Let’s say I buy a lb of ground beef at the store which is advertised as 85% lean, 15% fat.
Then I buy another package advertising 93% lean, 7% fat.
When cooking each beef in a skillet, more fat/grease is obviously present in the 85% lean meat.
However, after cooking both thoroughly, I drain off the excess fat from each. Does this mean the two meats are nutritionally equivalent and that the differences in lean % are actually negligible?
In: Biology
No, there will still be more fat in the 85% meat, because not all of it cooks off. There is still some fat that is retained in the meat, the same way a steak still has chunks of fat on the edge of it even though you’re dripping grease from the cooking fat.
If you cook both of them to high heaven (well done and then some) they will have similar low fat content. But they will also be super dry and gross.
At normal cooking levels, the meat retains a lot of the fat that it contains. So the 85% will be fattier (and juicier) than the 93%.
According to this response to a similar question by [J Kenji Lopez Alt](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/s/haZ3x7fqvq), they will be very similar nutritionally. His full response is worth reading because it goes more in depth about the culinary differences and when you would choose each type of ground beef.
In theory, if you slowly brown the meat, yes. You’ll slowly render down most of the fat and will end up with the same end-product with one having simply drained out more beef.
However, most recipes using 80/20 meat are for a very specific purpose. You start the beef on the skillet at a really high temperature and are searing fat into the protein, which gives that satisfying Unami of a really well-cooked burger patty.
I like the 85/15 for grilling burgers and the 93/7 for things like spaghetti sauce and meatloaf.
Don’t forget if a 1lb tube of ground beef is 93% lean, that means after the 7% fat is cooked off you’re left with 93% of a lb as opposed to 80% lean only leaving 80% of a lb.
Leaner means you also end up either more after cooking if you’re going by the lb tubes as a referance
I like to use leaner meat for things like chili, spaghetti, etc.
I like the fatter meats for burgers.
Not much of an explanation, just years of experience cooking the stuff.
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