It’s almost impossible to brown it off :(
Might have better luck getting meat from a local butcher, the supermarkets are notorious for pumping up the weight with water.
I was walking down one of the isles today and shocked how small the condiment jars have become. (What is this? mint sauce for ants?)
Eugh, yeah. Sainsbury’s have recently changed their caramelized onion chutney to a “new, improved recipe” in a jar about 2/3 the size of the old one and costing quite a bit more.
The improvement was the supermarket’s profit margin
Do they not have to say what percentage is actually meat? Where I live (not UK), if I look at, say, ham slices, the ingredients list will say something like “meat (85%)” and then water, and salt and other things. Cheap meat is only about 55-60% meat. Fancy packages are like 92% or 95%. I’m not exaggerating even slightly. I bought ham yesterday and settled on the 85%.
Edit: I checked beef and chicken-turkey mince in my fridge. 82% and 92% (77% chicken and 15% turkey).
Ingredients list is compulsory in UK, but water doesnt need to be listed. So the mince above is only allowed to be beef/pork/whatever you’re not allowed to advertise it as beef mince if there’s anything else in it, but they don’t have to state how much they’ve pumped it up with water.
Having said that beef doesn’t retain water like chicken and pork does, it’s the latter two that are most commonly injected with water. Not sure what the science is on that as to why.
If they inject meat full of water then you pay more for less. Stay away from supermarket meat. have you cooked bacon recently? It spooshes all over then pan and then poaches itself.
Nasty bacon spunk water.
Sainsbury’s posh bacon is awesome, better than m&s, Waitrose, etc.
Nasty bacon spunk water.
Thanks, I forgot the scientific name for it.
Unreal
Pinnacle of brand new sentence…
What’s incredible is everyone knows exactly what they’re talking about…
I’ve heard that before too (injecting water), but is it just something people say, or is there actual evidence for it?
Dry cured bacon is the way to go. More expensive per pack, but the other stuff disappears in the pan once the water has evaporated, so I don’t think it’s actually better value than the dry cured. Thick cut from a butcher if you can, supermarket stuff is sliced so thin it’s almost see through.
yes. I just use my local butcher.
This is a very good reason to get an air-fryer. Makes brilliant bacon, from the same pack that would boil if done in a pan.
Mince has gone right down hill since they took the horse out of it tbh.
Not seen a good findus since
IKEA meatballs took a step down in quality that day and they’ve never recovered.
Yeah it’s definitely got worse.
But leave it on medium heat. Eventually the water will boil off, the fat will render and it’ll start to fry, then you’ll be able to brown it. Can take a while.
The sound will change a bit to a crackling/frying sound when it’s got to that point.
Supermarket mince is fucking shite now. So is supermarket chicken. And sausages. And pretty much everything else. In the past ten years it’s absolutely shocking just how far standards have fallen and no one seems to give a shit.
Do what I do, go to a local butcher. Equivalent price now, and you can order exactly the amount you need. And it’s significantly better quality too.
I’m lucky that I live a five minute walk from a street with a grocers, fishmonger, bakery, butchers and an independent world food shop. I can get precisely the ingredients I need, no wastage, and, know they’re fantastic quality and not pay a penny more than I need to.
Last time I went in to the butcher I asked for 1kg steak cubed for a stew and another kg of mince for chilli.
Got handed the two packs and the fucker told me £60! I was so shocked I just paid it like a right prick and then have been complaining ever since.
Haha what the fuck
I always try to ask for the price first as I’ve been caught out before too, but not like that
except our butcher has gone downhill and is barely better than supermarket for twice the price now. it’s crap.
Same…
I ended up finding labels for meat at the butchers and it’s mostly European meat!! Very worrisome considering they’ve been a local fully British butchers for many decades! Their chicken breasts, and sausages, including their steak mince comes from Eastern Europe. They used to prepare all those meats (except the chicken, but it was still local). Much more expensive for less meat from questionable, unknown sources, let alone ethical.
Recently our food regulators also found a lot of our pork was being adulterated with illegal, rotten foreign meat and had entered shops here on a supermarket scale… Just, wtf, how can the UK not maintain our food standards? I don’t want us going the same route as the United States.
Supermarket meat quality seems to fluctuate quite a lot at the moment, but it’s getting worse. Chicken especially…
Meat despite the premium price has been a treat for me, but lately I’ve been put off it.
Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, Asda, all just plummeting in value.
Ah man that sucks. We have two on the road, so I guess they compete against eachother
That’s one of the reasons I was happy to switch to quorn mince, there’s little different but less water.
When I ate meat I just used to strain the water out whilst frying it, I had a dedicated glass bowl for it and I’d leave the meat water out fir the foxes so it wouldn’t upset my drains.
Upset your drains?
I guess he’s referring to not pouring fat/oil down the drain to avoid fatbergs in the sewer
Supermarket stuff has never been great I think it’s got a lot worse since the packaging change though. Just no actual meat texture anymore.
And yeah they have been injecting water like crazy for years I’ve mainly noticed it on the meat you don’t cook yourself like sandwich slices personally though.
Admittedly I’m not in the UK anymore, but I struggled with this years ago as well (when I did live in the UK). Drop the whole pack in and sear it off on each side (just as you would a steak), then break it up once it’s seared nicely on all sides. I find this helps.
Yeah I’ve found this too, recipes always say to brown the mince… Like how?
You should brown meat in batches and not crowd the pan, otherwise it will release too much moisture and steam rather than sear.
Preheated pan on high heat. Also, don’t overcrowd the pan. Two batches is better than stewed mince.
The vacume pack stuff goes quite sludgy, but is actually better for meatballs and burgers stick and is ok in chilli, but doesn’t work in some dishes
A bigger pan would help but you’re right.
I don’t know about mince, but for sure gum has gotten mintier.
I always drain it off and then it browns up nicely.
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If it’s just water - keep it going, it’ll boil off. Add some fat back into the pan (if you get low fat) for the final bit of adding colour.
