Do you get confused at the meat counter? There are so many ground beef options, it’s hard to choose. Let me help you buy the right ground beef for your recipe. This Ground Beef Buyer’s Guide has all the information you need!
Ground Beef Buyer’s Guide
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We go through a lot of ground beef in our house. It’s just so easy to grab at the grocery store, and there are so many things you can do with it! It’s also one of the proteins I can be sure that my son will eat (almost) every time I cook it.
There he is… he just discovered what photobombing is. Life will never be the same again!
Yep, he definitely cracked himself up.
Because so many of us cook with ground beef so often, I get a lot of questions. Some of them I’ve already answered (see the “3 Ways to Chase Fear Out Of Your Kitchen” section below). This post digs into some of the common questions you ask a little more, like
- How much should I spend on ground beef?
- What do the labels on ground beef mean?
- Which ground beef should I buy for this recipe?
This post will help you answer some of those questions. And at the end, be sure to grab your free printable, so you can keep it handy in your kitchen all the time!
What is Ground Beef?
Ground beef, by definition, comes from cattle. It is chopped beef either from a primal cut (more on that later) or from trimmings. (Trimmings is not as scary as it sounds. When a butcher cuts a boneless ribeye steak, there is some meat left on the bone. This meat is “trimmed” off and is turned into ground beef. That’s all trimmings are!)
Ground beef cannot contain any water, phosphates, binders, or other meat and still be labeled “ground beef.”
How Much Does Ground Beef Cost?
The cost of ground beef really depends on how much fat is in the ground beef, and where the meat is from. Beef prices can also change with market changes (a change in supply/demand). In late August 2018, here are the prices I found in my local grocery store.
What Do the Name Labels on Ground Beef Mean?
In addition to a %lean/%fat label, some ground beef also has another word like chuck, sirloin, or round. If your ground beef does not have this kind of label, the meat could have come from anywhere on the cow. If one of these labels is included, all the meat in that package must have come from that primal cut, or that location on the cow.
In general – sirloin tends to be the leanest, then round, then chuck. But not always. And that’s where the %lean/%fat labels come in handy.
What Do the %lean/%fat Labels on Ground Beef Mean?
The percentage labels on ground beef simply tell you what percent of the meat is lean protein (the first number) and what percent is fat (the second number). So ground beef that is labeled 80/20 will be 80% lean and 20% fat. Ground beef that is labeled 96/4 will be 96% lean and 4% fat.
But what does that number really mean?
It’s sort of like milk. We’re used to seeing fat content in grams, not percents. So here’s how that works.
- 80/20 ground beef is 80% lean and 20% fat
- A serving of ground beef is 4 ounces, uncooked
- 4 ounces = 113 grams
- 20% of 113 grams is 22.6 grams
- So a 4-ounce serving of uncooked 80/20 ground beef has 22.6 grams of fat
- A 4-ounce serving of uncooked 96/4 ground beef has 4.5 grams of fat
What Does All Natural Mean?
This label pops up on ground beef all the time. The only thing “all natural” means is that it has been minimally processed and has no artificial ingredients. And since all ground beef is, is chopped beef, this “all natural” label is really pretty meaningless.
When Should I Use Which Ground Beef?
If you’re trying to watch your fat intake, obviously you’ll want to stick with the leaner ground beef. But, depending on what you’re cooking, leaner is not always better.
Ground beef with a higher fat content will stick together better, and will not dry out as quickly. For things like meatloaf and hamburgers, you want ground beef with a slightly higher fat content. Try 80/20 or even 73/27 ground beef for these types of recipes.
Homemade meatballs still need to stick together well, but don’t need to cook as long as a meatloaf. You can use 80/20 ground beef, or try ground beef with a little less fat. Don’t go much higher than 90/10, or the meatballs will fall apart while they are cooking.
For casseroles or slow cooker dishes that you aren’t going to drain, you want ground beef with a lower fat content. I like 90/10, 93/7, or even 96/4 ground beef if I know I won’t be draining the fat off the ground beef sometime during cooking.
If you want the ground beef to be broken up in very fine crumbles (like for tacos or enchiladas), go with a lean ground beef. I like 90/10 or 93/7 for these types of dishes. The leaner the beef, the finer it will crumble as it cooks.
If you want your ground beef to stay in larger crumbles (like in a soup), you’ll want ground beef with a little higher fat content. Look for 80/20 or 85/15 ground beef for larger “chunks” of ground beef in your recipes.
What Color Should Ground Beef Be?
Ground beef should be red or pink. In general, the leaner the meat the redder it will be.
Once you get your ground beef home to cook, you might notice that it looks browner on the inside, instead of the nice red color on the outside. Leave it sitting on the counter for a few minutes with the inner brown part exposed to the air. It should get more red in just a few minutes. That’s completely normal, and happens because the inside of the ground beef in those vacuum-sealed packages runs out of oxygen. When it’s exposed to oxygen again, it turns red again. You can dig more into why that happens here.
Free Printable Ground Beef Buyer’s Guide
Now that you know all there is to know about buying ground beef, grab this free printable. Keep it handy so you always know which type of ground beef to grab at the grocery store.
Enjoy!
Essential Tools for Ground Beef
3 Ways to Take the Fear Out of Your Kitchen
3 Recipes to Try
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I just buy a cow and ask the butcher to grind some, lol! But it makes much more sense to know where it came from so I can use it better in different dishes. As always, you have such great info.! Thanks for sharing with us on the Homestead Blog Hop. We’re featuring this article this Wednesday 🙂
Hi Mary-Beth,
Very informative article. So I don’t have to worry about all this and I really like to know the source of all the foods since I have many food allergies and sensitivities I eat I buy as much local as possible. Every year we buy a quarter of grass-fed organic beef every year and I know what I getting. Sharing on twitter. Congratulations on being featured on Homestead Blog Hop. Have a healthy, happy & blessed day!
Thanks so much for stopping by, Marla! I love that you can buy the kind of beef that you like local to you.
When you have the option to buy a cow (or a part of a cow), that’s great! We do that too. But when I run out of ground beef before we’re ready to buy again, I hit the grocery store.
Where is the printable buyers guide?
Click on the last image in the post (the one with the wood background). That should open a pdf in a new tab that you can save or print.