There’s always at least a pound or two of ground beef in my freezer. It’s such a convenient, versatile, and well-liked protein in my house, and I have a handful of favorite ground beef dinners that I make regularly.
Some recipes call for oil to brown the beef, and some don’t. Recently, I asked a couple of chefs and a butcher to weigh in on the question: Should you add oil when cooking ground beef?
They all gave thoughtful answers that led to the same basic conclusion: You do need some fat, but where that fat comes from—either oil or the meat itself—depends on a few key things.
Meet the Meat Experts
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Will Marquardt: Chef at Meatstuff in Portland, Oregon
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Zeph Shepard: Head butcher at Meatstuff
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Deci Belle: Line cook at Fresh ‘n Funky, a food truck at The Heist in Portland, Oregon
Credit: Simply Recipes / Adobe Stock
When You Should Add Oil When Cooking Ground Beef
Will Marquardt has over a decade of experience cooking in excellent restaurants in Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles, and France. Drawing on his extensive background in bistro-style cuisine, he had a straightforward, logical answer to my question: Normally, he doesn’t add oil to ground beef. Instead, he relies on the fat in the beef itself to aid in browning.
The one exception Marquardt makes is when cooking very lean beef. “If you want to get a good crust on it,” he said, some oil is necessary. Butcher Zeph Shepard also doesn’t generally add oil when making burgers or other recipes with ground beef. He says the sweet spot is 80% lean meat and 20% fat, otherwise known as 80/20. Leaner ground beef, such as 85/15 or 90/10, might need some added oil to aid in browning.
For my last expert, I headed to The Heist, a food cart pod in my neighborhood. I spoke to Deci Belle, one of the cooks at a smashburger cart called Fresh ‘n Funky. When I asked Belle whether they use oil when cooking ground beef, they said it depends on the context and cooking surface. Since they cook on a flat-top grill at Fresh ‘n Funky, there’s usually already some fat on the cooking surface, whether it’s butter from grilling the buns or rendered bacon fat from cooking the morning batch of bacon. With all that fat already on the grill, they don’t need to add extra oil. However, oil, butter, or bacon fat is important for creating a browned crust on the burgers. So if you’re making crispy burgers at home, you may want to start with a little oil to prevent sticking and encourage browning.
Bottom line: You need some fat to cook ground beef. But where that fat comes from is up to you, whether it’s the fat in the meat itself or added oil or butter.
Read the original article on Simply Recipes