How to break mince beef apart for a bolognese, and then brown it

Question

I am able to break mince beef down into a much less coarse material, by

1. putting the raw mince into hot water in a pan, then

2. breaking it apart easily with a spoon.

See an example here

It appears that the absorbed water helps weaken bonds in the strands of mince, and it breaks up.

Then, I need to properly brown the mince beef. This is difficult as there is too much water in the mince. The browning of the mince is critical for the flavour of the bolognese, as is the fineness of the mince/ragu.

Is there a good way of breaking up and browning mince that anyone knows? Maybe this whole adding to water thing is a bad idea?

Answer 1

Your profile shows you live in the UK, so unless you buy your mince from 'posh' butchers rather than a supermarket, then water is already an issue - your meat already has 5% added before you buy it*. It most certainly doesn't want any more. It's quite a task to get rid of what there is.
Actually making British supermarket mince truly fry takes a bit of effort and as much heat as you can get into the pan.

If I'm making anything that starts with meat [chunks or mince], onions & garlic etc, then I start with two pans, not one. A regular saucepan which will be what the final sauce will cook in, and the biggest frying pan you own. You can work them simultaneously, as it takes about the same time for each.

Use a wooden spatula, not a spoon. 50p from any supermarket - when they have them in stock. You want that square[ish] edge to work for you.

As you're getting your onion prepped, but both pans on with a bit of oil, full flame, each according to the pan size, so the saucepan goes on a medium-sized ring, frying pan goes on the largest. As soon as you drop your onions into your oil, drop the heat back to half & give a quick stir every minute. Drop your mince in the other, which should just about be smoking by now. Keep the heat on the frying pan up full.

You'll see it lands in 'stripes', or a less appetising image… worms [unless you've seen that horrible new packaging from Sainsbury's which looks like a single compressed block of goo]. Set the spatula across the stripes so were working across not down the grain, then using the square end, start from the far end, working towards you. Push through it, drag back, push through, drag back. Do this rapidly rather than carefully, it will take maybe 20 or so 'strokes' to work down the length of the pack. Each push will separate off half an inch or so. For a standard supermarket pack you'll probably need to do this twice to cover the width of the block in two passes. The heat of the pan is helping you at this point, as even in a decent non-stick the 'block' will slightly stick to the pan, preventing it skidding around while you work. It will free itself up within a minute, no need to worry.

That's knocked it down to much more manageable chunks. By now the underside will be nicely seared, but the rest raw. As you start to now spread this around the pan, give it a good shuffling about, turning a new raw face down as much as you can. About now, all the spare water will start to come out of it. You paid for that water & whatever is being washed out of your meat, so we're not going to pour it down the sink, we're going to evaporate it off & keep the rest.

Once it's really starting to boil rather than frying, you can concentrate on breaking up the last few bits that have survived until now.

BTW, don't forget to keep your onions moving every minute or so whilst you're doing this.

Wait until the water is almost evaporated off. Keep it moving a bit but there's no rush at this point - your pan has been cooled to the temperature of boiling water & cannot get any hotter until it's gone. The full flame is to drive the water off as fast as possible. Right as your onions are nearly ready, you can add your garlic. Another stir. Your meat should by now be about dry & you can at last brown it a bit.
Success.
Separated, browned & ready to go into your onion/garlic, perfectly sautéed; ready & waiting for your tomatoes & herbs.

btw, that Youtube method is terrible. There's no point at which the meat is ever browned, it's just boiled. Browning - Maillard reaction - is an essential part of the flavour. They also mush it into a paste, which isn't really what you want; there should be a little 'body' or 'grain' remaining in it.

Late note:
It turns out to be 5% they can add without having to tell you. I always thought it was 10% [detail above changed]. Government guidelines at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meat-products-sell-them-legally-in-england

Answer 2

I personally use a wooden spatula to chop it up into smaller bits as it cooks.

You want to start cooking over low heat, so you don’t brown it and form a crust before you’ve had a chance to break it up.

I’ve also seen (but have never used) tools that are specifically advertised for this purpose that have an X or * cross section, such as the ‘ChopStir’: https://www.amazon.com//dp/B004N7E174

Answer 3

Complementing the existing detailed answers that describe breaking up the mince in a frying pan as it browns, you can make things much easier for yourself by breaking it apart with your hand as you add it to the pan. You can easily tear/separate it into smaller pieces which means there is less to do with the spatula while it is cooking.

Additionally, adding the meat to the pan by hand means you can control how much is in the pan at a time – avoiding overcrowding means it will brown faster. If I am making a large batch I will brown a smaller amount at a time, remove it with a slotted spoon to a bowl and repeat until the whole quantity is browned.

Answer 4

In our family we used to use a pan not damaged by metal implements and a long barbaque sized fork.
When browning lean mince we would start with a little oil (or liquid butter replacement these days) in fatty meat we would just heat the pan and let the heat drain a bit of the fat out of the meat.

Then with a fork, (or the long one if using the big pan,) we would break chunks off the block of meat, cutting it in smaller parts while already browning the meat. By the time you have broken the meat into the size of pieces you need most of the browning has already been done, and the meat has let go of the fat, which allows the meat to sit in the pan.

If the meat is falling apart easily, as some butchers and supermarkets sell theirs, it is less work.
On the other hand, if you have a block of frozen mince you can still use most of this method, only you allow one side to get soft, flip and scrape off the top layer to the pan next to the block, flip again and repeat, as long as it takes for the core of the meat to fall apart under your fork. Do not forget to stir the scraped off meat in the side of the pan.

Answer 5

Most people I've met cooking this popular dish used a small pan and quite a lot of oil, then discarded some of the oil after browning. You might want to try it that way.