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That's interesting.. so you think ground turkey tastes similar to beef?...
I don't think it tastes like beef at all. However, when I add a bit of Marmite and seasonings most folks can't tell it's turkey. With turkey burgers it's different - you can't really hide the fact that they're turkey burgers.
You can really taste the difference in steaks, not so much in ground beef. The biggest difference I find in lean ground beef is the texture if you use it for meat sauces and chili.
How often do you cook ground beef without spices or other added flavors? The fat doesn't effect the flavor very much and the burgers are less greasy with lean beef. I usually buy sirloin when I can afford it. I never go below chuck.
Leaner goes farther. It doesn't cook down as much.
I don't find grass fed or aged beef to ever taste gamey. Even bison. It just has more flavor. I think if you are getting a sour flavor it may be aged improperly or out right old meat.
Thanks for all the information. I didn't realize that really lean beef lacks flavor.. I thought it was the other way around. I'm just concerned about the hormones and antibiotics in meats.
That it does. If you ever come to Montreal, you should never order your smoked meat sandwich lean.
Regular tastes a lot better. You just don't get the unique smoked meat experience with lean.
Unless you order your Montreal smoked meat lean (which on no account you ever should), you can expect a moist cut of brisket, barely held together by its muscle fibers, with the perfect amount of fattiness there to infuse rich smoky flavor. Montreal Smoked Meat - Seven Reasons Why Montreal
Has anyone ever noticed that 'barnyard' smell/taste when cooking ground beef? It turns my stomach, but it seems to be hit and miss, so I'm not sure how to avoid it. I'm not sure if it's the source from my local supermarket or what the cattle is fed. I notice this smell/taste in pork roast sometimes too.
Supposedly 80/20 makes the best burger. As for quality...I have eaten really awful cheap ground beef with ground hard bits in it. The kind of beef prepackaged in a tube, often 5 pounds. Bleh. Yes, really high quality beef does have a better taste, but the typical store stuff is just fine.
Has anyone ever noticed that 'barnyard' smell/taste when cooking ground beef? It turns my stomach, but it seems to be hit and miss, so I'm not sure how to avoid it. I'm not sure if it's the source from my local supermarket or what the cattle is fed. I notice this smell/taste in pork roast sometimes too.
the "barnyard" smell, is often from places that get the burger in vacuum sealed, or in little round tube rolls -it is called map-packed (modified air packaging) it is essentially gas-flushed, for a longer shelf life..(walmart does this)
I'm getting into cooking more and was wondering if more expensive ground beef really does taste better. I'm used to buying store brand ground beef. I bought some ground beef from Jewel today and it said it was 96 percent lean, but it still didn't taste quite right to me. Do I have to buy grass fed beef from Whole Foods in order for it to taste good? Is there any way to get good quality meat without spending a fortune?
No! The fat in the beef is what gives the flavor, therefore you want a fattier meat not a leaner one.
I grind my own when I'm in the mood, in a Kitchenaid stand mixer - meat grinder attachment (although there are specific meat grinders available) .
Half chuck roast half tenderloin filet or sirloin. That gives you the best of both worlds, the chuck/sirloin with the fat/flavor and the filet with the texture.
If you want the best fail proof technique and science behind cooking (and recipies) I suggest Cooks Illustrated or Alton Brown (Food Network). Although he uses lamb in his hamburgers recipe, I don't.
You're paying more in grocery stores for it to be LEAN, not for TASTE. Nothing LEAN tastes better. It's science. They are charging more because they have to throw away the fat portions of the meat, so there is waste when the animal/meat is weighed.
The really expensive cut of meat (a steak) has fat "marbling" but that is "prime" grade and not generally available. The marbling spread out throughout the body of the animal/cut of meat...comes from raising the animal right not just because there's a hunk of fat on the side of bland "lean" body parts.
You may be confused between the "grades". It used to be PRIME versus CHOICE. Then they made up an even cheaper category called SELECT and got rid of prime because it got too expensive and only the best butchers carry it - even difficult for restaurants to find it.
In the 70's before factory farming ALL meat tasted great because the animal was fed a natural diet ie grass for cows. THEN, they decided to use CORN because they discovered they "could" survive on this cheap food, do away with having to have large pastures and stick them all in a cement feed lot....and all the animals also got sick because it is not a natural diet and the food started losing flavor. That's why antibiotics started (in addition to bad husbandry practices and too many sick animals coming out of factory life). If you ever ate correctly raised pork, you'd NEVER eat "store bought" or factory farmed pork again. (for example).
Animals are what they eat so to speak. So if you ever bought that new organic milk that is advertised "pasture raised by family farms" on the carton with the pictures of the farmers - you can notice a slight gamey flavor that varies by "farm". When I spent two weeks in the UK around 1992 I found the meat INEDIBLE. Something to do with the feed, most likely. It had this tremendous undertaste.
Investing in a decent meat grinder and grinding it yourself is worth it and you pay LESS per lb for a better outcome since the store is not grinding it. Or sometimes you find a butcher who will grind it for you. Even IF the animal came out of a feed lot and not a pasture. But for humane reasons psychologically I stick with meat that has the label "certified humane" or 100% pasture raised if I can. This does NOT include animals "mostly" raised on pasture but "finished" on the feed lot.
I think I even saw one in Bed Bath and Beyond but I don't know how sharp it is. I used my Kitchenaid grinder attachment when I used to grind up meat AND bones for my dog.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 01-10-2014 at 05:54 AM..
I just made some chili and had the butcher grind up some sirloin steaks for me. It cost more but it was probably the best chili I have ever made, the meat wasn't greasy and had a lot of flavor. I also put a lot of meat in it, over two pounds, so the ratio of meat to the other ingredients was good. That convinced me to do the same thing the next time I make chili.
That same reasoning is why the chili at Wendy's is the healthiest thing on their menu. They use the patties that didn't sell for burgers and they cook them down and use that meat in their chili. After cooking the meat twice a lot of the fat is gone.
Don
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They are charging more because they have to throw away the fat portions of the meat, so there is waste when the animal/meat is weighed. 
