Hamburger Stroganoff

One of my favorite recipes on that site is our beef stroganoff made with strips of top sirloin that have been fried in butter. In the recipe several commenters offered their takes on the dish, including making it with ground beef instead of top sirloin strips. The main advantage of ground beef is clearly budget, and whether worked properly you can plus have wonderful flavor. First, get ground chuck. Chuck is the shoulder cut of beef, the shoulder muscles being well worked from the grazing action of the steer. More muscle action equals more flavor, and a tougher cut of meat. Chuck is notoriously durable as a steak (ask my father who used to try to cook chuck steaks in his poor bachelor days), but one of the most flavorful parts of the animal. Grinding the meat tenderizes it,

but the flavor is still there. Second, take the moment to properly brown the meat. In other words, don’t stir it! Just let it cook, on relatively high heat, until well browned, before giving it a stir. The browning is what gives you the flavor. Use the cooking of the onions and mushrooms to scrape up any of the browned bits, and deglaze the pan to get the rest. It’s additionally critical to salt while you cook. whether you get to the end of that recipe and it’s dull, it’s considering you haven’t salted it sufficient. Experiment with the spices whether you want. A little ground nutmeg can give it a lift, as well as tarragon.

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