Mince (thick as?)
I used to brown mince in a bit of oil (just a flick mind) and then add all other stuff into the mix til it was all nicely done. The now ex-girlfriend came round and saw me cooking once, and practically asploded when I didn't drain the fatty oils from the mince. Having done so I then saw exactly how much crap I'd been ingesting the previous year when I ate mince about three times a week :|

I barely eat mince now, but when I do I make sure I drain it!
(zenmeban thinks the weather could be better, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 19:36, 24 replies)

when you do
if you drain it in the sink, make sure the hot tap is running and pour down some washing up liquid. this will stop the fat from blocking your sink.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 20:30, closed)

Then it will just solidify further down in the sewer when it cools
like this

Instead, try tipping it into an old mug or something to set, then scooping it out with kitchen roll and chucking it in the bin. The reservoir near me (good for walking around on a Sunday) has a whole visitor centre devoted to imparting this information.
(WillI'mNot logs in twice a year, every year, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 0:32, closed)

I agree
usually when you're cooking you have a used, empty "unrecycleable" container to pour fats into.
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 10:31, closed)

and then let it set
and then eat it on bread.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 11:19, closed)

Cook it off?
I've used cheap mince too but I found I could cook the fat off.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 21:27, closed)

You mean you don't...
... soak up the fat with a big thick slice of bread and eat it while you cook the rest of the meal?
(gordonjcp, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 21:55, closed)

This is why
I only buy the extra lean steak mince.

I can't bear the thought of good fat going to waste.
( Claws of Doom I am no longer infected, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 22:00, closed)

The fat can make lovely candles
Perfect for when you bring an especially large woman home and want to get her in the mood.
(The Archduke of South London I'm in your Girlfriend eating her organs, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 23:47, closed)

And then you can render her down, and make even more and larger candles.

Allegedly.
(IHaveComeAmongThee__Twice Tissues on the left. Self-esteem on the right., Wed 21 Jul 2010, 6:00, closed)

But the fat
is so tasty!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 8:20, closed)

this^^^
Browning mince is barbaric. Cook it in the sauce you've made. Fry onions, garlic, herbs. Add some tomatoes and warm til gently bubbling then drop your meat in and let all the yummy flavours have a big ol' disco in your pot til they become a festival of deliciousness.

rafter
baz
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 9:22, closed)

NOT browning mince is barbaric
Instead of developing a wonderful depth and complexity of savoury, meaty flavours through the Maillard reaction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction), you are essentially boiling plain mince in tomato sauce.

Mmm, boiled mince (blech).
(no way hose is staring unemployment in the face on, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 10:27, closed)

you've stumped me on the science bit
so all I can offer is my experience. I find if you gently heat the meat in the sauce (I never boil), you create a lovely complex blend of flavours. Same with chilli con carne and I'm having a crack at a Moussaka later today as it happens to which I very much look forward.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 11:32, closed)

Watching my Spanish hosts cook in Málaga almost gave me a coronary.
1) Take a sizeable length of chorizo, probably the fattiest sausage in existence and certainly one of the few to weep buckets of fluorescent orange grease when cooked;
2) Pour about a pint of oil into the frying pan and heat;
3) Bung the chorizo slices into the pan and fry until they are swimming in a vat of vegetable oil and molten lard;
4) Vaguely fish them out of the pan and whack them straight onto the plate;
5) Enjoy, with bread, beer and a heart bypass.

It still irks me when I go to other people's houses and see them cooking meat without draining it. Then again I tend to be a bit fanatical about it myself, typically putting mince on two layers of paper towel, with one layer on top, and changing the top layer at least twice. The result is lean as you like but it tends to resemble rabbit food.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 9:58, closed)

Mince is meat in it's worst form

(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 11:00, closed)

Did you never
stay dinners at school?

Or buy a kebab
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 11:18, closed)

No, Asda value chicken is.
The gristle...oh dear god the gristle...and the tubes...I don't want to live any more! *sobs, weeps*
(Falstaff's Spiritual Successor, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 12:25, closed)

OR Use TVP- all of the taste (insofar as mince 'tastes' of anything),
none of the heart-clogging fat. Or expenses. Or cruelty even.
*hides under desk to await broadside from b3tard carnivores*
( Tab Hunter Make this useless process end and so, begin again, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 15:05, closed)

Fool!....
....All animal products once semi-cooked are immediately rendered nourishing and tasty! Slices of sentient being, no matter the pedigree of animal, format of delivery, cooking methodology or presentational form, are the highest form of consumable!

Mince rules! By the simple process of mincing you can take nostril and foreskin and bits of hoof and, with just the addition of some tomatoes, create a dish worthy of an entire country! The many and varied outputs of the sausage industry would be as nothing without it's ground animal base! Dishes ranging in provenance from mince and potatoes right up to steak tartar all pay fealty to the big man and his meat smasher!

Honestly, this place is a fucking pit of homo carrot munchers!
(NoveltyCondomHead Clanks Wams., Wed 21 Jul 2010, 17:04, closed)

Ha ha- smashing!
If you don't mind me quoting, I'm sorely tempted to get a t-shirt with "Homo Carrot Muncher"!

(or indeed "Mince rules!")
( Tab Hunter Make this useless process end and so, begin again, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 19:04, closed)

You do well to hide...
And does "TVP" stand for "Typical Vegetarian Pulp"?

Honestly, I've got nothing against people who eat vegetables and eschew meat. It's all the textured vegetable protein, veggie sausage, nut cutlet, bacon substitute-eating pretend veggies that annoy me.

If you like meat so much, eat meat and stop being so squeamish, FFS.

And if you're going veggie, eat vegetables (they're lovely) and stop trying to turn them into things that resemble meat in all but flavour.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 17:08, closed)

I really hope this is arch-irony, in which case I salute you.
If not-
The main reasons for eating fake-meat nonsense is that it's cheap, healthy & easy to prepare veggie equivalents of meaty-favourites WITHOUT ANY ANIMALS SUFFERING.
And that's as close to a preachy veggie I ever want to get. Plus b3ta attracts a far more intelligent selection of society (with occasional exceptions) who don't need pointing out the obvious.
( Tab Hunter Make this useless process end and so, begin again, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 19:02, closed)

TVP is _not_ cheap!
When I was a student I wanted to eat TVP because it would mean I could cook it badly and still not have the problems associated with badly-cooked meat. However, I soon discovered that TVP cost about 5 times as much as meat.
If/when TVP is actually priced as it ought to be, being a product of a bacterium acting on industrial waste, I'll probably buy it. Until that day I'll stick to the flesh of dead animals.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 21 Jul 2010, 20:13, closed)

If you're really a vegetarian...
...why would you WANT "veggie equivalents of meaty favourites"? There are far more types of vegetable than there are common types of meat, after all. And, generally, they're better for you than any dead animal equivalent.

It strikes me that this particular subtype of vegetarian might either have limited imagination, or still be hankering after meat, or both. If meat is murder, "veggie equivalents of meaty-favourites" are surely the favourites of abstaining murderers, rather than reformed characters?
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Thu 22 Jul 2010, 10:34, closed)