Ground Beef & Hamburger Steaks From the Freezer

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During the month of February the Dishing it Up crew is posting recipes and food preparation tips that are intended to help you go “From the Freezer” to the table with minimal effort. My posts aren’t necessarily about meals that are ready to heat and eat, but instead I prep ALL of my meat before I put it into the freezer. This saves me TONS of time when I’m ready to cook, because my meats are already seasoned. Some of the meats are ready to be cooked and portioned, while others are already cooked.

The best time to fill the freezer like this is when you’re able to stock up with sale prices. I purchased the ground beef for $1.99/lb. Purchasing the family size packs is usually a better price point than the smaller packages. While shopping, I compared the price of the family pack to the smaller pack and it was $0.80/lb cheaper to buy the larger package. Each package was about $5.50 and I prepared both packages of the ground beef according to the steps shown below. This yielded six bags of about 3/4 to 1 lb of ground beef in each bag. The Hamburger Steaks were also around 1/4 lb each and there were six of them. With only having two of us in our household, this gives us about 9 meals for about $1.22 per meal or about $0.61 per serving.

I did not purchase the highest quality ground beef possible. I purchased the 73% fat free ground beef. This may not sound that healthy, but I drain the fat when the cooking is finished, so that it does make it a healthier meat in the end. Some people even rinse their ground beef with hot water after cooking, to help remaining grease. In the past, I used a better grade of ground beef but found that it was dry and my hamburger steaks (see below) never had any taste. I am MUCH happier with the results.

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Ground Beef & Hamburger Steaks From the Freezer

Ingredients

5 lbs. Ground Beef
Mrs. Dash
Seasoned Salt
Garlic Salt or Powder
Onion Soup Mix - could sub beef boullion and dried onion
Worcestershire Sauce

Instructions

Open packages of ground beef and place in a large, deep pot. I suggest a heavy duty bottom that is about 5-6 quart size. GENEROUSLY season with Mrs. Dash, seasoned salt, and garlic salt/powder. This is my "basic" seasoning for most meats taht I cook. Remember, you are cooking a LARGE quantity of beef, don't season it like you would normally season a small amount of ground beef. Use a large spoon or your hands to roughly distribute the seasoning. Place the pot on the stovetop burner over a medium heat.
To make Hamburger Steaks: Remove ⅓ to ½ of the seasoned ground beef to a mixing bowl or use the tray the meat was packageed in. Less clean up. 😉
Add one package of Onion Soup Mix and a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce to the ground beef. Do not add too much Worcestershire, you don't want it to be drippy wet. Set aside to work on while ground beef is cooking.
As the ground beef cooks, liquid will begin collecting at the bottom of the pot. This is both water and fat that is cooking out of the ground beef. Break the beef apart with a sturdy sppon and stir or turn it to keep the raw ground beef at the bottom of the pot.
While the pot of ground beef is cooking, mix the Onion Soup Mix and Worcestershire Sauce into separate bowl of ground beef. Do NOT over handle or the Hamburger Steaks will be tough when cooked.
Check on the ground beef, break apart the clumps to continue cooking throughly. The longer the ground beef cooks, the more liquid will appear in the pot. No need to drain until later.
Loosely shape the Hamburger Steaks. Remember that a LOT of liquids will cook out, resulting in shrinkage. Determining the proper size for your family may take a bit of trial and error over time. This may look like a HUGE Hamburger Steak, but it really isn't. I have quite petite hands! Bag in individual bags.
Seeing no more red or pink in the ground beef, it's finished cooking.
IMMEDIATELY remove from the stovetop and drain in a colander. This keeps the ground beef from sitting in the grease and absorbing any additional fat. I have good plumbing and just let mine drain down the kitchen sink.
When it quit draining (or so I thought) I set the colander back on top of the same pot that I used to cook the ground beef in. Again, I used the spoon to make sure all clumps of ground beef were broken down as completely as possible. This helped drain more fat from cooked ground beef.
Allow ground beef to cool in the colander. Leaving it on top of the pot will slow the cooling process. I usually leave mine setting in the bottom of the sink to allow the heat to escape mroe quickly. A mesh colander also help keep the small pieces of meat from escaping!
Hmmm - - Looks like I forgot to mention that pot on the left didn't I? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I guess you'll have to come back next week to find out! 😉