I always bought the cheapest ground beef for chili, but my neighbor's batch changed my mind.

She used 80/20 ground chuck instead of the 73/27 lean I usually get, and the extra dollar per pound made a huge difference in flavor and texture. The chili wasn't greasy at all and had a much richer taste. Has anyone else found that spending a little more on one key ingredient actually saves money because you need less of other things to make it taste good?

4 comments

4 Comments

west.casey2mo ago

I just drain the grease, tastes the same.

troy_price2mo ago

Saw a thing that said draining the grease from ground beef only gets rid of like half the fat, @west.casey. The rest is still in the meat itself. Honestly it made me start buying the leaner stuff sometimes, even though it costs more. Tbh the taste is a bit different though, less rich for sure.

emmam892mo ago

Remember my buddy who swore by the cheapest ground turkey for his spaghetti sauce, said it all tasted the same once you added enough herbs. He tried the good 93/7 stuff on a whim last month and was totally thrown off. He called me saying he had to cut his usual amount of dried oregano and garlic powder in half because the meat itself actually had flavor for once. Kinda proved the point that better meat can make your whole spice cabinet work less hard.

the_fiona13d ago

Totally get that. I had a similar thing with ground beef for chili. Always bought the cheap 70/30 blend and just drained it. Then I tried 85/15 once and the flavor difference was ridiculous. The spices weren't fighting the grease taste anymore. @troy_price is right about the draining thing too. Some of that fat stays in there no matter what you do. It's wild how the base ingredient changes everything you layer on top of it.