally brown large amounts at once, but wouldn’t the water wash out a lot of the flavor of the meat?
Hello Christy,
During college (so, so many years ago), I worked for a regional taco joint and this was the way they cooked their ground beef. The difference was — they cooked 20lbs at a time and didn’t add as much water (so it evaporated during cooking). They also didn’t drain the grease off. My mother always wanted to know the “secret” to the fine grain of taco meat and this is it. She does drain the grease off, though. *grin*
Thanks for sharing your technique. It brought back fun memories.
[...] ground beef is always pre-browned and waiting in the freezer when I need it so I just popped out two bags to get about two [...]
I just joined your site. This is the best idea for ground beef. I have never heard of this before but what a timesaver, especially having 3 hungry boys & 1 hungry man around!! Thanks
[...] I have my beef all browned and in the freezer and just take out a bag to use in order to cut out an extra step but we all have off [...]
I have done this once, since reading about it, but I don’t think it tastes the same as if it is actually browned. I used it one time straight out of the bag and after that I put it in a frying pay for just a few minutes. Now granted maybe the day, I didn’t think it tasted right, it could be that I wasn’t feeling quite right or something, my daughter that lives with me didn’t say anything and she is a real fussy, adult mentally disabled woman. When I got done boiling it, I spooned the meat out and did 1 1/2 cup pkgs. Then let the pot sit in the sink until all of the fat had congealed on the top of the water and spooned it out into my wastebasket. I don’t have room in my apartment to store empty cans, and milk cartons, etc.
When I do brown hamburger the real way, I have my daughter do it, this is just for a meal at a time, and then when no pink shows, she calls me and I go and turn the heat up high enough that a lot of the fat burns off or cooks off, which ever term would be the best to use.
Joan
That thought occurred to me too about the taste because I like to cook it until I get some of those yummy chewy little browned bits in it. That can still be done anyway no problem if that’s what you like then do that. Great idea about the fat hardening and then tossing it altho some of the posts mention that they do not drain the fat. I personally think there might be some flavor loss by draining it all off so may just toss half of it and see how that goes.
Christy, I could hug you for this idea. I do not look forward to separating big batches of beef into 1-pound bags to freeze. And how it leaves the fat behind! Utter genius. You rock.
Hiya @SouthernPlate! I mean, Christy!
Long time no talk! My wonderful existence as a telecommuter came to an end in April when some of my hard-working and excellent colleagues were laid off due to the economy and those of us who were working at home were recalled to the newsroom. Hence, I don’t get much Twitter time or other online time that isn’t strictly work-related. Kinda like kids worry about “POS,” or, parent-over-shoulder, I’m a bit leery of EOS — or, editor-over-shoulder.
Yes, I am kind of complaining, but mostly, I’m grateful to still be employed as a journalist. This economy has not been kind to my kind (or to many other great folks in jobs they love).
I’ve been reading several of your posts (and harvesting your wonderful recipes) and when I got to this one, I just HAD to chime in. I’ve been browning and bagging ground beef — and freezing it in right-for-my-family quantities for years. It takes some time on the weekends but it is a huge weeknight-worknight time-saver! I don’t do the water method like you do; usually use a large stockpot to brown and drain.
After draining, I often add S&P and chopped onion and cook until onions are translucent, then add fresh minced garlic and cook until fragrant, before cooling, bagging and freezing, since many of the dishes I make call for ‘em.
If my weekend is too busy for that, I’ll just bag up 1lb hunks of raw ground beef in quart-size freezer bags & mush them flat, squeezing the air out before stacking them in the freezer. Not as convenient as having pre-cooked gr. beef, but being flat like that, I can just slide it out of the bag and into a heated skillet to start cooking it, scraping down the cooked bits and turning the still-frozen side over in the pan.
Costco actually had huge trays of ground pork this week, which I will also be pre-browning — though I’ll save some, unbrowned, to combine w/gr. beef for a meatloaf at some point.
Gosh, my first time back here in months and I’ve gone on a Christy-esque tangent.
I hope you and yours are well and I wish you wonderful holidays!
Aloha,
– Erika
Erika, even though this is an old post, just wanted to tell you that I like your method of cooking the onions and garlic in it ahead of time for various dishes. I cook the same way with ground beef, and almost always use onions and garlic browned with the meat, so this is a great idea to pass on. We can all use time-saving ideas. Thanks for the tip!
and if you’re SUPER thrifty with that marked down fatty ground beef…
After you’ve boiled the beef and removed it, cool the liquid and put it in containers/jars to put in the fridge overnight (eww, I know but stay with me here). The next day the fat has solidified on the top, you can spoon it out into the trash, and VOILA! beef broth that you can also freeze in 2 cup quantities for use in stews, etc. There’s no salt in it like if you’d bought the can, but I prefer to salt to taste per recipe anyways.
I love this site! Cooking your recipes makes me feel like my nana is in the kitchen with me and that my girls are getting to know her….such a blessing, thank you!
Does anyone do the beef broth? Did it taste okay? I may try to freeze the broth like you said.
