I know summer is already here for some of you, but I have one more week to go before those glorious days begin.
I. Can’t. Wait.
I looooovvvve the days/weeks/months of family togetherness.
Because those days are deliciously crazy and loosey-goosey, I’m doing what I can to help us survive the summer without getting on a first-name basis with the person at the chicken-place drive-thru.
The slushie-place-on-the-way-to-the-pool drive-thru? Yeah, they’ll know us.
Anyway, having cooked ground beef in the freezer is one of THE best ways I’ve found to get simple meals on the table quickly.
The only bad part is that cooking lots of ground beef at once is rather extremely messy.
Over time, I’ve found some methods that make the kitchen prep and clean-up for cooking ground beef as non-messy as possible.
The main thing that makes it easier? Paper towels. And of course, as a spokesperson for Bounty DuraTowels, I use . . . . Bounty DuraTowels.
I do love how strong and absorbent these cloth-like paper towels are. They did the job perfectly, and worked better than some others I’ve used over the years.
I generally buy 85/15 ground beef. Mostly, that’s what I find on sale. And because I buy it in bulk and freeze some already shaped for hamburgers, it’s also best to have something with a little fat in it. In my experience, 93/7 ground beef doesn’t stick together enough to keep from falling through the cracks in the grill.
How I Drain the Grease from Ground Beef:
First, I put the cooked ground beef in my metal colander which is sitting on top of a plate and several layers of paper towels. I use my pasta spoon (do you call it a spoon?) to transfer the ground beef from the cooking pot to the colander so I’m transferring as little of the grease as possible.
Once it’s in the colander, I let the ground beef cool (and continue draining onto the paper towels) and then package it into quart-sized freezer bags and freeze.
The grease-soaked paper towels go straight in the trash.
But then there’s the other (ickiest) issue. What do you do with the grease left in the pot?
I love this trick (which also happens to use those handy-dandy Bounty DuraTowels) I learned from my aunt :
Put a wadded up paper towel in a ceramic coffee cup, and then carefully pour the grease into the cup. I wait until the grease has cooled a little so it’s not as dangerous.
Let it cool/solidify, and then just pull the paper towel out and pitch it in the trash.
Not the greatest picture, but that’s a cup that can go straight into the dishwasher.
Yes. Sometimes there is residue in the cup, and I do have to use a clean paper towel to wipe it out.
Yes. I do use my least favorite coffee cup for this.
The cup pictured was from a smaller (single-meal-sized) amount of ground beef than the first picture in the post. I didn’t remember to take pictures of the coffee-cup-trick the first time around, but I do use this trick whenever I drain the grease off of ground beef, and it works! Sometimes I just have to use a bigger coffee cup.
The thickness and absorbancy of the cloth-like Bounty DuraTowel are perfect for this kitchen prep ritual I go through on a regular basis!
Disclosure: I am a paid spokesperson for Bounty DuraTowel. The experiences, opinions, and Christmas-coffee-cup-still-out-in-May are all mine, though!
I do this all the time. I also cook chicken breasts and thighs ahead of time and either shred or dice them before freezing. BTW, I think it’s called a spoonula 🙂
SPOONula! OK. Good to know!!
Hmm, I think spoonulas are a combination between spatulas and spoons. I like “spaghetti spork”. :>)
The last time we got Zycin ground beef, I browned a bunch of it the slow cooker. You still need your paper towel tricks, but it’s less messy than doing it on the stove top, I think.
I haven’t tried the colander thing, that’s a good idea! If you have any empty tin cans, you can do the same thing as the coffee cup, but just throw the whole mess away!! The paper towels keep the grease from running to the bottom of your trash can an leaking on a hot Texas day!!
I have to share the trick I learned from my sister-in-law. I keep a few empty soup cans in the freezer and pour the grease straight in those, then stick them right back in the freezer. Repeat until the can is almost full. Here’s the trickier part–try to remember to throw those almost-full cans away when taking out trash on trash day. 🙂
I do this too! I run hot water through mine in the colander over an old coffee can. Great minds thin alike! lol
I do the same, but I rinse in hot water to get more of the grease out. And I cook it in a 9×13 in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 min. (For a ten pound chub). Even less mess, and I don’t have to stand there cooking it. After it cooks and cools a little, I just crumble it up with a clean (or gloved) hand. It is kind of fun squishing the lumps into crumbles. Then I freeze it spread thin on jelly roll pans and put it in one big ziplock so I can take out as much as I want and toss it in my cooking without any defrosting.
I love these super practical tips. I buy a couple of the ten pound chubs of beef and cook them up. I bag in quart-sized freezer ziplocks. They are the perfect size for my son to pull out and make tacos on his own. He just has to plunk the meat in a Grab it Pyrex bowl, and microwave it, while he pulls the bag of grated cheese out of the fridge and the taco shells out of the pantry. Then load and munch. It makes the perfect meal to feed one boy and works equally well if he has unexpected hungry guests. I also buy two or three big white onions (get my husband to chop them – how sweet is he?) and bag those in the freezer, so they are always ready to add to casseroles or sauces.
I put my colander inside a plastic grocery bag lined with a couple paper towels sitting in the sink. Then just dump your pan of cooked hamburger into the colander. The grease drains through into the paper towel/bag. I let it cool a few minutes and then tie the bag and throw it away. Meals are so much easier when you already have the meat cooked!
I put the colander in an old deep skillet, transfer the meat to the colander and then put the colander back in the dutch oven that I cooked the meat in. When it’s cooled, I divide the meat into freezer bags (10 pounds…10 bags). When all the grease has pretty much solidified, I scrape it into a can and throw away. Not near as many paper towels needed. I also cook & shred chicken ahead of time and put it in the freezer. Makes it so easy to fix a quick meal when you need it.
I do the same thing, Linda.
I have tried to precook hamburger. My husband can taste ‘the freezer’. He hates when I freeze cooked meat! Grr! I finally figure out a time saving idea and BAM! Brick wall!
My husband says the same thing. I can only get away with it if the meat is covered in sauce of some kind. That seems to prevent the “freezer” taste. So, I can mix up ground beef with taco seasoning and leave it a little wet. And I make larger batches of spaghetti sauce with beef or stroganoff to freeze in meal size packages. But, for applications where there isn’t sauce, I have raw ground beef in the freezer.
Do you ladies have a food saver? It really eliminates that ‘freezer’ taste.
I haven’t tried your colander trick (yet) but I’ve been using Bounty to drain hamburger for years. Love my Bounty!
don’t throw the grease away. pour it over the dogs next meal. our dogs love it and they have the healthiest shiniest fur.
One thing I have found is that you need to let the cooked hamburger completely cool before freezing it. Otherwise, it gets an icky flavor.