Kitchen Garden Forum

My wife always cooks beef mince for at least an hour, far longer than we would ever cook steaks, chops or other meat. Doesn't make sense to me, but perhaps there's a good reason? (She doesn't know, it's what her mother did )

20 minutes stirred from time to time or thereabouts in a saucepan, longer than that and it changes texture and becomes dry

Are you talking about in a oven or as part of a recipe containing other ingredients.

In a saucepan, on its own, on the hob. She keeps it well lubricated.

Does that mean she likes to cook with wine and sometimes puts some in the food?

JohnN wrote:In a saucepan, on its own, on the hob. She keeps it well lubricated.

20 minutes then, mince is easy to tell when cooked.

Geoff wrote:Does that mean she likes to cook with wine and sometimes puts some in the food?

lol Geoff, there then comes a certain point where its not so easy to tell what's cooked and what isn't

Geoff: She doesn't add wine, but I do - but I don't tell her.

When it changes colour from red to brownish/grey it's cooked! Great meat to pimp up with herbs, spices & extra veg - but nothing like a little wine to take it to the next level as well!

I cook it for between 20 and 30 minutes as it's usually in some kind of sauce (including wine!) and sometimes if I,ve been a little over enthusiastic with the liquid at 20 minutes I simmer for a little longer to allow some of it to evaporate and thicken up a little. Would never cook it for as long as an hour though. .

I popped just one of my Carolina Reapers into last night's chill con carne. First time I've used a CR. Have to say it was a warm meal, but not excessively so - in fact, it was the best chilli con carne we'd had in a long time. Put a few Super Chillies in the last one but it turned out very tame. I grew some CRs for the novelty factor - hottest chilli in the world and all that - but now it's going to be a regular. And still has fruit on it (growing on the windowsill above a radiator).

JohnN wrote:My wife always cooks beef mince for at least an hour, far longer than we would ever cook steaks, chops or other meat. Doesn't make sense to me, but perhaps there's a good reason? (She doesn't know, it's what her mother did )

An hour may be a lot longer than you would cook a steak, but it is a lot less time than you'd cook braising or stewing steak. Mince is most likely made from the scraps after the prime cuts have been removed, so may contain tougher material. I tend to cook mince in sauces if I use it, where treating it to stewing type cooking times if for the best IMHO.

Another factor is that the things you want to kill by cooking reside mostly on the outside, exposed surfaces of the meat. Hence hot, quick cooking a steak makes it mostly harmless. Mincing exposes a lot of surface and greatly increases the scope for contamination. It is probably wise only to eat pink beefburgers if you really trust chef and butcher.

I must admit that I cook mince near enough to an hour, always with some other ingredients like shallots, tomatoes, peppers, herbs and, last but by no means least, red wine, and I think the long and slow cooking means everything is nicely combined in taste and texture.

Thank you, one and all, we'll stick with the 1 hour cook - with onion and red wine of course!

Hi,

I asked mr Pawty (he does all the cooking). He got all technical and started using words like 'maillard reaction' but what he means is he cooks it until browned - so nice crispy bits on the outside as that's where the flavour comes from. Over a high heat you can get this in 10 minutes. This is assuming it's going in something like a cottage pie or chilli.

At Christmas there was a family debate on how long to cook a turkey and how long to let it rest........ I won't go in to detail as it was a long debate.....

Pawty

Do you know some cookware which can cook fast especially beef recipes?

Hello VM
It has to be a pressure cooker. The old gadgets are still the best.
Cooking times are about 1/3 of normal and flavour is often better.
Our trusty Prestige is still going strong after nearly 40 years and you can still get the spares - amazing!
John