The whole house smelled like cumin until Tuesday. That's the only downside I've found to cooking five pounds of taco meat on a Sunday afternoon, and Matt says it isn't a downside at all.
I picked up the beef at Aldi on Saturday morning on the way home from Eli's flag football game: five pounds of 80/20 at $5.79 a pound, $28.95. Ground beef is expensive right now. In April the same chub was $5.29 a pound at the same store. When I buy it at this price, I want every ounce of it working, and cooking it all at once and splitting it three ways means three weeknight dinners where the hardest part is already done.
Why taco meat, and why all at once
Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm at the preschool office until 2:30, Tuesday is also flag football practice, and fall Fridays belong to Cody's games. A bag of cooked, seasoned meat in the freezer turns any of those nights into a 20-minute dinner. It also means I brown beef once, wash one pot once and wipe grease off the stovetop once instead of three separate times.
The batch
I set up my station before I turn on a burner: onions diced, garlic minced, the spice mix stirred together in a small bowl, three gallon zip bags labeled with blue painter's tape, and a half-sheet pan out for cooling. Then it's about an hour, start to finish.
- 5 pounds 80/20 ground beef
- 2 medium onions, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons masa harina or flour
- 2 cups water
Brown the beef in the 6-quart Dutch oven in batches, breaking it up as it goes. Drain off most of the fat, add the onions and cook them soft, then stir in the garlic and all the spices for a minute until they smell toasty. Sprinkle in the masa, add the water, and simmer uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes until it's thick and nearly dry. Dry matters. Wet taco meat freezes into a block of ice and turns everything you add it to soupy.
I keep the seasoning mild on purpose. Eli is six and considers black pepper a personal attack, and Rosie is two. The heat goes on at the table, with the pickled jalapeños from our backyard plants and Matt's hot sauce.
My miss this time: I dumped nearly half the beef into the pot at once because the boys had started arguing over the TV remote and I wanted to get back out there. Too much meat in a pot steams instead of browning, and that first batch came out gray and wet. I know better. Six years of kitchens taught me not to crowd a pan, and I did it anyway. The second and third batches went in smaller and came out brown, and once everything was mixed and seasoned, nobody could tell. It just took longer to cook down.
Cooling, bagging and freezing
I spread the cooked meat on the sheet pan to cool for about 20 minutes, then split it into three bags, a little over four cups each. One bag went in the fridge for Monday. The other two got pressed flat, laid on the sheet pan and slid into the chest freezer in the garage. Flat bags freeze fast, stack like files and thaw overnight in the fridge, or in about ten minutes in a skillet with a splash of water if I forgot. I try to use them within three months, and I follow USDA guidance on cooling and storing cooked meat rather than guessing.
Three dinners from five pounds
Tacos (last night). Flour tortillas warmed in the cast iron, shredded cheddar, lettuce, tomato and the last of a tub of sour cream. Eli had his meat with cheese folded into a tortilla and nothing else touching it. About $15.40 for five, counting the meat.
Skillet rice bowls (Thursday, an office day). The second bag comes out of the freezer Wednesday night. I fire the rice at 5:15, then warm the meat in the 12-inch skillet with a can of black beans, a cup of frozen corn and half a jar of salsa. It gets spooned over rice with cheese melted on top. About $13.50.
Stuffed sweet potatoes (next week). Five sweet potatoes go into both baskets of the air fryer at 390 for about 40 minutes, then get split and filled with the last bag of meat, cheese, sour cream and green onions. Eli gets a plain buttered sweet potato with his meat on the side, and that's a fight I've stopped having. About $15.20.
Receipt check: $44.10 for three dinners for five, about $2.94 a serving, with five pounds of beef doing most of the work.
