# How to cook ground meat: patties, bolognese, meatballs

> Let it brown without touching it. Ground meat stirred constantly releases its water and turns grey. One quiet minute in a hot pan, and it takes a brown crust that makes all the flavour.

## The essentials

Ground meat is the fastest to cook and the one everyone eats. It is cooked three ways: as a patty in the pan, crumbled into a sauce, or as meatballs. In all three cases, a very hot pan, and you let it brown before stirring. It is also the most fragile meat: it keeps a day in the fridge and is cooked through for children.

## The one thing to know

Let it brown without touching it. Ground meat stirred constantly releases its water and turns grey. One quiet minute in a hot pan, and it takes a brown crust that makes all the flavour.

## The method

1. The patty: very hot pan, a spoon of oil, the salted patty. Two minutes per side for a pink patty, three to four minutes per side for a well-done one, which no longer lets out pink juice. Pepper at the end.
2. Crumbled, for a bolognese or a chili: high heat, the meat in pieces in the pan, and you wait a minute before breaking it up with the spatula. It releases water, let it evaporate, then it browns. Five to eight minutes in all.
3. Meatballs: 500 g ground meat, a finely chopped onion, an egg, three tablespoons of breadcrumbs, salt, pepper. Mix by hand, without overworking, and shape balls the size of a walnut. Do not roll them too tight.
4. Brown them in the pan, on medium-high heat, five minutes turning them, then fifteen minutes on low heat in the homemade tomato sauce, with a lid.
5. They are cooked when they are firm and the centre is no longer pink: cut one open to check, it is the only sure way.

## The quantities

100 to 125 g of ground meat per adult, 60 to 80 g for a child. 500 g makes a bolognese or meatballs for four.

## How long it takes

A patty, five minutes. A bolognese, ten minutes of cooking the meat and the rest simmers on its own. Meatballs, twenty-five minutes, fifteen of which in the sauce.

## If it goes wrong

The meat is grey and boiled: pan not hot enough or too full, turn the heat up and let the water evaporate, it will brown after. The meatballs fall apart: not enough egg or breadcrumbs, or too much mix at once. Crumble them into the sauce, it makes a bolognese. Overcooked and dry: in the sauce, they recover.

## Make it tonight

The grandma-style bolognese sauce, or beef meatballs in tomato sauce. Both freeze.

## Safety

Ground meat is eaten cooked through, with no pink, for children under five, pregnant women and vulnerable people: that is the official recommendation in France, and the same rule applies in Canada and the United States. Ground by the butcher, cook it the same day or the next; in a tray, the date on the packaging applies. It is not refrozen after thawing.

## The linked base recipe: Beef meatballs in tomato sauce (serves 4)

- 500 g ground beef
- 1 onion
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 600 ml homemade tomato sauce, or 2 cans (400 g) crushed tomatoes
- Salt, pepper

_See first : [How to sear meat in a pan and let it rest](https://disheazy.com/bases/how-to-sear-meat-in-a-pan-and-let-it-rest), [Sweating, sautéing, browning](https://disheazy.com/bases/sweating-sauteing-browning)_

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Source : disheazy, https://disheazy.com/bases/how-to-cook-ground-meat