Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

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Rowls
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Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by Rowls » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:08 pm

I've been making meatballs because it's a lovely and cheap meal that freezes well for me.

Lidl sell a few different kinds of minced beef but there are two I wanted to compare. There's the cheapest possible which has 20% fat and then there's the 'premium' one that has only 10% fat. They call the premium one "Steak Mince" but please don't imagine that somebody is mincing up good quality steaks because they're not.

You don't really want to get minced beef with a fat percentage lower than 10% because the fat is within the meat. You could ask a butcher to mince up a really low fat piece of meat like fillet but all you'd be doing is wasting an expensive cut of meat in order to make cheap meat (minced meat).

Anyway, the counter prices of the meat are below:

10% Fat "Steak Mince" = £3.69 for 750g
20% Fat "Beef Mince" = £1.89 for 500g

Why does one come in 750g and the other in 500g? The cynic in me thinks it's to stop you making easy price comparisons. To give them credit, Lidl actually print the price per kil though so we can make a fair comparison straight from their shops/website:

10% Fat "Steak Mince" = £4.92 per kilogram
20% Fat "Beef Mince" = £3.78 per kilogram

However I wondered what those prices per kilogram would work out ifwe measured it only for the meat. So I did the maths...

10% Fat "Steak Mince" = £5.46 per kilogram, once the fat is discounted
20% Fat "Beef Mince" = £4.73 per kilogram, once the fat is discounted

Still great value, whichever you decide.

However, if you're making meatballs you need to gently fry them in a pan before you cover them in sauce. This is ideal for rendering all of the fat out of the meatballs. It's a double-win because you end up with lovely lean juicy meatballs. You can drain off the fat into an old jar and you've got a "free" jar of wonderfully tasty beef dripping.

I like to mix pork and beef for meatballs for a fuller flavour. Recipe below:

1 kg "Beef Mince" = £3.78
500g Minced Pork = £1.99
~250g finely chopped onions = ~£0.13pence
2 eggs = ~£0.40pence

I then add in the following herbs spices

1 level tablespoon salt
1 level tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme

It's difficult to put a price on these. I bulk buy my spices because I do a lot of cooking so the above probably costs me a less than 20 pence but it will obviously have cost me a fair bit more to buy them in the first place. I'll put the cost down as 50 pence to be fair on that.

To make the mixture go further, I keep the ends of my loaves of bread tied inside the bag in the freezer. Take the ends out, put them into a food mixer and you've got what are essentially "free" bread crumbs.

I add 4 crust ends saved from loaves of bread into the meatball mix. If you normally throw away the ends of the brread then you're basically getting this for free. If you calculate the cost of a single slice of bread from a basic white loaf it works out at 1.5 pence per slice so I'll add 6 pence to the cost of this recipe.

You can make them without breadcrumbs but it really helps the mixture go further and makes them softer once cooked so you can cut them with a spoon. If you make them without breadcrumbs they can be a bit chewy.

This mixture should make you IRO 80 ping-pong ball sized meatballs. I normally eat 7-8 in a serving but let's go with 10 as an adult serving and 6-7 as a child serving.

The total cost of your meatballs ingredients are £6.86.
This works out at 86 pence for a very generous adult portion of 10 meatballs.
For a smaller portion of 7 - 8 meatballs it works out at 64 pence for a portion.
For a kids portion of 6 - 7 meatballs it works out at 56 pence for a portion.

Obviously you'll need to add the cost cooking fuel, a sauce and some pasta to go on top of that but you should be able to do this easily for less than £1.20 per portion.

I drained off ~150 grams of "free" beef dripping by cooking them over a slow heat in a pan. This would cost you ~£0.35 in the shops but I haven't taken this into account in my pricing. The dripping you'll get from these meatballs also tastes infinitely superior to the nasty bleached shop stuff and is so nice you can have it on toast but it can also be used as cooking fat for anything from baking to frying. However, if I deduct the amount of fat I've rendered out of the meat it means that ... wait for it ... the finished meatballs have the same or similar fat percentage to the more expensive "lower fat" minced meat.

