I haven't bought meat at a supermarket for such a long time. I prefer to go to the local butcher,. That way, I can either accept or reject whatever it is he places before me. Of course, I pay a higher price, but I also get the best.

If I buy mince at Woollies I buy the "Heart Smart" it has no fat at all. When I but steak I buy Scotch fillet--and if I make soup I buy Gravy Beef--and take off all the fat and gristle.

We do also Jane!!! and Bev. your butcher knows what you want.

The reason it came to my mind to write it is that I have a husband and wife friends who cut every bit of fat from their meat and are very careful with saturated fat in all their eating BUT buy regular mince and eat it a couple of times a week at least, which to me is like hiding heads in the sand, as they do not cut the fat off regular beef to mince it.

Cold and wet and windy, here today but good fun to stay inside, do little work and keep warm and watch tele.

All the best

Phyl.

I hate to get fat coming out in cooking--the only time I do enjoy a bit of fat is the odd occasion I have short loin chops and I grill them till they are crisp--I once ordered some Nachos while away one time and it was swimming in fat--has really put me off them now--I did take them back and complained.

Surmising again that the couple who are careful are just cooking the 3 star mince and eating it with its abundant fat content. Also have you looked into how much is in 4 star or higher - fat is there. It is how you cook it that counts.







Cheaper to buy 3 star cheaper usually under $5 a kilo on special at Coles which is minced smaller than Woolworths and put through twice - plus of course you probably do not know that Coles butchers can take 100% fat off the meat as written off so does not affect their target sales whereas Woolworth butchers don't even get an allowance so have to sell the fat one way of another to reach their targets.



All butchers use power tools to cut bone these days and therefore we get bits of bone on many cuts - but in Woolworths these bits of bone can be found in their mince as it is very coarsely minced and only once and has large worm like look and the fat is plainly there in all their mince products and costs a lot more per kg even on special- not good for kiddies or older folk with no teeth to speak of either.





BTW a careful cook always cooks up the mince in plain water in a casserole in the oven for at least 1/2 hour and then drains off the fat content and then proceeds to do whatever with the meat to serve it - by then has very little animal fat content left as can be seen easily seen in finished dish as no fat floating in the gravy!



You can do any amount this way and use say half and freeze the other half for another day and save power. Also always buy bulk and freeze in meal size portions to save money too rather than buy a small portion which they charge more for on the day !



Couples in particular will have to be smarter shoppers and cooks in the future due to not ever getting any more rises in the base pension under the ruddy useless government in power.

I have looked at the moince here in our Coles and don't like the look of it one bit--the one I get from Woolies

_Heart Smart--has no fat at all--there is never any that comes out of it at all--in fact I have to spray the pan to stop it sticking

Heart smart for us also Jane.

We have not had any problems with Woolworths 5 star or Premium or Heartsmart so for us whichever shop has it on special we buy in the smallest amounts already on the trays and freeze it and it is just there whenever we need it always by around 4-6 trays.

I do remember once buying the regular mince for the cats (they would not eat it) and making patties my hands were SO greasy I chucked it out. I do notice since that time though it does seem to have improved and looks much better but still too much fat for us.

Good we can all choose what we eat. We are very lucky in Australia even pensioners.

Just bought a few kilos of mince from Pattons meat,one of the new bulk meat suppliers here on the Gold Coast,and decided to check out the amount of fat as it looked a bit suss.

I carefully weighed out 100 Grams of the raw mince,then cooked it slowly in a dry pan on the stove,then drained and weighed the cooked meat.

I was left with less than 65 Grams of cooked meat,and that even tasted fatty.

There was approx 1 tablespoon of fat left in the cooking pan after cooking.

Now over 1/3 fat in mince seems a bit overboard,and most folk would probably not notice as they probably just put it in a pot with water and seasoning, cook and thicken and serve the family mince,etc.

How bad is that???

The mince was marked "Fresh Hamburger mince" and $4.99 a kilo.

Can you possibly imagine a steak for example, say 1 inch thick and 6inches long,and 1/3rd of that steak was pure fat.

You wouldnt buy it would you,because you could see all the fat ,well not so with mince,so take care.

I have found the-- Heart Smart --mince from Wooolies is the best--as it has no fat at all--dear but good

Thanks Plan B, ill check it out,but normally I would buy a cheap cut of raw beef with little fat showing,and put it through the chopper on the kitchen processor.

That usually is cheaper than the best quality mince,and you know for sure that there has been nothing added like water fat preservative or chemicals .

I dont know if you are aware but there is a butchers trick where they can add water when mincing meats.

The meat can absorb a massive amount of liquid during the mincing process,and when you cook the mince at home ,all the evidence disapears.

Its a cheap way to get the weight up.

E.G

if the sausages you put in the frying pan sizzle and sputter like mad thats the water hitting the hot oil. Sometimes your sausage will end up half the size after cooking.

So beware.,

I do buy my sausages from the butcher here--he has the best ones--and they also have no fat and never shrink or spit--not keen on any others I have tried

I would never buy less than 4 star mince for us as we always

cut all visible fat from our meat so why buy it in mince. We buy 5 star or

the heart one. We also like Woollies. Some people get sucked in by price alone of course

BUT I would rather add herbed breadcrumbs to a small amount of good near fat free mince

to make it go further than fill up on mince minced with fat if a lot to serve.

We bought 5 star mince on special the other so have 6 small packets ready to use.

.

Welcome to the forum Dennis.....:)