Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Dehydrating Ground Beef

There are many ways to preserve meat besides making jerky.   One of the easiest things to do is using the leanest cut of ground beef you can find.  


Here is eleven pounds of extra-lean ground beef.


In addition to saving space in your freezer, dehydrating your meat can be a major money
-saver. Over several months I purchased one or two packages at a time, as I found it marked down to about half price. Eleven pounds of ground beef dehydrated down to two quart freezer bags!
 Basic steps:

  • Dry fry it crumbled in the pan... no oil. Oil will eventually go rancid, so you want to get as much out as you can.  
  • Then I turn on the tap with the ...hottest water I can get. I rinse the meat to get the last little bits of fat off.  
  • Let it drain, or use your salad spinner to get rid of excess moisture.  
  • Place the crumbled meat in your dehydrator on fruit leather trays or waxed paper.
  • Set the temp high and let it dry.
  • It should rattle around like gravel and it's done.  
This can be added to soups and stews, gravies, or any "wet" dish you might want to thicken or add meat flavor.

I like to buzz a little in my food processor until it's a powder then use it in home made cup-o-soup. It makes an ideal beef bullion for those who can't handle the chemicals in some commercially prepared bullions.  






13 comments:

  1. great idea on the bullions!!!

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  2. How long does it stay good for?

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    1. I haven't found anything yet about the shelf life. I think most documents are conservative and are reluctant to state a time limit.

      But I've got some that is two years old and don't have a problem in the world about using it.

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  3. Going to try this as never thought of it as just ground meat versus jerky

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  4. I just did this a few weeks ago!! LOVE IT!! First thing we did was have a taco salad. Hubby couldn't even tell it had been dehydrated. SCORE!!!

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    1. Fantastic! I get so excited when people discover the joys of dehydrating!

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  5. I think you could boil the hamburger to get rid of all the fat - at least that's what I've been doing. I was using this info to freeze it - but now am trying to dehydrate everything. If you put it in a pan and "fry" it after you take it out of the storage bag, it helps a little with the texture for things like chili and such.

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  6. I know it probably says somewhere here - but do you keep it in the freezer? Why, if we're dehydrating it do we need to keep it in the freezer? I'm trying to get away from electricity. I'm hoping by now that you're so much better!!! Missed having your notes in my inbox - dustymom

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    1. No, there is no need to keep it in the freezer or the fridge. that's the whole point, no refrigeration needed. I've had some dehydrated ground beef in the shed, which I use once in a while for nearly five years now. As long as you get every speck of fat out and it is throurghly dried. It will keep. So far, I haven't found anything documented about how long it will keep, but my personal experience had been about five years so far. Good Luck!

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  7. Don't rinse under water to get rid of the fat ... you lose valuable nutrients that way. Instead; fry your ground beef and then place in a tall narrow heat proof container/jug and add just hot enough water so that you have about an inch visible above the meat. Chill. The fat will 'float' out off the meat and solidify at the top. This is easy removed without losing any meaty goodness. Then simmer the meat again to evaporate as much of the water as possible before dehydrating.

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  8. Grind this to a powder. Then add some to hot water with dehydrated veggie bullion to make beef broth. Yum. My veggie bullion is just dehydrated veggies so you get the raw goodness. No need to make a veggie broth then boil it down etc.
    Wonder if you could do with chicken.

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  9. Does the same method and shelf life pertain to ground chicken & turkey?

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