Cooking ground beef

When we saute ground beef; no matter how fresh, no matter how carefully selected, no matter how rare, no matter how well done, there always seems to be an unpleasant aftertaste (odor),reminescent of liver.

Is it our imagination or is this a problem other people have experienced? Is there a solution?

[Mezzaluna]

I have only encountered this in two contexts: when I have too much meat in the pan (and it's not hot enough), so the meat steams. If the pan is hot enough and the meat actually browns, I don't get that effect. I also think Wendy's hamburgers taste liverish.

[Nick.Shu]

my assumption on this would be that the minced beef itself is quite bloody and that the boiled blood is what gives the meat that "liverish" odour/taste (considering that quite a bit of red blood cell production occurs in the liver)

I would go with mez's method of ensuring that not too much meat ends up in the pan at once and that the pan or whatever is hot enough to cook at the time.

[kokopuffs]

Nick.Shu

I'm a doctor and red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow, not the liver. The liver performs several functions: produces cholesterol, detoxifies the blood, produces clotting proteins, stores sugar in the form of glycogen - among a whole host of other functions.

[-d-]

What grade/quality of beef are you using? If your ground beef is Select, then that may be the cause as well. Select grade beef tends to have the unpleasant liver flavor. Use Choice grade beef and that will help as well.

[Nick.Shu]

oops, soz kokopuffs, i do apologise - it was an assumption and being quite a while from school (and therefore biology) i must retract my statement.

Thank you for the clarification.

[Pastachef]

KoKoPuffs a doctor? That's very interesting.

[W.DeBord]

I understand what your mentioning evaughn, I've noticed that smell too at times. I don't like most burgers for that reason.

Wendy's cooks them on a flat top griddle, so does Steak & Shake, but McDonalds burgers don't have that smell...If you watch them cook, the heat is low enough that they do steam abit. But I don't know how that creates the smell. I have always thought is was related to the blood cooking.

Many thanks to Mezzaluna. you were right on the button.
My chili and spaghetti have taken on new life.