How to Stretch Ground Beef to Cut the High Cost

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ official data says the average price of a pound of lean ground beef climbed to a whopping $5.57 per pound. W seen all kinds of economic turmoil, sending us into inflationary times, when the price of everything is soaring. What’s the solution? Learning how to creatively stretch ground beef to cut the cost!

If you and your family are not ready to turn vegetarian—nor are you prepared to pay a king’s ransom for quality hamburger—you do have another option: Get creative. Okay, maybe a little sneaky, too.

But first, let’s talk turkey, I mean ground beef. The lean option of ground beef, 93/7, is not easy to prepare. That’s because there’s not enough fat in it to turn out juicy, delicious fare. Super lean ground beef requires careful seasoning, fussy cooking, and even adding fat. So save your money and go with a less lean more flavorful option.

Let’s say that you, like I, prefer 80/20 ground beef. Recently, I paid $2.97 per pound for that at my supermarket on sale (reg. $5.49). But I didn’t really pay even that much. 

My effective cost was more like $1.97 per pound. How? Please don’t tell a soul—I stretch it. I take the best quality ground beef and then “extend” it by at least one-third. So whatever the price in the store, I mentally reduce it by 33% to get my effective cost.

How far will fillers stretch?

A pound of ground beef usually comes out to about 2 cups cooked. To stretch ground beef, you can confidently add a cup of filler to one pound, giving you roughly 50% more meat to use. If you typically serve one-quarter of a pound of meat per person for dinner, you can transform a dinner that usually feeds four people into one that feeds six.

Regardless of your choice, the filler is usually much cheaper than the meat itself. You may easily spend less than a dollar per cup for filler and then split up a pound of meat into multiple meals. Doing this can make a significant difference in your grocery budget.

Rule of Thumb

Add one cup of filler per pound of meat. If you’re worried, your family will notice the difference, start with less filler and work your way up in future meals. In recipes that use crumbled meat (e.,g., tacos, spaghetti, lasagna), you can use equal parts of filler and beef and stretch the meat even more. Make sure you add seasonings as if you are working with all meat.

You must be cautious when packing meat into a ball, loaf, or patty because it’s a delicate formula. Eggs bind the meat and filler so the mixture holds its shape and cooks to an ideal texture and moisture. If you use too much filler, meatloaf and meatballs will be mushy, and your burgers may fall apart.

One egg and no more than one cup of filler per pound of meat make for a good balance for most dishes. If it’s too thick, add another egg.

How to stretch ground Beef

By mixing something with the ground beef to make it go farther, I get much better results than the beef alone. Depending on what I’m making, I’m always doctoring, seasoning, and adding this or that.

Take meatloaf for example. I wouldn’t be surprised if the word “meatloaf” makes you respond with a resounding “Yuck!” That’s because a brick of ground beef stuck in the oven with a little salt and pepper will turn out dry as shoe leather, and about as tasty.

But take that same amount of ground beef and mix it with a few well-chosen ingredients, then bake it up or put it on the grill. You are going to be amazed. Even your children will say it’s great, and ask you to do that again. And again.

Just don’t be so anxious to tell your secrets. There’s something about adding stuff to ground beef that grosses people out.

Rice

When browning ground beef for anything like tacos, chili, or sloppy Joes, add one cup of cooked rice for every pound of meat, just after draining the grease from the meat. Your family will never know. The rice (brown or white) takes the seasoning very well so that visually it looks like it is all ground beef.

Potato

Add grated pre-cooked potato or dry potato flakes to hamburger meat for any Mexican dish like tacos or chili.

Bulgar wheat

Cook it first in water until soft according to label instructions. Then add to any recipe calling for ground beef and tomato sauce, reducing the amount of ground beef you use to accommodate the addition of the bulgur wheat. Shhh! I’ve been known to go 50/50 cooked bulgar to ground beef. That means 1/2 pound ground beef where the recipe calls for 1 pound.

Pureed vegetables

Roast them first, then puree in the food processor or blender. Add one cup per pound of ground beef.

Legumes, grains

Add one-half cup of pre-cooked lentils, kasha, quinoa, or beans to the raw ground beef. Now cook it just as if you would if it were all ground beef.

Stale bread, crackers

Tear it up into little bits. Add an egg and spices to make meatballs and burgers.

Turkey

Ground turkey is very lean and often lacking in flavor. And it’s dry. Mix 50/50 with ground beef for fabulous results.

Meatloaf

Here’s my family’s all-time favorite recipe for meatloaf. This is the way your grandma made it, trust me on this. This is the recipe that made the house smell great, that went perfectly with mashed potatoes, and which you knew you could eat every day of your life and never get tired of it.

This recipe will make your family hope and pray there will be leftovers for tomorrow. If you follow this recipe well, the kids will never know you used bread, carrots, and cheese to turn 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef into more like 3 pounds.

 

Revised, Updated 11-1-23

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