Mince quantity question (stretching and portion sizes)?

skyepark

oats eh? thats good one ill try that next time doe sit work for mince burgers too#/?

tr3mor

I get about 5-6 portions from a pound of mince, but I always add peppers, onions, mushrooms, beans, carrots and anything else i've got lying around. I'll add some oats if I'm feeling particularly tight!

twink

a handful of oatmeal might be better to add to mince rather than porridge oats

[Deleted User]

In my younger hard-up days when the children were small I also used oats ,but one day had run out so I stuck a handful of dried sage & onion stuffing mix in, and it was lovely .We always had a tin of baked beans on the top of the meat with a dash of wocstershire sauce mixed in it then cover the lot with creamy mashed spuds .Mash the spuds with semi-skimmed milk instead of butter, and grate some cheese on the top of the lot tenminutes before you serve up so you have mince beans mash and cheese all on one dish.Great one dish meal and saves on washing up afterwards I still make cottage pies but now as I'm on my own a lb of mince will make me loads so I freeze the rest. I bought some brown earthenware small bowls at a boot fair years ago for about ten pence each and they make great little one serving pies ,straight from the freezer to the oven and then to the table .My pies cost me around 35 p per pie I can get usually about half a dozen for my freezer from about a lb of mince They cost ready-made from Tescos about a quid each .

lofty_cherrytree

To pad out mince in bolognese/chilli type recipes add a chopped up aubergine, this will stretch the mince out further and take on the flavour of the sauce (taken from Sue Kreitzman's Low Fat cooking. I have also been told to add all-bran to mince to stretch it/add fibre without being found out! Not tried it myself, but have eaten it at a friendc and couldn't tell.

MATH

If you are sceptical about you family not discovering the undercover oats in shepherd's pie, chill or bolognaise give it a go you really cannot tell mince from oats. Use half your usual amount of mince, brown until the fat runs then toss the oats in and mix well. Once cooked the oats help to thicken the dish too so if you are using more than a good handful add a little extra fluid to the mix. HTH

I can make a deliciously tasty cottage pie to feed 8 using only 1/4 lb of mince, the rest is substituted with oats, carrots, mushrooms, baked beans, bell peppers, courgette and any other veggies I have to hand.

Ticklemouse

I use 1lb of lean mince when I cook and can get it to feed as many as I want. If I make a shepherds pie I use a 12 inch oval casserole and it's full. Chilli/bol sauce? At least 8 large servings.

I add oats, lentils, onions, loads of tinned tomatoes and passata, and whatever veg/beans etc the particular dish will take. Last time I mixed half meat mince with half dried soya mince and no-one knew

TKP_3

Wow - so many great ideas. I am making lasagne tomorrow and want to pad my mince out even more (already do tomatoes, onion and mushrooms), but now I can't decide between sage&onion stuffing mix, lentils or oats - or all of them :rotfl:

Dr_Kiwi_Cobra

is cheap mince a false economy? I mean the cheap stuff is higher in fat and lower in meat content?

poppie,s_dream

cheap mince to me is watery and has no taste the meat also tastes rubbery.
i pad out my chilli with baked beans too and use a 1lb of mince that does 4 adults and 2 extras for work.