Years ago, I made a terrible mistake. I froze 10 pounds of ground beef. That big block of frozen burger languished in the freezer for years. What was I thinking? I should have browned it first and then frozen it in usable portions. But browning beef can be so messy. Lesson learned.
A few weeks ago, I came upon another cheap ground beef opportunity. My supermarket needed to get rid of—you guessed it—ground beef. Ten pounds. The expiration date was within hours. I almost walked by. Then I decided to try something different, albeit a little weird.
I put the entire 10 pounds of raw ground beef into my ginormous stock pot. I added enough water to cover and set it over high heat to come to a boil—no lid, no salt. After about 10 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 come to a rolling boil….