# Rinsing Ground Beef? Dear God, why, Why?!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** food-cooking
**Created:** [December 16, 2020, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164 "2020-12-16T05:11:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/1 "2020-12-16T05:11:21Z")
So, this came across my news feed.
> **[People Are Horrified By This TikTok Of Someone Rinsing Cooked Ground Beef](https://www.delish.com/food-news/a34975858/tiktok-ground-beef-rinsing/)**
>
> I have...no words.
The short version is that the video poster is rinsing cooked ground beef to reduce the fat content according to advice of a nutrition class taken years ago. My first response was horror, the second was “she’s got to be trolling” and the third was “what sort of class teaches this?!?!?!”
And then I found
> **[Rinse Cooked Ground Beef to Reduce Fat — Food Wi$e](https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/food/foodwise/news/reduce-fat-by-rinsing-cooked-ground-beef)**
>
> I use ground beef in lots of my recipes. I have heard that you can reduce fat in cooked ground beef by rinsing it. How do you do that?
Which did discuss just this technique (although it was combined with blotting via paper towels and other steps first.
Now, I understand, there are many people out there with health concerns that need to watch their fat and cholesterol, and some that just demand to have that _One_ food or life isn’t worth living. But come on, if you need your beef lean, it’s not exactly hard to get very _very_ lean ground beef in the store, or for a bit more, ground buffalo.
I don’t hate the poster for doing it, but I bet her sink pipes do.
---
### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/2 "2020-12-16T07:53:54Z")
To get the most fat/oil/grease out, rinse with soapy water or detergent.
---
### Author:  [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/3 "2020-12-16T08:26:12Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#):
>
> I don’t hate the poster for doing it, but I bet her sink pipes do.
The water authorities would have a fit if everyone started doing this. Haven’t they heard of [fatbergs](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/06/fatberg-london-sewer-grease-blockage) 😱? (For this reason, I always put meat fat into my food recycling bin.)
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/4 "2020-12-16T10:43:17Z")
Can’t you just add degreaser to the mix before grilling? 😬
---
### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/5 "2020-12-16T12:51:17Z")
Moving to Cafe society.
---
### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/6 "2020-12-16T12:56:10Z")
I’ve rinsed cooked ground beef before feeding it to one of our dogs when she was recovering from pancreatitis.
---
### Author:  [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/7 "2020-12-16T14:44:55Z")
We have had to do this, in some parts of the world where we lived lean ground beef was not available and what was was high in fat and other unidentifiables. I would imagine here in the US there may be budget reasons to get the cheaper higher fat ground meat rather then the lean stuff.
Typically we would be making a bolognaise sauce so we would fry the meat up, dump into a sieve and drain the fat out then either flush through with some boiling water or dump through some vodka which was plentiful and cheap, hey its what the locals said to do. The fry the onions then add the ground meat back and brown it up a bit then add stock cubes etc
It wasn’t so bad, given all the other stuff that went into the sauce the flushing of the grease didn’t subtract too much flavor.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/8 "2020-12-16T14:48:06Z")
I thought the typical way was as above – brown it or otherwise cook it up, then drain the fat. I imagine that would get a _lot_ more fat out of it than washing it. If you want to be environmental and recycle, save the cooking grease in a jar or can or whatnot, stick it in your fridge, and use it when you need a little bit of fat in a dish.
---
### Author:  [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/9 "2020-12-16T18:57:02Z")
This was a fad back in the day when everyone was obsessed with a “low fat” diet. I remember trying it because, you know, I wanted on that low fat bandwagon to health and longevity too. It was dreadful. Left you with some dry, flavorless, ground beef that wasn’t worth eating. A good example of how if a food isn’t as healthy as you want it to be, just choose something else instead.
---
### Author:  [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/10 "2020-12-16T23:53:12Z")
If you cook on a flat top you can scrape off the grease. If you cook it on a grill the grease drips off. If you make meatballs you don’t eat the grease. Why would you want to season up a bunch of fat at the bottom of the pan?