Hi. Waking up an old thread, I want to say I LOVE this way of cooking the ground beef, and I cannot wait for a good sale.
That being said, I wonder (like a few other readers) about the taste. Is the flavor as good as if you browned in a skillet, or does the water wash away alot of the flavor?
Thanks so much for all you do. I’m thrilled I came across your site!
Okay… guess I’ll just try it with a pound or two to see, and if it still tastes yummy, watch out!
Thanks again for the great tip!
Hey Renee! I’ve never noticed any difference in taste myself. In fact, I usually eat a bit of it after I’ve drained it, just by itself! hehe
Thanks Christy. It’s really reassuring to know that you’re still following these threads… just in case.
I cannot wait to try this, and I won’t tell any of the family how I did it, just to see if they say anything. I have one of those families that automatically balk at change!
Thanks again for so many of your wonderful recipes and tips… I “check you out” several times a day, as well as the e-mail subscription.
What a great site! I’ve been reading for nearly two hours and I’m not nearly done
Can someone please clarify how many cups to bag and freeze so that it’s in one cup proportions? I read the recipe and the comments but I’m STILL not clear on that, lol!
Thank you! Back to more site-seeing!
~~susie.
Hey Susie!
WELCOME TO SOUTHERN PLATE!!! It’s so great to have you here!
I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking so I’m going to just go through my whole shebang in hopes of answering your question and if I don’t get it, holler back at me and I’ll clarify some more. Bear with me today as I have a book deadline on Monday and I think I’ve seriously sprained my one remaining brain cell
What I do is cook all of my beef in the water and then drain it off.
Then, I get a one cup measuring cup and measure out one cup of cooked beef into each bag.
Seal the bags and place in freezer.
Now I know that each bag has one cup in it because that is how I measured it out. When I am cooking for just my family, I use one bag. If I am cooking for more, I just get two.
This makes you beef go a lot further, as well!
Hope this helps and it’s so great to have you as part of our Southern Plate Family!
Gratefully,
Christy
[...] My ground beef has already been browned and was sitting in the freezer happily waiting on me so if you’re isn’t, give it a good [...]
Okay… I was soooooo excited to find this trick. Made lots of packets of frozen ground beef. It tastes like grease. It even smells weird when I open the bag. I know it’s something I did wrong and am trying to figure out why…… please help!!! Anyone have this happen or know what I did wrong? I did not rinse the ground beef after draining it. It happened with my frozen meatballs also
So sad… Christy, love love love your recipes! Check your site weekly for new stuff. It’s so practical! That’s what we eat 
Again, thanks for all your time into sharing with us!!
Christy That is an amazing way of doing large batches of beef. You continue to dazzle me with your charm, wit and true culinary wisdom for the common kitcheneer [is that a word?] ‘Tis now
)
I’m going to tell you about a recipe using this method that has been in my family for eons of time, maybe it came from my grandmother Alice from KY I don’t know. But y’all will have to wait cause I think you have a contest or something connected with your new Vlog project.
That picture of the meat all gushed up in the pot before it cooks… *shudder* I have this raw meat phobia thing (it’s the germs, I’m the child of a germaphobic nurse, what can I say). It looks like a giant pot of something horrible. That being said, I think this cooking method sounds fantastic and I’m going to put on my big girl undies and give it a try! Better to get it all over with at once
I know that the point of this cooking method is to cook lots at once and get rid of fat, but I think I may try this with the extra lean ground turkey breast I buy. I buy the ground turkey instead of hamburger usually because in addition to having a raw meat phobia of sorts I also can’t stand the little chewy gristly bits (and sometimes stringy bits) of horror that I find in ground beef. The extra lean ground turkey is blissfully free of such things! My dude doesn’t really like it when it’s in clumps because it’s kind of dry, so I always try to break it up as much as possible. Looks like this method would result in super fine “grain” ground turkey, too! Now if only the ground turkey cost less.
[...] To see how I process large quantities of ground beef with ease, click here. [...]
There was a coupon for the ground turkey in the newspaper this week, so I bought 5 pounds so I could try your batch processing technique! I stuck a pound of the turkey in the freezer raw to use for meatloaf or something, but cooked the other 4 pounds this way. It worked perfectly! Of course, there wasn’t really any fat to pour off, but the texture of the meat is nice and fine (fiance prefers it very broken up like this) and it was way faster to cook the meat this way than to fry it in my little skillet, 1 pound at a time. I’m going to try it with ground beef next. Oh and it wasn’t as gross to gush up the meat as I feared- since it was all under water, I didn’t have raw meat gooped all over my hands. Win!
