Most people follow one method for cooking ground beef: put the beef in a frying pan and fry it. Unfortunately, it often comes out looking like gray, rubbery lumps, and browning is even harder because of the water in most ground beef. Fortunately, baking soda can help to cook ground beef faster and have it come out more tender. Baking soda is a household chemical most folks have readily available in the kitchen. All you have to do is place the ground beef into a frying pan, break up the meat with the heat off, and then sprinkle a small amount of baking soda into the mixture. The rule of thumb is about ¼ teaspoon for every 12 ounces of meat. Sprinkle the baking soda as widely as you can to cover the most meat surface as possible. It’s impossible to cover every spot, and that’s okay. Toss, flip and stir the meat around to mix the meat with the baking soda, and then let it sit for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, turn on the flame and cook the beef as usual. Not only does the meat cook quickly, it begins browning within the first couple of minutes. The entire pan should be cooked within 5 minutes, and then you can crisp it for 2 extra minutes. Baking soda does double duty with meat, acting both as a tenderizer and creating an environment for better browning. When meat cooks, the muscle fibers contract and squeeze out liquid as a result. The more you cook it, the more liquid it squeezes out. That’s why overcooked meat tastes dry. Baking soda fixes that by preventing the fibers from squeezing out so much of their juices. Less liquid in the pan means faster browning. It’s good to know that a cheap solution like baking soda can have such an impact on your ground beef.
