Ground beef

What is it?

This might be obvious, but it’s beef trim or tougher, economical cuts that get pushed through a meat grinder, and then can be kept loose (as pictured) or vacuum-packed into tubular or square packaging.

It’s sold by fat percentage (80/20, 85/15, 90/10, 93/7), which means you can get a wide variety of textures out of it.

What’s its flavor?

Taste & aroma: Mild, savory, and beefy (acts more like a flavor sponge than a dominant ingredient)

Texture: Crumbly when browned, juicy when higher-fat, bouncy if made into meatballs or kofte

Human: A foundational protein across cultures—tacos, dumplings, pasta sauces, kebabs, burgers, rice bowls, etc

Why should you buy some?

Because it’s one of the more affordable and widely available proteins in any grocery store, and freezes exceptionally well, we consider it one of our top “always-have-around” ingredients.

Cooks in minutes, making it perfect for weeknights or last-minute meals
Takes on spices, sauces, and aromatics better than almost any whole cut of meat
Easy to stretch with beans, rice, pasta, or vegetables

Freezer Tip: Portion ground beef into thin, flat slabs in a zip-top bag before freezing. It defrosts incredibly fast—and can even be cooked straight from frozen with a hot pan, breaking it up as it sears.

What can you make with it?

Weeknight tacos, burrito bowls, or lettuce wraps
Bolognese-style pasta sauce or quick beef ragù
Smash burgers, meatballs, or kofta-style kebabs
Stir-fried ground beef with soy sauce, garlic, and scallions
Beef fried rice or Korean-inspired beef bowls

Check out all of these & more on our app, or peruse the free online recipes below:

RECIPE RECS ✅

Use ground beef in these recipes

Ground beef cooks fast, absorbs flavor easily, and adapts to almost any cuisine you throw at it. It can sub other ground meats like lamb or pork

We’ve put together a collection of recipes to expand your ground beef horizons, which cover a variety of cuisines, textures, and flavor profiles:

Cook the Collection

READER Q&A 🧠

Correcting saltiness

❝

Question: “How can I fix something that’s too salty?” - Blakely P.

Answer: It depends on the dish, but you have a few options:

1 — Balance it: The first thing to try is to add contrasting flavors. Salt perception can be softened with acidity, sweetness, or fat.

A squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar balances salt with sourness.
A small pinch of sugar can counter sharp salinity.
Adding cream, yogurt, olive oil, or avocado can mellow the intensity.

While you’re not removing salt, you’re rebalancing the five tastes so it doesn’t dominate. This works on lightly over-seasoned dishes, but won’t correct a huge error.

2 — Dilute it: A more drastic fix is to increase the total volume of the dish without adding more salt. This works best for soups, stews, sauces, and grains. Add more unsalted broth, water, vegetables, rice, or beans. The total salt content stays the same, but it’s spread across more food.

If it’s very salty, you could make a second unsalted batch of the same recipe and combine the two (like Ethan showed here with a pico de gallo)

3 — Change the temperature: Cold foods require more seasoning to taste flavorful. If a dish is slightly over-salted, serving it chilled (when appropriate) can reduce perceived saltiness.

This won’t save everything, but it can help with grain salads, soups, vegetables, or proteins that make sense serving chilled instead of hot.

But to avoid over-salting in the first place, season gradually and taste as you go. Be especially careful when reducing sauces, broths, or liquids (salt concentrates) or adding salty finishing ingredients like Parmesan, soy sauce, olives/capers, or cured meats. Those last-minute additions can quickly tip a dish over the edge.