Logging ground beef
djwife03
Posts: 333 Member
Just wondering- we purchase our beef from a local farm. This beef is grain and grass fed. How do you log this? We do not know the percentage of lean to fat. I tried logging today and so many choices. I hate to go with just generic or whatever.
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Have you tried to ask the farm? They should have an idea of the percentages.0
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Just wondering- we purchase our beef from a local farm. This beef is grain and grass fed. How do you log this? We do not know the percentage of lean to fat. I tried logging today and so many choices. I hate to go with just generic or whatever.
search using USDA ground beef and the %. The fact that it's grass fed isn't going to change the calories.3 -
I would ask the farm. If that’s not possible then I’d log the higher fat percentage to be on the safe side- like medium instead of extra lean.0
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Mince is one of my fav go-to dinners, as I like chilli and tacos and spag bolg. But omgosh the calories make me want to cry!
I live in NZ, so all our beef is grass fed, it's still high calorie. We don't get turkey mince here (I've never seen it in shops) so I can't substitute even chicken mince can be tricky to find.0 -
I'd ask them. But I got my ground beef from a local farm when losing, and didn't ask, I just used the beef, grass-fed raw entry, since it's between the 80 and 90% entries, and the grass fed I've seen sold in stores is 85% and googling suggested that between 85 and 90% was common for grass fed in stores (grass fed should result in somewhat leaner beef, I think, since the reason people like grain fed is supposed to be the marbling).
If I'd stalled on losing in the relevant weeks I would have gone to 80%, perhaps, but I didn't.
It's about a 50-55 cal for 100 g difference between the grass fed and 80% entry (I didn't find an 85% entry for raw).3 -
I'd ask them. But I got my ground beef from a local farm when losing, and didn't ask, I just used the beef, grass-fed raw entry, since it's between the 80 and 90% entries, and the grass fed I've seen sold in stores is 85% and googling suggested that between 85 and 90% was common for grass fed in stores (grass fed should result in somewhat leaner beef, I think, since the reason people like grain fed is supposed to be the marbling).
If I'd stalled on losing in the relevant weeks I would have gone to 80%, perhaps, but I didn't.
It's about a 50-55 cal for 100 g difference between the grass fed and 80% entry (I didn't find an 85% entry for raw).
I also bought from a local ranch and I believe I use the same entry. If I ate it very often I might aim for a higher calorie count to be safe but I don't and the margin of error has never been enough to show up as a negative impact.1 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Just wondering- we purchase our beef from a local farm. This beef is grain and grass fed. How do you log this? We do not know the percentage of lean to fat. I tried logging today and so many choices. I hate to go with just generic or whatever.
search using USDA ground beef and the %. The fact that it's grass fed isn't going to change the calories.
She said she doesn't know the %.
@djwife03 , can you ask the folks at the farm what cut(s) of meat they use in the ground beef, and if they add additional fat trimmed from roast and steaks that they sell? Unless it's a really small operation, I would think they would try to follow a consistent recipe so that customers are satisfied from one batch to the next.0 -
No farmers here I take it. Of course, pen raised, formula fed beef will have the most fat. That's the whole point of it. Lean beef appeals to some people for some reason, but it is a niche product, not the goal of a feed lot.
You can look at the beef and get close enough without analytics. If you see a lot of fat, it might be 30%. If you don't see any fat, it might be 10%.
Most importantly, if you are grilling or broiling most of the fat will be rendered out anyway.2 -
I usually figure that by the time I’ve browned, drained, and rinsed my meat, the 90% lean entry is close enough.0
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Just wondering- we purchase our beef from a local farm. This beef is grain and grass fed. How do you log this? We do not know the percentage of lean to fat. I tried logging today and so many choices. I hate to go with just generic or whatever.
I would think, just be consistent.
is there going to be a huge difference when it comes to this - 80 to 85 percent lean/15 to 20 percent fat?0 -
Just wondering- we purchase our beef from a local farm. This beef is grain and grass fed. How do you log this? We do not know the percentage of lean to fat. I tried logging today and so many choices. I hate to go with just generic or whatever.
Go by the cut. Depending on the cut you buy, you can estimate the fat %.
Burger cuts like Chuck, rib among others, have higher fat content than the roasting meats.
I don't know how important that is, as I haven't tracked food for a long time, but it should be easy to estimate by the cut.1 -
It gets extra fat off and keeps whatever you put it on from getting greasy. I don’t digest fat very well at all, so any extra fat I can eliminate makes my stomach much happier.1 -
just_Tomek wrote: »
I’ve never found ground meat of any type to have any flavor other than the toppings. Even the greasiest of burgers still just tastes like mayo, cheese and pickles....it’s no big loss and makes things much more digestible for me. I’ll take a greater volume of rinsed meat over the small amount of unrivaled meat I can eat any day.0 -
It gets extra fat off and keeps whatever you put it on from getting greasy. I don’t digest fat very well at all, so any extra fat I can eliminate makes my stomach much happier.
Thanks for explaining. I get it...the older I get the less fat that my stomach can deal with. I don't eat a lot of red meat any more because of that. The fat just doesn't agree with me. When I do eat red meat I try to use no more that 10% fat. I have to add a lot of spices to put taste back in to it.0 -
I'd buy 97% ground beef vs. rinsing a cooked patty.
I don't agree that fat percentage doesn't matter in that it all cooks off -- it's quite common for people to prefer higher fat percentage ground beef for a burger in that it tends to be juicier/have more flavor. If there's enough fat left to affect flavor, I am assuming there's enough for the calories to be different. (That said, as discussed above, I didn't nitpick it when I didn't know and it was close enough.)2 -
I'd buy 97% ground beef vs. rinsing a cooked patty.
I don't agree that fat percentage doesn't matter in that it all cooks off -- it's quite common for people to prefer higher fat percentage ground beef for a burger in that it tends to be juicier/have more flavor. If there's enough fat left to affect flavor, I am assuming there's enough for the calories to be different. (That said, as discussed above, I didn't nitpick it when I didn't know and it was close enough.)
Even though I pretty religiously rinse ground meat, it would be kind of weird to rinse a patty. I don’t think I’ve ever made burgers at home. My dad used to, but I could eat things like that back then. Now I can only eat a quarter to maybe....maybe a half a burger without getting sick, so definitely a treat food.0 -
It gets extra fat off and keeps whatever you put it on from getting greasy. I don’t digest fat very well at all, so any extra fat I can eliminate makes my stomach much happier.
I rinse my ground beef all the time too,I can't stand making a recipe and seeing all that oil floating on the top
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You can get a decent estimate of fat percentage by weighing before and after cooking/draining off the grease. Here is the math to measure the percent.
Weight(raw) - Weight(Cooked) = Weight(fat)
Weight(fat) / Weight(raw) = Percentage of fat, roughly2 -
metalhead_1982 wrote: »You can get a decent estimate of fat percentage by weighing before and after cooking/draining off the grease. Here is the math to measure the percent.
Weight(raw) - Weight(Cooked) = Weight(fat)
Weight(fat) / Weight(raw) = Percentage of fat, roughly
Not seeing where these calculations - specifically the weight(fat) - account for loss from, and evaporation of, water from the meat as it is cooked. Muscle tissue is comprised of a substantial amount of water that is lost from the weight(raw) during the cooking process. In other words, the difference between weight(raw) and weight(cooked) is not all weight(fat); you need a weight(water) calculation as well.1
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