Ground Beef Gets Tough Fast With This Common Trap

Whether you're shaping burger patties or forming a meatloaf with the best ground beef blend, you have to mix the meat. It's the best way to get the flavors intertwined, ensuring all the elements and add-ons can be tasted in every bite. But, if you find your meat mixture almost always ends up tough, you're likely making one classic ground beef mistake during preparation: over-mixing the meat.

The more you mix ground beef, the more compressed it gets. Instead of a lighter patty, for example, you end up with a denser, firmer texture that ultimately comes out tough when cooked. Beyond the extra density, overworking the meat activates a protein called myosin. As myosin is worked and cooked, it denatures. Gently working the meat isn't an issue, and the burger remains tender as myosin and other proteins heat. But, if that myosin is overhandled and overactivated before it's cooked, the protein could end up having the opposite effect: a tough meatloaf, meatball, or burger patty.

It's easy to overmix ground beef when you're trying to combine all your ingredients, whether its multiple ground meats for a meatloaf or those breadcrumbs and eggs for meatballs. The best way to make sure the ground beef is gently mixed is to go the old-fashioned route: use your hands. Using machinery, such as a mixer, means you lack precise control, and it can easily overwork the ground beef. Gently fold the meat mixture into itself, which combines the ingredients without too much harshness. If you don't want to get your hands dirty, try using a potato masher.

You certainly need to mix it enough for those breadcrumbs to be adequately distributed, but as soon as you see the mixture is generally the same color and texture throughout, stop the process. If you think it's mixed well enough, it probably is. Finally, if you're adding something like chopped onions to a ground beef mixture, sprinkle them evenly all over the meat rather than dumping them all in one spot. This cuts down on the distribution required and lessens the mixing process.