Here are a few things that you may not have known about ground
beef:
1.
Ground
beef must be from cattle. Any other animal would be considered misbranded
and would be illegal.
2.
Ground
beef is made from only muscle. It must be skeletal muscle. No eyes,
skin, guts or anything but muscle. (As of 2017, heart is allowed in ground beef, but its really just another muscle.)
3.
Ground
beef must be at least 70% lean. No more than 30% fat. It is usually leaner
than that, though.
4.
Ground
beef is not made from ‘leftovers’ or ‘scraps off the floor’. The fact is,
not every cut of beef is equal. Some make great steaks on the grill. Others
make great roasts in the oven. Some pieces of the beef carcass are either the
wrong size or too tough to be tasty as whole muscle cuts. So, to get maximum
use out of the entire animal,
butchers collect those pieces in clean containers called lugs and grind them up
into ground beef.
5.
Ground
beef is the most popular cut of beef. In the US, we enjoy lots of ground
beef. In fact, we like it so much that butchers are now grinding up cuts that
used to be sold as steaks and roasts. In a large processing plant, the
decisions on what to grind up and what to leave whole are made based on price
and demand.
6.
Ground
beef may not contain any added water. Beef itself contains water, but
processors are not permitted to add water to the ground beef.
7.
Ground
beef may not contain any phosphates, binders or extenders. Some processed
meat products use non-meat fillers such as texturized vegetable protein to
stretch the protein portion of a processed meat. If these ingredients are
added, it cannot be labeled ground beef.
8.
Ground
beef is not all the same. Some dishes work best with really lean ground
beef, whereas other are tastier with fattier ground beef. Generally, the more
lean the ground beef, the more costly it is. Just like people, not all animals
are the same in fatness, and just like people, different parts of the animal
have different amounts of fat. Think about how your thigh compares to your
abdomen. (mine are different, if yours are not, congratulations) When
formulating ground beef, the processors mix some of the leaner cuts (like leg
muscles) in with some of the fattier cuts (like abdominal cuts) to get their
target fat content.
9.
Ground
sirloin, ground round, ground chuck are also ground beef, with more
requirements. Those labels not only let the customer know from where on the
carcass their ground meat comes, they also give the consumer the percent fat. Ground sirloin and ground round are usually labeled as 15% fat and ground chuck is usually 20% fat. You can look for the fat percentage on the label. Special
ground meats like these must be at least 50% from the source specified. (For
example, ground sirloin must be made from at least 50% sirloin cuts.)
10.
Ground
beef should always be cooked to 160°F. Because ground beef is ground and
mixed, bacteria may be found anywhere within the patty (not
just on the surface like in a steak or roast). To make sure all those
bacteria are killed, you need to cook your burger to 160°F and check the
temperature with a meat thermometer!
Checking the temperature will also keep you from over-cooking your burgers so
they will be juicy and flavorful!