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/11 "2020-12-17T15:22:21Z")
> [@sitchensis](#):
>
> If you make meatballs you don’t eat the grease
Depends on how you make them. Some people poach their balls in the sauce. Frying them on a pan will brown them, but plenty of fat still inside (as you don’t completely cook them through, but add them to the sauce to finish.) If you bake them in the oven then, yeah, a good bit will render out.
At the end of the day, if you’re that worried about grease, just buy leaner meat to begin with. I’ll stick to the 80-20 chuck or fattier, myself. I do tend to pour off excess fat, though when I’m frying up ground beef for a casserole or whatnot. I’ll leave enough in there to fry up the onions and whatever other veggies I may have going in.
---
### Author:  [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/12 "2020-12-17T16:42:35Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> At the end of the day, if you’re that worried about grease, just buy leaner meat to begin with.
Or buy a meat grinder and make your own - that way you know exactly what’s in it.
---
### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/13 "2020-12-17T17:31:30Z")
_Oh, Dunderback, oh, Dunderback,_
_How could you be so mean_
_To ever have invented_
_The sausage meat machine?_
_Now all the neighbors’ cats and dogs_
_Will never more be seen,_
_Cause they’ve been ground to sausage meat_
_In Dunderback’s machine._
More: [https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=76690,76690](https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=76690,76690)
---
### Author:  [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2020, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/14 "2020-12-18T14:36:27Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> > [@sitchensis](#):
> >
> > If you make meatballs you don’t eat the grease
>
> Depends on how you make them. Some people poach their balls in the sauce. Frying them on a pan will brown them, but plenty of fat still inside (as you don’t completely cook them through, but add them to the sauce to finish.) If you bake them in the oven then, yeah, a good bit will render out.
>
> At the end of the day, if you’re that worried about grease, just buy leaner meat to begin with. I’ll stick to the 80-20 chuck or fattier, myself. I do tend to pour off excess fat, though when I’m frying up ground beef for a casserole or whatnot. I’ll leave enough in there to fry up the onions and whatever other veggies I may have going in.
My Italian grandma & great-grandma (and I’m sure all of the greats prior) always cooked the meatballs in the sauce. Frying or baking them would have been sacrilege to them. The sauce was always a deep orange from the hamburger fat and from the pork ribs they also cooked in the sauce. I don’t think there was a choice of hamburger fat contents back then. But man, that was the best spaghetti sauce ever.
---
### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2020, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/15 "2020-12-20T03:28:45Z")
At one time it was recommended to drain the fat, rinse with water, then add back a quarter cup or so of vegetable oil. The idea was to reduce saturated fat but retain the total amount of fat.
---
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/16 "2020-12-20T03:33:16Z")
I’ve always thought the stuff you drain off of hamburger meat when cooking was water-based, not fat. I’ve never had problems browning anything in fat, but I always have to drain hamburger meat to get it to completely brown (rather than looking a bit gray).
---
### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/17 "2020-12-20T18:12:50Z")
Do NOT use moistened SOS pads.
---
### Author:  [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2020, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/18 "2020-12-27T22:27:06Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#):
>
> Do NOT use moistened SOS pads
There were some other pads one of my old girlfriends used to recommend.
But they were a funny shape and I just had an instict that I didn’t want those near my ground beef.
🤨
–G!
* * *
> Well now, they call me the breeze
> I keep blowin’ down the road
>
> > –Ronnie Van Zant (Lynrd Skynrd)
> > Call Me the Breeze
> > _[written by J.J. Cale]_
> > Second Helping
---
### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2020, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/19 "2020-12-28T01:51:02Z")
No I don’t do this but I wouldn’t be so judgmental about it either. No buying leaner ground beef does not get the fat content of cooked drained ground beef to the low level that that method does. Start out raw 5% fat or 20% fat and that 3 oz of cooked drained (and blotted in the article) crumbled beef will both have about 12 grams of fat which would be reduced to about 6 grams by that method. You drained off the difference which liquified during cooking.
---
### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2020, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164/20 "2020-12-28T02:21:39Z")
I don’t get the strong negative reaction here. I’ve been rinsing cooked ground beef as a matter of course for years. Don’t notice any difference in taste, and it does reduce the fat content, as **DSeid** mentions.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rinsing-ground-beef-dear-god-why-why/928164.md?page=2)