It's a bit of a faff to make up a big batch but given the rising cost of living I think it's worth it. It took me about an hour and a half to make a batch of over 80 last night. If you cover them and cool them quickly they can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer. I put them into plastic tubs (like you get from Chinese takeaways) and separate layers of them with baking paper. This helps preventy them freezing together so you can pick them out, put the lid back on and keep them in the freezer.

I've kept them for 2-3 months in the past without any issues.

Enjoy!

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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by Guller Bull » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:23 pm

That's aw proppa mince wee man! Haud yer wheesht!

Rowls
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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by Rowls » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:25 pm

Guller Bull wrote:
Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:23 pm
That's aw proppa mince wee man! Haud yer wheesht!
Yes.

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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by Firthy » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:27 pm

Have you ever thought of entering Masterchef :shock: :lol:
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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by claretonthecoast1882 » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:29 pm

Have you ever thought of buying your meat from a butcher
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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by grapidianclaret » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:31 pm

Do you roast your meatballs in the oven after browning them?
If so stick with the 20 percent fat,more of the fat will render out in the oven.
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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by Rowls » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:34 pm

claretonthecoast1882 wrote:
Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:29 pm
Have you ever thought of buying your meat from a butcher
https://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboa ... ?p=1882514

Sadly, the nearest good butcher to my house is 2 bus rides or a 45 minutes walk away. There are closer ones within 20 minutes but the LIdl is literally over the road from me.

It makes sense to get some of my meat from Lidl.

I always buy as much from the butcher as possible and often walk to the good butcher to stock up my freezer.

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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by tarkys_ears » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:35 pm

"To make the mixture go further, I keep the ends of my loaves of bread tied inside the bag in the freezer. Take the ends out, put them into a food mixer and you've got what are essentially "free" bread crumbs."
I just shred most leftover bread into crumbs and put it in the freezer... its always on hand that way
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Rowls
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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by Rowls » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:36 pm

grapidianclaret wrote:
Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:31 pm
Do you roast your meatballs in the oven after browning them?
If so stick with the 20 percent fat,more of the fat will render out in the oven.
I would do because they keep their shape better too.

I ought to have explained this in the recipe. However, my oven isn't working properly right now and if you cook them on the hob with a lid over the pan it gets the job done and you'll save a bit of fuel.

But yes, I would prefer to do them in the oven ideally which, as you say, renders the fat out very nicely :)

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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by tarkys_ears » Tue Sep 06, 2022 2:47 pm

Also yes, I follow the recipe pretty much like yours but with parmesan in.

I use an ice cream scoop to size mine. Put em all on a plate and then freeze in sealable freezer bags - do it for a few hours until the outsides start freezing then move em around a bit to stop them from sticking together. When they're completely frozen you can drop em on the floor a few times to loosen them.

I like to cook them by steaming from frozen in the sauce for about 15-20 mins. (Lid on, sauce half way up the meatball, stir half way through). If you thaw them out, they can be steam/boiled in the sauce for about 5 minutes.

As for anyone out there buying tomato sauce - don't. All you need is a stick blender, a tin of tomatoes, some puree if you wanna make it go further and a few herbs (oregano, basil, salt, pepper etc) maybe a spoon of sugar to make the puree less tarte. It doesn't really need cooking for more than a few minutes - really it just needs warming up. I blend my tomatoes, chuck it the same pan I've been cooking my pasta in (to save on washing up) and then throw the pasta back in to coat. Always put your pasta in the sauce, not on top.

*On a side note, I wouldn't calculate the cost of the bread into the meal as my bread used is always leftover/out of date stuff that would be thrown out or going to the ducks, but that's just me.
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Re: Low Fat Meatballs and "Should I Buy Expensive Minced Meat?"

Post by gawthorpe_view » Tue Sep 06, 2022 3:29 pm

Recipe,

One Haffner's Pork Pie.

One Haffner's Beef (meat) Pie.

Some gravy.

Some bread to dip in.

Fat content not known at present.
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