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[If you have not read this whole week, this series started on Monday! Be sure to read the first three in the series and come back to this one!] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had some interesting comments on yesterday's post, and wanted to be sure to address them where everyone (all ten of you who read...) would see. Anonymous asked, "I have to know, what method will you use to cook 30 pounds of beef at once? " There really isn't a trick... I had two pans going, each one large enough to brown 2 pounds of beef at a time. It took a couple hours. This would have been less if my meat were the normal quality (without a lot of fat), but we bought this from some friends and they had added a lot of fat into it. Normally I can just brown and dump, but I had to brown, strain, and dump. In retrospect I would have also rinsed it, but I didn't. I'll do it in the future if I ever have some that is not so lean. I got 2 quarts of fat out of the 30 pounds! I had heard that you can take your roaster pan (the one you cook your turkey in at Christmas), put your beef in it, and cook it overnight in the oven, then just crumble it in the morning, fully cooked. This sounds good, but I hadn't tried it and didn't want to risk this meat for an experiment. Rebecca said, "I grew up as #3 of 6, but my mother never did bulk cooking. I suppose once I get a few more I will have to do more at a time, but for now 30 lbs sounds pretty insane. Do you cook it all, or is some meatloaf?" Our beef comes from the butcher frozen, so these have to be thawed, cooked, and re-frozen. I had bought a 5 pound roll of raw hamburger on Monday, from which I made two meatloaves and 6 hamburger patties. Yes, I am sure 30 pounds DOES seem a bit insane. But really, it makes sense when you think about it. See - I get annoyed at spending time re-doing things over and over which could be done one time and not have to think about again. My children have chore lists because I just don't want to have to waste brain space remembering what they have to do every day. Cooking is a large example of the same frustration. If I were to cook all 30 pounds individually each time I needed them, I would probably spend 10 minutes browning each one, and 15 minutes pulling out and washing the skillets, cleaning up the stove, etc. That makes almost 13 hours of time taken to brown that meat over the course of 30 individual meals. Yesterday it took me 2 hours to brown the meat (this might have been saved if the oven method worked...), 20 minutes to bag up, and another 30 to wash the dishes and completely disinfect the whole kitchen. So instead of almost 13 hours, I spent almost 4. And we have the same meat. My method was this: I put 4 pounds into pans to brown. When they were done, I drained the fat and put it into my big roaster oven. I put another 4 pounds to brown. Then I cut an onion into the roaster, added a jar of tomatoes (canned this summer from my garden), 1 cup of water (the recipe called for 2, but I don't like it as runny as the recipe called for), 2 T. chili powder, 1 t. cumin, 1 t. oregano, 1 t. of salt, and 1/2 t. garlic. This makes a great all around flavored meat. I simmered this for a couple hours, then turned it off to let it cool some. I took a nap, had a cup of coffee and hung out with my little ones. Late afternoon I put two cups of meat mix into each quart freezer bag. This gives lots of room to freeze it flat so it does not take much room, and it will thaw really quickly when I forget to pull it out ahead of time.  I put the bags in the fridge, so they are nice and cool this morning. I will put them flat into the freezer today. I was afraid to put them warm into the freezer for I did not want other things to thaw, or have the meat take too long to freeze. This meat is so versatile! Add ketchup and mustard and you have Sloppy Joes. Add refried beans, and it's ready for tacos. Throw in some kidney beans and some more chili powder and you have chili. It is also ready to add to the spagetti we froze over the summer from our tomatoes. You can really use it for any casserole you would add a tomato base to. For us that is most of them! We got 22 bags of seasoned meat. I saved 4 pounds unseasoned for Beef Stroganoff (just add cream of mushroom soup and corn! Serve over egg noodles). I also used the extra liquid and a bit of meat for chili tonight... we'll be having company. [Maria and Melissa - you all should be here!] So the meat for 27 meals cost us less than $45. And for the rest of the time of these meals all we have to do is open cans and add to them. It not only saves money, but saves time. If you don't have your own canned tomatoes you would need to add that cost. Yes, a bit of insanity, but it really will bring peace over the next few months. This week I was able to mostly prepare over 40 meals. Today and tomorrow we are going to try to put up a bunch of breakfast things, but with company coming tonight I will not have as much time. After this, if the chemo doesn't happen I will spend one day a week working on putting up something to the freezer so there will be an eternally revolving series of meals. We just regularly go to Save a Lot and buy flats of the things we use a lot: beans, refried beans, etc. That way I always have what I need to throw together a meal. Yes, I know that I can make and freeze these things too. I'll work on that in the weeks to come. ;) And these are all the type of meals that I can add extra cans of stuff to and serve the company which invariably shows up. Or I could have a meal easily ready to send to a new mother. This aids us in our abilities to serve those around us as well as help ourselves have calmer evenings. So that is how to do a "once a month cooking" series without killing yourself. I feel pretty good about what I accomplished! And the best part is, that I can do other things over the next bit instead of thinking about what I am going to cook for dinner.  |
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Posted by Anonymous
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