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Today I was browning up a big 5 lb package of ground beef from Costco and portioning it and freezing for later use when the following question occurred to me...
Should I be using the same cooking utensil for the entirety of this process? If you start out with completely raw product are you technically supposed to switch to a clean utensil at some point nearer to the end of the cooking process?
I've always used the same utensil start to finish. This time, however, I switched after my first batch of browning to a new spoon.
I keep going with the same utensil when browning meat. Since I'm constantly strirring and breaking up the meat as it heats and cooks, whatever tiny amount remains on the spoon cooks at the same rate as what's in the pan. It's not raw when everything else is done.
Same utensil. Where it might make a difference is if you were doing low temperature canning, which is inherently dangerous.
Cross-contamination is a real problem with some foods. The textbook example is mayo, where the spoon used to repeatedly dip into it has non-acid food on it and the dish or mayo is allowed to sit. With beef, the surface of your browning spatula/spoon is likely to get to the required 130 F without any effort on your part, and what clings to it is fat that has been heated to liquification.
How come you cook your ground beef before freezing? I portion mine raw and cook it as I need it. I would miss having the “fond” in the dish I was making.
With beef, the surface of your browning spatula/spoon is likely to get to the required 130 F without any effort on your part, and what clings to it is fat that has been heated to liquification.
That's kind of what I was thinking and I was probably being overly cautious this time around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts
How come you cook your ground beef before freezing? I portion mine raw and cook it as I need it. I would miss having the “fond” in the dish I was making.
I actually did both- just froze about half the raw ground beef (about 2.5 lbs worth) and took the other 2.5 lbs and browned that all together. Then I split that amount and with half of that, used taco seasoning and with the other half, added a can of sloppy Joe mix. Both were used for meals this week. So, basically, I was doing meal prep.
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