# Oven cooking ground beef



## Trevilians

I know I've read somewhere that you can cook ground beef in the oven in, say, a roasting pan. Has anyone here done that? How long do you cook it and at what temperature? I want to can some hamburger but would rather not fry it on top of the stove, so I thought I'd try this method.
Thanks for your help.


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## 7thswan

We used to do it in a Resturant I worked at,for our chili hamburger dogs. Just crumble it up and cook about 350 with foil on it,that keeps it moist and it basically steams the meat.You might want to stir it a bit. We used a Turkey cooker,easer to tend.


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## FrogTacos

Dunno if this will help or not, but when I am canning ground I don't cook it all the way. I break it up into large chunks and cook it just long enough that there isn't enough pink left to make the chunks stick to each other.

My worst mistake on canning ground so far: First off I double ground it (thought the grinding plate I used was too big so ran it all through twice) - then I threw it all into a stew pot with minimal moisture and cooked it to death.
Now, that meat would probably better qualify as meat paste vs ground - only thing I have found it to be decent for is tacos or burritos. (Canned in quarts)

My second batch I fried minimally like I said above and it turned out much better. Also only used pints so it just wouldn't be in the canner as long and it turned out perfect.

I feel the shorter cooking time before and during canning helps the meat maintain its 'ground' texture.


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## Raeven

I wondered if you were referring to the practice of dehydrating hamburger "rocks." This is an effective method of putting up ground meat for long-term storage (2 years) and doesn't require canning at all. Here's a link on how to do it:

http://www.extopian.com/?p=243

If you meant something else, then my apologies for intruding on your thread.


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## Trevilians

Thanks everyone. I knew it could be done. Yesterday afternoon, I squished up a "chub" of Sam's Club hamburger into my turkey roaster and baked it for maybe an hour or until there was no more pink. I packed it into hot pint jars and processed for 75 minutes in the pressure canner. At the end of the day I had 11 pint jars of hamburger ready for whatever I'll need it for. 

Thanks, Raeven for the "hamburger "rocks" link. That sounds like my next project.

I really appreciate you coming to my aid.


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## 7thswan

I love my canned meat. My dh will come and not want any dinner. Then an hour later he changes his mind, and he is a true "meat and potatoes" man. Canned meats take the heat off of me having to go out to the freezers....


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## MOgal

Just had 5 wethers butchered that were much bigger than I thought. I asked for boned roasts from the legs and the tenderloin and strap from 2 smaller wethers. I'll get about 130#from the 3 biggest ones and scraps from the smaller ones.

For me, precooking ground meat for canning has always been my bottle neck. Never thought to use my electric roaster so thank you, Trevilians, for the wonderful idea. It should cook enough to fill two canners at once.

Plan to do some hamburger rocks too.


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