Top 7 internet ground beef hacks put to the test

By Cheri Sicard
As I know many of our readers use ground beef as the basis of many RV meals, I thought these ground beef hacks could come in handy.

Nicole McLaughlin and the team from My Recipes [more than 267K subscribers and 45M views] tested seven of the best ground beef hacks trending on the internet and social media to see if they were actually worthwhile. Here’s what they tested and their conclusions:

Ground beef hacks tested

#1 Use a potato masher to get easy and uniform ground beef crumbles: This one works like a dream, if you have space for a potato masher in your RV. (Here’s another bonus hack, potato mashers also make quick and easy guacamole!) While cooking ground beef, just press and twist for perfect beef crumbles.

#2 Extend the ground beef and boost nutrition: Add finely chopped mushrooms to increase the volume and add nutrition to the ground beef. The meaty flavor of the mushrooms melds perfectly with the beef. For about $3 you can double the volume.

#3 Drain ground beef with a fork: No strainer? No problem. Watch the video for how to accomplish the task with a fork.

#4 Mess-free draining hack: Put some foil into your sink over the drain hole to catch the grease. After draining wad up the foil and toss in the trash.

#5 Open the ground beef tube/chub easily: This hack involves frozen ground beef tubes. Take a knife and cut around the middle. Then squeeze the side and watch the beef slide right out.

#6 Creative ways to freeze ground beef: Watch the video to make a flat package of perfectly portioned ground beef patties. All it takes is a large freezer storage bag. Bonus for RVers, the flatness of the package doesn’t take up a lot of freezer space. Using this technique you can also opt to thaw just a portion of the frozen meat.

#7 Quick thawing in the Instant Pot: I know many of you can’t live without an Instant Pot in your RV. If you are among this group, this hack shows you how to quickly thaw frozen ground beef using the appliance. Unlike the microwave, where some thaws out and other parts of the meat remain frozen, this was supposed to give better results. Put the frozen block in and cook at high pressure for 22 minutes. What Nicole found was that the outside was cooked but the inside was raw. So this hack only kind of worked. She turned the instant pot on the sauté function, cooked it all, and she had ground beef crumbles. So if this is your intention, this trick will work. But it won’t work well of you want to make burger patties.

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