I actually just joined your group today…. but…. I have been boiling my hamburger for the last year…. I had lapband and found that my lapband can not stand grease of any amount. now saying this I have lost 175 lbs…. well like you i found i can buy the cheaper hamburger (the one you have pictured is the one I buy) and then freeze in 1 lb baggies… i weigh it out and usually get 4 lbs out of a 5 lb roll. I love it and usually have several lbs ready and waiting in the freezer… and being a farm girl from Oklahoma… I have also used this on my processed side of beef that is normally lean too… but my one pound packages usually end up a 1/4 lb short… i also do this with sausage… (blue and gold)… quite flavorful and also good to go on pizzas or sausages or in omelets….love your site…. love the recipes and love the stories…so many are very familiar
That is SO not how I (used to, as of right now) do my bulk hamburger.
Your method is soooo much easier than freezing the raw stuff in bags, then thawing it out, cooking it, running hot water over it, letting it cool off, smooshing it, then browning the rest of it.
I can’t wait to try it!
[...] about this time anyway, so Saran Wrap is just kind of part of the recipe for me. See my link for how I process larger quantities of ground beef at once. Either do it that way or brown your ground beef as you see fit. Either way, we need it browned and [...]
[...] already have my beef browned and bagged in the freezer so any ground beef dish is a lot quicker for me. The original recipe (posted at the [...]
[...] It’s very easy (you don’t even boil the noodles!), especially when you have your meat already browned and in the freezer just waiting to be tossed in. This is also my most requested recipe. I don’t know how many [...]
[...] I cook large batches of ground beef all at once and package in zipper sealed bags to place in the freezer. This streamlines meal preparation considerably in addition to making the mess only once instead of twelve or more times. [...]
I have done this also. Don’t they call this crumbles? Lots easier than frying up all that meat. And it seems like it’s a lot better for you. I can’t stand big clumps of g.beef in stews,chili’s or anything else.
[...] **THIS POST is how I process large quantities of ground beef. The post is pretty old but it still shows it just as well. I prefer to buy large quantities of ground beef and cook it all at once. I then freeze it to have cooked ground beef on hand anytime I need to whip up a quick meal. This is my #1 timesaver! [...]
Guess what my husband gets to do tonight?! Ha ha ha ha! I have a weird thing about any raw meat as well. The smell, I think. Who would have known? My dad and brother are cattle ranchers.
amazing- I am going to use this method from now on…goes to show you- never too old to learn new tricks!! Thanks a bunch Christy!!!!
How long is the browned beef good in the freezer?
Just tried this for the first time today and it is AWESOME!!! Thank you so much, Christy! I’m just curious – have you ever tried throwing a clove of garlic in the water? I almost always use garlic w/ ground beef, so I may try it next time – but that’s going to be a while, because of all the nice, new packages in my freezer! So grateful for you!!
I have been using the pan, chop, brown, chop, brown, chop and drain method for years. I will try this method on a day that I have a really strong stomach!!! I love time saving ideas like this!!!
I have browned and packaged up ground beef in bulk when I still had all of my kids at home, but never thought about using water instead of browning in the skillet. Will try it now, but of course only 5 pounds at a time now since I don’t need the 30 to 40 pounds of ground beet I used to buy.
I am originally from WV, and of course hot dogs in WV are different than from most other places–we use “hot dog sauce” and slaw and onions as our toppers. My mother’s recipe for the hot dog sauce used ground beef cooked this way with all the spices, ketchup, etc added after ground beef cooked down and the water boiled off.
Huh, I have to admit, I HATE cooking up ground beef & it’s basically impossible for me to do when the husband is @ work & the 3 year old is running around screaming, chasing the dogs & the 12 year old get the 3 year old all upset. So I starting doing only soup/salad & sandwiches or crock pot meals only the nights he was working. After seeing this, I’m going out tomorrow getting me a roll of that beef & putting it in a pan & see what happens.
After you bring it to a boil, do you turn it down or leave it on boil? About how long does this cook until it’s done?
I am so HAPPY to see that I am not t he only person that does this. I have been cooking beef like this for 6 years. I have had people to ask me what I do to get the beef so soft, when I tell them, they look at me like I am crazy and tell me there is no way they woulld eat that…..(hmmmm) I look at them and say “Well you just did!” Well you know where that goes. Anyway, thank you for letting others know.
~giggles~ And I bet they liked it!
I always cook my beef in a skillet, drain and freeze by the pound. I feel “necked” with out beef in the freezer!!! May give your method a try the next time.
Christy–
what kind of freezing bag are you putting the ground beef in? Like a ziplock bag? or do you have one of those fancy air-sucking out devices? How long can you leave it in the freezer before it gets funky? i LOVE your website and am ashamed it has taken me THIS long to look at it. One of my collegues suggested it when I was lamenting about how stressed my life is.
thanks!!!!
Meredith’s Mom
Christy, I have been making vegetable beef soup using this method all my life. I “boil” my ground beef, then add tomatoes, vegetables and anything else I want to throw in. I usually cool in the refrigerator and then dip off the hardened fat. The flavor is the best! It makes it’s own beef broth as it cooks the ground beef. Just the way my mama always did it!
Don’t you just love how easy it is?!
How do you thaw out the frozen meat when you are ready to use it?
You can defrost it in the microwave or if you are using it in a soup, stew or sauce you can just throw it in frozen.