My husband lives for Mexican food. Burritos, tacos, etc, are better if the beef isn't in big chunks. To finely crumble ground beef for tacos or other dishes, I use my food processor. A few spins of pulse makes the ground beef the perfect size. In a pinch, a pastry blender works well also; but won't make it a fine as the food processor.
I, too, have used a pastry blender to break up hamburger chunks, especially with ground turkey meat.
By
06/26/2006
We buy our beef (actually divide one with our son) from a local farmer who is very health conscious. He does not use pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics etc on his animals. We have our ground beef made very lean. I also cook it in water to get that nice fine texture for the Mexican dishes but I continue to let it simmer until all the water evaporates and I get to keep that small amount of fat that gives it that good flavor and the beef actually can brown a little, which we like.
By Rebecca (Guest Post)
06/26/2006
I used to use my processor to crumble the ground beef until I learned this trick from a friend whose parents owned a Mexican restaurant: Another way to make fine ground beef is to fry it in a skillet with water. If you stir it the whole time, it cooks quickly and ends up crumbled. Plus when you drain the water, the fat drains also!