Grinding burger meat/Salting ground beef

[fire it up]

Came across this yesterday, thought it was a pretty interesting experiment.

A guy took some chuck meat and tried it 3 different ways.
1. Ground it up then seasoned the outside of the meat only.
2. Ground it up and thoroughly seasoned the meat, inside and out.
3. Salted the meat before grinding into ground beef.

He shows the differences in the final product as well as a Blunt Impact test where he dropped a dutch oven onto each burger.

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/....html?ref=AHT2

 

[bbq engineer]

That was a pretty interesting and informative article / experiment. Thanks for sharing that...I wouldn't have guessed, but will add this to my bag of tricks.

 

[fatback joe]

Very interesting.

Thanks

 

[cheapchalee]

Very interesting, I have always seasoned just prior to cooking. I wonder how much of a difference this makes in doing a whole butt prior to smoking. What effects would rubbing and leaving in the fridge overnight versus rubbing just prior to smoking? Enquiring minds want to know.

Charlie

 

[pandemonium]

nice i have always heard not to salt before, really for steaks is what they were talking about but i always figured not to salt my burgers too.

 

[meat hunter]

Excellent article. Thanks for that link.

 

[rivet]

That was a great article...it's amazing some of the things people do in the name of food. I enjoyed the heck oout of it and appreciate you sharing it.

Glad to say I've always been in the salt-before-you-cook it camp, but that's the way I saw my parents cook. Fascinating to see how today we prove what our grandparent's knew so long ago.

 

[john3198]

Interesting study. Thanks for that.

I don't salt HB until ready to cook, but often pre-season cubed pork for sausage overnight before grinding, The seasonings invariably contain salt. They always seem more "sticky" than when I just grind chuck for HB meat. Now I know why!

 

[beer-b-q]

Interesting to say the least... I am supposed to refrain from salt and you know I do...