Sport Ground meat varieties

Sport Fitness
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awesomeame

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Ok so there is ground turkey, and regular/medium/lean/extra lean ground beef. The beef and turkey have roughly the same amount of calories, but the beef fat content is much higher, especially if you're looking at the saturated fats.

My question is: how do these meats compare after they've been cooked and the fat poured off?

Medium beef is 1/4 the cost of turkey, and if I pour the fat off would the beef be not quite comparable to the turkey?

I tried finding some info on the net but couldn't find any hard data, anyone?

Thanks

Matt
 
there's still a noticable difference in fat content. remember that ground turkey BREAST is what you want. most 'ground turkey' is 85% lean. About the same as ground beef, just less saturated fat.

don't forget about buffalo. ground buffalo is leaner than beef and very tastey.

also you can have the butcher grind up any cuts you want for 'prime' ground beef.
 
how you cook the meat plays a big difference in the fat content of the final product too. Say you make a hamburger patty with 85% lean and cook it to rare, then you take the same patty and cook it to well done, there will be a lot less fat in the well done burger because more of it will have melted out. Since i like rare burgers i buy better (less fat) meat.

if i am making a dish where i have to brown the meat and drain it. You will also pour off alot more fat cause you are browning the meat. I will buy cheaper meat, cause you will get rid of some of the fat.

If you are making something where the meat gets cooked in the dish and not drained such as a meatloaf or something, get a leaner cut because all of the fat will become absorbed into the reat of the dish.

What i am trying to say is it depends on how you cook it.
 
The problems that you run into when you try substituting across the board you will increase fat content, because even though you are pouring liquid off you aren't necessarily pouring off fat content. Like a contract you need to read the fine print of a nutrition label. The key words are "per serving" meaning the label is listing the content of whatever product is being served ready to eat, not in a pre cooked state. If you are eating 85% lean ground beef, it will be 85% lean after cooking no matter how much liquid you pour off, remember you are pouring off liquid not just fat. Ground beef has a much higher moisture content than ground turkey. Try this experiment, pour off the liquid into a container that is transparent and place it into the refrigerator over night, what solidifies is your fat that is removed by cooking, notice that you will have a higher percentage of non-fat liquid left from the ground beef. If your idea was correct, there would be no need to package meat with different percentages, because all you would need to do is pour off the fat content.

Is there a Costco or a Sam's Club in your area, purchase your ground turkey there. Their pricing is quite comparable to 85% ground beef and it comes packaged in 4 1.5 packages, great for freezing and only pulling out a bit at a time.
 
you are slightly correct, but not exactly. Take 75% lean ground beef and take 95% lean groung beef and brown them both till all the water is evaporated, if you pour the fat off then cool it in the fridegerator, you will absolutely have more fat in the 75% lean meat. I do this experiment in my nutrition class every year.
 
I fully agree with you, without question. My point was and is that the fat content in ground turkey will always be less because it has less fat content. There is no way possible that I know of to change the fat content other than using leaner ground beef. 75% lean ground beef will always have more fat than 95% lean because of the very fact that you stated, there is more fat in 75% lean ground beef than in 95% lean ground beef so of course there will be more fat to cook down but you only cook the moisture and renderable fat portions from the meat, you don't actually change the mixture. If that were possible there would be no need for separate grades of ground beef because, you would only have to cook what fat you didn't want, away.

Package labeling is required by Federal law, and is designed for you, the consumer, so the information that may not be apparent is available to you. It is for as served per portions, not what it starts out to be. The United States of America has the most stringent food labeling statues in the world, much to the chagrin of other countries. Do you think that if a producer could get away with labeling 75% ground beef as 95% ground beef with no repercussions, there would even be 75% on the market, every package of ground beef would be labeled 95 % because they could sell it for more. I have very little faith in the US government, but as far as food is concerned and the way it is monitored they set the standard in the world. Look at the salmonella outbreak last summer, by the time it was said and done we knew what farm it came from in Mexico, what trucks it was shipped on, where it entered the country, and who it was supplied to. China can't even tell us what manufacturers used and still use lead base paint in the toys for our children, and they have a totalitarian government.
 
Thanks for the replies! I don't think a scientific type test is really necessary. Last week I made two meatloafs :costumed5: one with turkey and one with extra lean beef. Same ingrediants and cooking time. There was noticeably more fat in the beef dish even after pouring off. Like little fat pockets which I found after I cooled it, took it apart and dug through it. It also tasted "greasier," like not as fresh as the turkey if I can put it that way. Anyway I'll stick with the turkey, I'll try to find some ground breast meat but have never seen it. Also I found a buffalo farm nearby I'm going to go check out

Matt
 
you don't actually change the mixture. If that were possible there would be no need for separate grades of ground beef because, you would only have to cook what fat you didn't want, away.
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I have to totally disagree with you. There ARE many methods to reduce the fat in ground beef. Crumbeling and rinsing the meat WILL make 75% have a very similar fat % compared to 95%.

awesomeame mentioned money and cost, 75% is definitely much cheaper, and when cooked right will be equally healthy.

You are correct though when comparing ground beef to ground turkey.

Search "reducing fat in ground beef" you will see many different methods.
 
I stand corrected, however you can't reduce 75% beef to the fat content of 95% beef. The best figures I saw were about a 10% reduction of fat content in 75% beef in a study done in 1992 by the University of Iowa. Having to heat water and rinse and then blot dry does sound like an involved process to go through for the amount reduction involved. I'll spend the extra $.70 per pound to purchase the reduced fat 96/4 ground beef. I'll save half of the $.70 not having to fire up the stove to heat the water.
 
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