Yesterday we picked up 40 lbs. of ground beef from Zaycon Foods. It looks to be very high quality, fresh ground beef, 93/7 lean. We have been getting the Chicken from Zaycon Foods for a few years now and it is the best chicken, especially for the price!
So we decided to give the ground beef a go this time and we are very pleased with the purchase yet again! We now have 40 lbs. of fresh ground beef that is a healthier alternative to many beef options in the grocery store.
So the challenge was how to prep 40 lbs. of ground beef for long term storage and use!
If you would like to find out about the affordable, more natural meats available in your area (it’s nationwide), visit this site HERE.
Now I must say, dealing with raw meat anything is not my favorite thing to do. I have a sensitive stomach and lose my appetite easily. So I want the least amount of time, the cleanest, easiest way to take care of it all! As such, the pictures aren’t the most appetizing in my opinion, but hopefully the information in the post will off-set that. Needless to say, I barely ate last night after this and decided to enjoy a salad as my dinner! Perhaps I am an odd duck and that is okay with me!
Just like the chicken, I decided to cook half of the ground beef. I don’t know about you, but having the meats pre-cooked for dinner prep is by far the biggest time saver in the kitchen! I use our “No Food Waste Menu Planner” and try to implement the dinner by 10 rule (see below for links to both), and so I can use the raw chicken and beef. But some days are crazy, some days I forget and I realize I am just a few minutes from dinner and need to cook fast…. that’s when I pull out my pre-cooked beef and chicken!
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So I was able to prep 40 lbs of ground beef in 1-hour for freezing, having half of it cooked and rinsed! Here’s how I do it!
1. Start with two giant skillet pans or, what I prefer, stock pots! My stock pots are 9 qt. I love to use stock pots to brown ground beef as it greatly reduces the “splatter” of grease for ease in clean up and it gives you much more room to stir and work with and reduce the amount of ground beef spillage that happens when I use a skillet for browning. Especially when it is this large amount! Note: if you only have 1 stock pot, it will be 30 minutes more time to prep.
Half of 1 roll – 5 lbs. of beef
2. I take 1 10lb. roll of ground beef and cut it half and squeeze each half out of the plastic wrap into the stock pots. Each pot has approximately 5 lbs. of ground beef. Start browning on med high. This will take 15 – 20 minutes to brown 5 lbs. in a stock pot.
3. While you have the first 10 lbs of 40 browning on the stove, it’s a good time to package the raw beef. The supplies needed are a serrated knife, 11 sandwich size ziploc baggies that are marked, a cutting board and gloves.
4. Then take a 10 lb. roll and using the “serrated” knife, cut 10 slices into the roll making for 11 patties. This will give you just under 1 lb. of beef each package. It is another “thrifty trick” as I take 10 lbs. but get 11 meals out of it. the extra 10% missing for another meal does not make much of a difference, but having 1 extra ground beef meal does make a difference for the budget. In addition, these slices of this size fit perfectly in sandwich size ziploc bags.
5. Then once sliced, place each slice in a pre-labeled sandwich baggie. You will need 11 baggies per roll. This process was around 10-15 minutes of time, perfect to allow the browning on the stove!
6. After the stove top ground beef is thoroughly cooked, rinse in a colander to eliminate more fats. Please note, this particular beef is already quite lean at 93/7. But I still like to rinse it. Then dump in a giant bowl to cool!
7. Start another 10 lb. chub of beef cooking on the stove top for the next 15-20 minutes, just like in steps 1 and 2.
8. Repeat step 3 and 4 for the final 10 lb. chub while the second round of browning is going on!
You now have 20 minutes of time left in your 1-hour…. this is the time it will take you to label 22 ziploc baggies and scoop the browned ground beef into these baggies.
9. Label 22 sandwich size ziploc baggies while the browned beef cools just a few minutes more in the giant bowl.
10. Using a large soup ladle, scoop 2 heaping scoops of ground beef into each baggie. Leave the tops open for the beef to cool just a bit more before sealing it up!
11. Once all baggies are filled, then go back through and seal the baggies!
Freeze and enjoy over the next several months!
In 1-hour, you have 22 pre-cooked bags of ground beef and 22 raw ground beef for 44 meals total! This will last our family for several months as we usually have a ground beef meal 2 times per week.
By the way, clean-up is a breeze. I use latex gloves (grocery bags over the hands works well too!) and keep a garbage bag close to put the old used packaging in and the stock-pots keep the spillage and grease inside the pot and I keep my Homemade Antibacterial Wipes and Kitchen Surfaces Disinfectant close by to quickly wipe up!
My Homemade Natural Cleaning Wipes Recipe HERE.
My Natural Food Surfaces and Kitchen Disinfectant Recipe HERE
I also am determined to make 1 lb of ground beef be sufficient for our family of 7. Whatever I am making with my ground beef, I double or even triple the amount by adding cooked rice or beans to the beef. It doesn’t affect the taste a whole lot, but makes it far cheaper and far healthier.
For some examples, Tacos are a weekly staple in our home. I will brown 1 lb (or slightly less with the above packaging) and then add 1-2 cups of cooked rice and/or a can of beans and add 2-3 times the taco sauce and we have cheaper, healthier tacos!
Another example is when we have meatloaf, I will still use 1 lb, which is a very small meatloaf for a family of 7, but I add rice and/or beans to the beef and double or even triple the size. I also usually add 1-2 extra eggs as it will need a little extra “glue” to hold it together.
In addition, the SOS mix that we use several times per week, will create hundreds of ground beef meals! It all makes for healthier, cheaper, tasty dinners galore!
If you would like to find out about the affordable, more natural meats available in your area (it’s nationwide), visit this site HERE.