amount of fat and water in Asda Minced Lamb

spammysandwich

I am shocked at the amount of water and fat pumped into Asda's minced lamb, and now wonder if the other supermarkets are as bad!

After frying off 1kg of lamb mince (standard product, not basics) I drained it and weighed it to find out I now had 625g, that is 375g short - I bought two packs at £3.30 so £6.60 for a kilo ( 66p per 100g) but in reality it was £6.60 for 625g (or £1.05 per 100g)which equates to £10.56 per kilo which is a huge difference.

Asda that is the last time I buy meat from you! and I now want to know if Tesco's and the other supermarkets are as bad. def worth comparing the price to butchers

davetrousers

Water content and other additives is usually listed in the ingredients. Always worth having a glance at.

WestonDave

I'm not convinced that proves very much - all "meat" naturally contains water (for example a human is approx 60% water, with some of the remaining 40% being bone!). If you cook meat for long enough and completely dry it out, you'll have even less weight, which is why those on expeditions etc tend to take dehydrated meat with them. You'd have to get some meat from elsewhere and cook it under the same conditions to tell if this is bad or just normal for lamb (bearing in mind lamb can tend to be more fatty than say beef anyway - especially if its lowland lamb where the animals aren't moving around to burn off the fat and leave lean meat).

frosty

I dont buy meat from Asda anymore,their chicken has a weird texture........I think its pumped full of water.

C_Mababejive

This is nothing new. Most supermarket meat comes from thrid party processing plants and they just dress an employee in a stripey apron and straw hat to mae him look like a village butcher. Morrisons are probably best and after that,your local high street butcher. Use him or loose him.

My pet repulsion of supermarket meats is the spunky bacon.

It is so thin that you can read the newspaper through it. It is soaking wet because it is so pumped full of water. It is so full of salt and preservatives that when you try and cook it,you are faced with an unpalatable white slurry and when finally it is cooked,its about 50% of its original size.

Get down your local butcher and buy some proper dry cured bacon..

im-lost

C_Mababejive wrote: »

This is nothing new. Most supermarket meat comes from thrid party processing plants and they just dress an employee in a stripey apron and straw hat to mae him look like a village butcher. Morrisons are probably best and after that,your local high street butcher. Use him or loose him.

My pet repulsion of supermarket meats is the spunky bacon.

It is so thin that you can read the newspaper through it. It is soaking wet because it is so pumped full of water. It is so full of salt and preservatives that when you try and cook it,you are faced with an unpalatable white slurry and when finally it is cooked,its about 50% of its original size.

Get down your local butcher and buy some proper dry cured bacon..

So you are comparing no doubt supermarket own brand or value brands with dry cure bacon?

why not compare a supermarkets dry cure bacon with that of the butchers dry cure instead.

There will be little to no difference :rotfl:

C_Mababejive

im-lost wrote: »

So you are comparing no doubt supermarket own brand or value brands with dry cure bacon?

why not compare a supermarkets dry cure bacon with that of the butchers dry cure instead.

There will be little to no difference :rotfl:

I can assure you that my comparison was between products such as Tesco's Finest dry cured and butchers own . I am not in the "value" product bracket.

MrsE_2

I get my minced lamb from Waitrose, its the lowest fat one you can buy (they do a superlow fat one).

Its quite expensive though.

Stephen_Leak

I use minced pork or turkey. It's not only lower in fat, but also cheaper than minced beef. And, being lower in fat, it doesn't reduce down as much as the very cheap minced beef, so I actually get an extra portion out of a batch.

I'd love to be able to afford minced lamb or shop at Waitrose.

cherrypies

Regardless of quality, you can't really compare raw versus cooked weight. ALL meats will weigh less when cooked and drained than they do raw, particularly if it's previously frozen and particularly lamb. By the very nature of frying it, you are rendering the fat so obviously there will be a big discrepancy in weight. Lamb is a notoriously fatty meat, but with fat comes flavour. My only comment is buy the very best quality you can afford, even if that means buying less of it. Or better still, find a whole cut of lamb you are happy with and mince the meat yourself, you'll then know exactly what went into your purchase.

C_Mababejive

As an additional tip..have a look at venison. Its not something i have previously used but recently have had it a few times. Supposed to be very low in fat and also tasty and makes a good alternative to the usual fare. Good for stews,pies and as a "steak".