A few weeks ago I came upon a ground beef bargain. The expiration date was nearing and my supermarket needed to get rid of 10 pounds of ground beef. I decided to try something different, albeit a little weird.
I put the entire 10 pounds of raw ground beef into a big stock pot. I added enough water to cover the meat and set the pot over high heat to let the water come to a boil -- no cover, no salt. After about 5 minutes, I gave it a stir to break up the big clumps, which were few. The hot water was doing all of my work for me -- no splatters, no mess. When all of the pink color disappeared I knew it was done, even though it had not started to boil.
I placed my large colander into a big bowl in the sink and poured the now cooked beef into the colander. I did this in batches because my colander would not hold all of the meat at once. With the colander I was able to drain off all the liquid into a bowl, including the fat, leaving uniformly fine-textured ground beef in the colander. No clumps! I could have done the same thing scooping the meat from the stockpot with a large sieve, transferring the drained beef into a large bowl. (When done draining, I put the beef broth in the refrigerator. Later I skimmed off the fat and will use the broth for soup.)
I measured 2 cups of cooked beef (the equivalent of about 1 pound of raw ground beef) into 1-gallon size, zip-type freezer bags, pressed out the air and zipped. Then I laid each one on the counter to flatten it thin, stacked them like sheets of paper and popped the stack into the freezer.
Because my bags of beef are flat, I can use them frozen. I take one of these flat, frozen packages of ground beef, whack it on the side of the sink to break it into pieces, unzip and pour the contents into a non-stick skillet. It's ready for all uses. Here's the best part: This method removes most of the fat, leaving the ground meat nearly fat-free.
Vacuum pack the ground beef in 1 pound bags. It will stay usable for about 6 months, maybe a little more. If you don't have vacuum sealer, wrap the beef in freezer paper, then in a zip lock freezer bag. Squeeze as much air out as you can, then freeze. You will have to use the ground beef in 3 months or less. Otherwise you will lose the meat to freezer burn.
The best time to buy meat at the supermarket is in the mornings, look for the "quick sell" labels (sometimes orange, sometimes neon green), usually they have to be sold by that day.
The last time I visited my sister she made meatballs by dropping them, after rolling them into balls, into a pot of boiling water. She cooked them only until done (she said they fall apart ortherwise if overcooked...then you make hamburger soup). They came out perfectly round and were very juicy. All the fat had been boiled off and they were really good.
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