For The Best Ground Beef, Stop Making This Mistake While It's Cooking

Ground beef doesn't look like any other type of beef you'll find at the butcher. It's pulverized in the grinder before it lands in your pan, and it can be transformed into several kinds of dishes, from burgers to tacos to casseroles. To help you prepare the tastiest ground beef, we spoke with Jennifer Borchardt, culinary director at Pre Brands. She noted that a common mistake when cooking ground beef is stirring it too much, saying, "Every time you stir, you're cooling the meat down and preventing it from browning."

On its face, Borchardt's advice seems almost counterintuitive. Many of us like to stir constantly to prevent the meat from burning, but experts disagree. Too much stirring slows the browning process, making it more difficult for the meat to develop that deep brown, crispy quality we love in our ground beef. Instead, you'll get ground beef that's more of a vague gray-brown because it's been somewhat steamed instead of sauteed – and it can turn out tough, with less flavor than you'd like.

For the absolute best ground beef you've ever sauteed, you need to give the Maillard reaction time to work. That means letting the ground beef sit in the pan undisturbed so the heat can work its magic on the sugars and proteins in the beef. Jennifer Borchardt explained, "You should only stir ground beef occasionally. Breaking it up and then letting it sit undisturbed for a few minutes will create a perfect mix of more and less-crispy bits."

Borchardt and other experts suggest you don't stir ground beef at all, rather, you should be flipping it. Start with a pan big enough to accommodate all the meat (go for a 12-inch if you're cooking up a pound of ground beef) and add a little olive oil to keep it from sticking. Break the beef up into the pan initially so it is spread out evenly, but then leave it alone for around 5 minutes before you flip it. You'll end up with the perfect base for any savory, old-school ground beef dishes if you avoid stirring it too much in the pan. And for even tastier results, you can request coarse ground beef from the butcher to make hearty and beautifully textured burgers, Bolognese sauces, and meatballs.