Hamburger Casserole Recipes

Ground Beef History

Ground meat has been around since ancient times. While in America, we tend to use the terms hamburger and ground beef interchangeably, ground beef is called mince, mincemeat, beef mince, or minced beef (good to know when you are traveling overseas and you want to know what's in that mince pie). Today, ground beef remains an inexpensive source of versatile protein. The nice thing about hamburger is that it goes with so many other flavors well. Which gives rise to numeroushamburger casserole recipes and you will find close to one hundred of them on this website!

Slimming Down Fat Content

You may be wondering about the different types of beef sold in the supermarket and which is the best for you to buy. Especially in difficult economic times, we often find ourselves trying to balance between healthy and what our budget can afford. In the supermarket you will find super lean, extra lean, lean and regular hamburger. Super lean has the least fat content (usually 7%-10%). Extra lean usually has 15% fat content while lean has 20% fat content. Regular ground beef(which is often 1/2 the price of super lean ground beef has about 30% fat content. But what does that really mean?

If you are browning beef to put into a casserole, you can easily get rid of the extra fat. When you are done completely browning the beef, pour it into a strainer or colander that is positioned over a big bowl. Then, to make sure you have gotten rid of as much grease as you can, pour hot water over the ground beef. Do this a couple of times and you will end up with beef that is low in fat. Also, use a papertowel to wipe any remaining grease out of the pan. You will lose some weight as well (about 2 oz), but is the extra 2 oz of beef you can get with the super lean worth the difference in the doubled cost? Only you can answer that. If you are making something like meatballs, meatloaf, or hamburgers - grilling or using racks under the cooking meat will help to rid yourself of some of the grease. For example, when making a meatloaf, set it on a rack which is then placed into a roasting pan. The grease will drain down below the meatloaf during cooking. Pan-fried burgers or meatballs can be blotted with a depth of three papertowels. And if you want to get even lower fat in items that are hard to blot, rinse, and/or drain (things like stuffed pepper and meatloaf), then use the more expensive ground beef for these recipes.

For more information about the calorie and fat differences in different forms of ground beef, visit these two websites.

Hamburger Casserole Recipes

If you look in the left column, you will see links to a variety of hamburger casserole recipes. Because ground beef is versatile and flavorful, you can mix it with many different ingredients and come up with a tasty and satisfying meal. At a loss of what to create? Check out recipes on this site. Can't find any that you have all the ingredients on hand for? Then improvise! If the recipe calls for tomatoes, use green peppers for flavor. The best rule of thumb if there is a seasoning you like or vegetable you like or a cheese you prefer, you can turn it and hamburger into something tasty!

if things go wrong

No matter how hard you try, things can go wrong. Meat can stick, ingredients can clump, pots and pans cook unevenly. Make your life easier. Use quality tools. Here are some fine cooking utensils from Amazon that have great reviews and come highly rated