I followed a slowcooker taco meat recipe that called for 2lbs of ground beef being cooked on high for 4 hours. After 4 hours, everything was steaming hot, browned, and falling apart. I made three tasty tacos and put the leftovers in the fridge. This evening, I started spooning leftovers out to reheat, and noticed there's all this pink beef scattered throughout….What did I do wrong? I hope I don't get sick.
by nintendonaut
11 Comments
Was the beef frozen when you put it in the slow cooker?
You will be fine.
Next time pull the ground beef apart.
If it makes you feel better just throw it onto a stove to reheat on high.
[deleted]
Just curious why you would cook taco meat in a slow cooker, it takes like 10 minutes on the stove top
Most recipes have you good ground beef in a pan before transferring to slow cooker, I always do this and add a panade first to eh meat for extra soft chili meat etc.
So the meat being ground means it’s no longer one solid piece that will transfer the heat easily throughout. Did you put it in the slowcooker not tightly packed and without liquid at the bottom? If these conditions are correct I totally see how this could happen.
Its just ground beef taco meat. Cook it in like 10 min on the stove.
You could even still throw those leftovers in a pan to cook up if it was just a day or so since you made them.
Or, if you really want to crock pot it, next time brown it off first (like you would for a chili recipe), then throw it in and let it go.
No matter how high YOU are…
You still have to cook the meat.
SMH my head.
It’s safe to eat. The inside is still pink not because it’s raw but because the myoglobin in the meat wasn’t exposed to air during the long cook and therefore doesn’t turn brown. Sometimes my stew meat looks like this and I cook that stuff for 10 hours sometimes. It’s definitely cooked.
I do beef 5 hours high or 8 hours low. That might be too much for ground meat, but I like having one consistent plan.
I once set a slow cooker to warm instead of low. Naturally, it didn’t cook as it should have.
If you didn’t do that, and 4 hours was recommended by someone who should know, then it might be your slow cooker on its last legs. Undercooked food was how I could tell my slow cooker was dying.
Ah when you cook raw ground meat in the slow cooker, you need to stir it or else it might cook as a block or do so unevenly. For this reason and the fact that it cooks pretty fast on the stovetop ground meat for tacos is an odd choice to put in a slow cooker.
Something like chicken breast or thigh or something not cut into pieces might work better.