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How to Stretch Ground Meat with Frugal Fillers
By
Danelle Ice - Home Ever After |
June 6th, 2008 |
Category:
Cooking |
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How to Stretch Your Ground Meat by Cutting With Frugal Fillers
Meat is expensive and if yours is like most frugal families, it takes up a significant portion of your grocery budget. While ground beef, ground chicken, ground pork and ground turkey are many times cheaper than full cuts of meat, they are still one of your pricier ingredients.
A cooked pound of ground meat does not actually make very much meat once prepared; it usually only yields 1 to 1 1/2 cups depending on how lean the meat is. How can you stretch a pound of ground meat farther and stretch your hard earned dollars while not giving up healthy food for your family?
How to Cut Ground Meat With Inexpensive Ingredients
One of my favorite secrets for spending less on meat is to do more with the meat I cook. There are inexpensive and healthy ingredients you can mix into ground meat both before and during cooking. (Trust me, your family will NEVER know the difference!)
Before cooking, mix your raw ground meat in a bowl with any combination of fillers. Make sure that you mix them well until thoroughly blended and any large pieces (such as bran flakes) are broken into smaller pieces. If you cut the meat with a lot of dry ingredients, you may need to add some water or raw egg to make it a bit stickier, especially if you’re making meatballs.
Try these ingredients before cooking:
- Cooked rice
- Cooked barley
- Uncooked oats (any variety)
- Bran cereal
- Cracker crumbs
- Bread crumbs
- Crushed croutons
During cooking: Cook your meat as you normally would. Once browned, reduce heat to medium-low and mix in any combination of cooked fillers. Keep the temperature high enough to warm the new ingredients but low enough not to overcook (and dry out) the meat. Add whatever sauces or seasonings your recipe calls for and prepare your meal normally with your new ground meat mixture.
Try these fillers during cooking:
- Cooked beans (any variety). Stir to mix well or mash for creamier texture. Especially works well for tacos, quesadillas, and nachos.
- TVP/TSP. Textured soy or vegetable protein is my favorite cutting ingredient. You can buy it in the health food or bulk section at your grocery store. It comes in dry granules; to prepare just add warm water and let it absorb. Mix with your ground meat and heat. The texture and look blends into the meat so perfectly that you can’t tell it’s there, and like tofu, it will absorb whatever flavor it cooks with. It’s so cheap and high in protein that you can’t go wrong!
Homemaker Barbi Says: Experiment to discover which ingredients work the best for you. I normally stretch one pound of meat into the equivalent of 2 to 3 pounds using oats, rice and TSP. My family loves the meals and no one is the wiser!
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I like using TVP too! I will reconstitute it with beef bullion (from a cube) to give it more flavor. I’ll mix it with raw hamburger about 1/2 and 1/2 and then form hamburgers and meatballs. Great way to stretch the meat as well as cut the calories/fat.
What a great idea! I’ll have to give it a try.
I stretched some ground turkey for a meatloaf the other day by adding in some black beans that were leftover in the fridge. (I mashed them before adding.) I’ve used lentils before to. It worked really well.
Great post! Thanks!
Blessings,
Michele
http://www.frugalgranola.blogspot.com
Well, this is a new one on me. I’m gonna go look for that textured soy stuff! Thanks for the idea.
@Lea Ann: You’re welcome, and glad to have a tip you hadn’t heard before! TSP is great- a vegetarian friend told me about it years ago and I thought she was crazy! Boy does that seem like a long time ago now…
Barbi
@Tami – So glad you did! Let me know anything else you’d like to see on this subject.
Barbi
potatoes are a great filler and can make it a whole new meal; my grandmother used potatoes with her hamurger meat for tacos because she had to feed 14 people! you can add a new seasoning or different herbs and you’ve got a different meal each time!
@Rochelle: Good point – potatoes are a filler many people don’t think of. Next time I update this article, I’ll add them into the list. Thanks so much!
Barbi
great tips. I use coleslaw packets fried with my sloppy joes. great way to stretch it and also to sneak in some veggies
@Niki: Good tip, I hadn’t thought of that before. Sneaky!
Barbi
My grandmother has been doing this for years with her meatballs. She passed the recipe on to my mom who passed to me. Two eggs, uncooked oatmeal or cereal, add spices and mix! This used to be a way of life fr many and I guess with six kids it helped my grandmother stetch her dollars. We still use this method today and I highely recommend it.
I really try to streatch mince by adding heaps of veggies. If i’m making a shephard’s pie or bolognese, I will add in heaps of carrot, tomatoes, broccoli, beans, peas, sweet potato or whatever else I can find in the back of the fridge or freezer.
Chop them up small if your family doesn’t like chunky, or even cook the veggies first and blend them baby food style and add the mush. It stretches the mince out a lot and of course extra veggies are always a good thing!
Thanks for the hints.
@Liz: I love your ways for adding veggies – sounds like how I add them into sauces. Thanks for commenting!
Barbi
I’ve never heard of stretching ground meat before. This is such a great idea. Thanks for telling us!
Thanks for this great post. We have been using potato gems or potato pearls. I am not a huge fan because I can taste it. We will have to try some of these options!