When cooking on a budget, and if you have a bunch of meat eaters to feed, mince is unparalleled.
Mince, minced meat or ground meat as it’s known in America (the menu question about what type of turkey bird is GROUND turkey had me rolling on the floor) has uses far beyond a student’s Bolognese. Admittedly, the best mince is if you grind it yourself from chunks of meat and fat, in right proportions with no gristle or nasty bits.
But if you’re on a budget, diced meat, be it beef, pork or turkey, will cost you almost twice as much as ready-minced. I know – it makes you think about what goes in the grinder, but we’re not planning on making steak tartare when cutting costs. If you can afford it, buy organic. Otherwise, you have to like what you get.
Mince is versatile and goes beyond not only spag bol but meatballs too – though good, tasty meatballs are a first rate meal in my view. Make them with just pork, served with tomato bulgur, with a mix of pork and beef like the meatball casserole, or just beef: see Korean baked meatballs. You can bulk out the meat content with ricotta/cream cheese or with cabbage and make supremely tasty Swedish kalpudding meatloaf.
Burgers of course are a separate category, be it beef or chicken, and they do require better quality mince. But Middle Eastern kibbeh, a mix of minced beef and bulgur wheat, not so much – and how tasty it is! Likewise Greek moussaka or koftas, made with lamb mince – delicious! And cheap. And don’t forget that you can stuff various vegetables with a mince meat mix, like courgettes or peppers.
And then we have chillies which, with added beans (we’re not in Texas, Toto), will have extra high protein content. Classic chilli con carne is made from beef but pork mince is totally usable too, and delicious.
And finally, just in case you thought mince didn’t do salads, here’s crispy mince and beans. And for a posh dish made with mince, there’s veal Pojarski. Happy mincing!