Back before ground beef doubled in price I would make a huge batch of chili for canning. I did the math in January of last year and it worked out to a 28% savings over buying it but the downside was that it cost $50 to make the batch.
Of course the upsides were knowing every ingredient and here I am two weeks short of a year later eating chili that now costs way more to make because of beef cost increases.
This time I added a can of black beans during the reheat because I didn’t feel like making corn bread.
Cost per person: $3.06
I didn’t say “disintegrate.” It’s that the ground turkey just barely registers as an ingredient of the dish.
But, hmm… browning.
I’m not sure I’ve ever tried that, and yet I seem to remember OP talking about that as something that can really boost meat’s flavor, I think?
Brownong meat is an essential step to just about any dish. The maillard reaction does an amazing amount of work.
I thought the maillard reaction was based on temperature and time, not on specific cooking methods.
Applying the combination of temperature and time is method. High temperature over a short period of time results in the creation of “umami” compounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
Okay, so to be clear-- browning via searing is just one of many, many ways to achieve the result. For example, simply by sprinkling ground turkey in to the chili dish, then cooking around 300°F for an adequate time will produce the maillard reaction in the turkey (plus whatever other ingredients), right?
No, because the meat won’t actually reach that temperature. Anything simmering on a stove will reach a maximum temperature of 212°F.
You could spread the meat on a sheet pan and broil it, form it (perhaps with a binder) around skewers and char it on a grill, or set it on a fireproof surface and take a blowtorch to it, though. But browning in a pan, turning, and chunking can yield a more even browning with an end result of chunks of meat at the desired granularity - plus you can do the onions at the same time.
Ohhhhh…
Well, I’ll be danged. Thanks for the tips and information!
Are you a chef, perchance?
People keep asking me that. Nope, just an engineer who really likes food. By learning first principles, I can understand what causes certain results to come from various ingredients and the methods that are applied there to.
If you want to start going down the rabbit hole, Alton Brown had made a lot of this very accessible, especially in his show Good Eats; if you prefer textbooks, Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking is a definitive work.
Well, cooking being both a science and a practical matter, it makes much sense to me that being a curious engineer can get you very far as a cook. And I don’t think it’s a major leap in the slightest to observe that even people who frequently cook can have a very limited understanding of the science of cooking… including the likes of me.
Hehe, I do happen to like Alton Brown, but usually just enjoy his occasional stuff I bump in to on YT. Right, then-- I’ve pulled up a bunch of his videos on cooking science and stashed them at the top of my “TV” folder. Bingo.
Hope to run in to you another time, perhaps here or otherwise. I really appreciate how you stayed with the discussion until I properly realised my error. Thank you for that! <3
100%. Its also good for, as an example, cooking whole sausages in soups. The chemical reaction(s) of browning both alters/enhances a meats flavors as well as keeps them generally juicer throughout extended cooking methods by basically making a crust that makes it a bit easier to retain internal moisture.
And I hear you on ground turkey. Very easy for it to fade into whatever else you’re throwing it in. Browning could help this for sure, but I haven’t worked much with this ingredient, so I cant rightly state what to expect. Id be very surprised if it wasnt worth a try though!
Okay, thanks, I’ll deffo give browning a try then with some turkey.
Actually… browned, shredded turkey sounds really interesting in chili, altho I’ve never heard of that before.