Lately I've been trying a bunch of recipes that call for ground beef, so I've been buying it a lot more than I usually do. I had been getting the beef that comes plastic-wrapped in styrofoam packages because that's what we'd always get when I was a kid, but I've seen that the ground beef that comes in plastic tubes ('chubs') is more than a dollar less per pound. It hadn't occurred to me to buy it because it's not what I'm used to, but I try to be open to new experiences. It seems like a lot of 'foodies' won't touch the chubs with a ten-foot pole, seeing them as poor-man's food and unnatural and "you don't even see what you're buying". Some prefer to tell a beleaguered store employee to personally grid up some chunk of beef that he just packaged in styrofoam. Or they have an expensive food processor (and all the free time in the world to properly clean it) and they grind it themselves. I'm not into all that; ready-ground beef is good enough for me. And from what I can tell, most grocery stores buy ground beef in giant 'chubs' and have someone re-grind it and package it with styrofoam (so they can say it's fresh-ground). So it wouldn't be all that different from the smaller chubs, except for having more exposure to contaminants. So maybe chub meat is actually better? Am I paying more for a lower-quality product, just out of habit? What's y'all's experience with ground meat that comes in chub vs styrofoam form?
Never noticed any difference at all. Generally it all boils down to the fat level (70 percent beef, 95 percent, etc) as far as price is concerned. Taste I just can't say. I buy most ground beef in three pound chubs and divide it up for individual meals because the styrofoam deals are a little more than a pound, and I might want less than a pound. Regardless, the Walmart ground beef chubs with Spanish instead of English can be a weird off-putting grey paste-like quality of beef - or I hope it's beef anyway. Haven't been as many chupacabra sightings lately now that I think about it.
My assumption is that the meat on the tray is ground more recently, but I have no certain knowledge about this. I can say without a doubt that the best tasting ground meat comes from a butcher who grinds it as I watch. I know part of this is because he starts with good quality, but I suspect freshness also matters.
To me the "tube" hamburger doesn't taste as good as the styrofoam tray ground hamburger. I only buy it when I'm expecting to feed a lot of people (and rarely enough, even then). As oldfella said, the tube ground beef always has a "paste" texture to me.
The stuff I get from the butcher is always the best, and the best part is that it doesn't start turning brown after a couple of days of remaining thawed in the fridge like the supermarket stuff will.
I usually don't even put meat in the fridge; I cook it right when I get home. And don't they treat meat with a spray or something to keep it pink?
I'm biased, most of the beef I consume comes from frozen butcher beef that I've had processed. I'm sure the tube beef is no different than the beef that you get at most fast food chains, just make sure you cook it fully, the environment for disease is much greater in ground beef due to the exposed surface area. I don't mind a pink burger, but that only goes for beef in which I know the pedigree.
This. I don't trust chub beef. Look at what keeps getting on the recall list. I go with fresh ground.
The most serious warning the man that taught me how to butcher ever gave me was to never buy that stuff or regular ground beef. It's really inferior stuff and it's so heavily processed and screwed around with that they have to add dyes to it to make it red. Avoid it like the plague. And you're mostly correct. Most stores do get their 80/20 ground beef in giant chubs and they regrind it (after adding dyes). That's why you should only buy Ground Chuck, Ground Round, or Ground Sirloin. My experience has been that most stores still butcher and grind that locally.
i buy the tubes. i would assume that the stuff in trays is somehow better since it's more expensive, but i'm on a pretty tight budget. haven't died yet, tho!
Pink slime is a high percentage in the chub varities iIrc which is part of the reason for it's lower price. I've had it, or rather had to for money reasons but tend to avoid it like the clap. Comparatively speaking it's the bologna of ground beef and some of it is worse than the cheapest store brand bologna. I'd rather eat peanut butter than that stuff. If I'm buying it's ground chuck on styrofoam usually from Kroger. Kroger has a very high meat standard. HEB is another store with a high standard. Food Lion is right out. Only chub stuff I buy is sausage and that's usually Jimmy Dean.
No, not all chub. I meant specifically the cheapest Walmart brands targeted for Mexicans (around here anyway) hence the Spanish.
