Cooking a mix of raw and cooked meat

Question

I have cooked meat that is fully prepared, I like its taste but not its texture. I want to mince it, add it to some raw minced meat and prepare something from the entire mass.

What is the correct way to do it?

• Safety concerns, the meat will be cooked thoroughly, but still are there any concerns regarding mixing the meats pre cooking.

• Texture and taste, what is the best way to cook the entire mass without overcooking the already cooked meat?

• Should the raw meat be pre cooked separately and only combined when cooked? What is the best way to do it?

Answer 1

Once the meat is cooked, there really isn't a way to turn it into minced meat without there being a noticeable difference in texture. However, it is not unusual to see fully cooked meat getting finely chopped (in fact) to become, for example, filling, and used in ways sort of like how one would use fried minced meat.

Also, from The BBQ BRETHREN FORUMS:

You can grind cooked meat, no problem. Some sausage recipes, actually call for ground cooked meat.

You best bet is to cook the raw minced meat as you would usually cook it, and dump in the cooked meat, that's all chopped up, at the last moment to heat it up.

Answer 2

I know that I've seen recipes on TV for hamburgers that included some form of slow cooked meat that had been chopped/ground down and added to the mix, but I've never gone to that much trouble myself.

As temperature is the main issue with how far something is cooked (as that affects how the proteins tighten up and squeeze out moisture), so long as the original meat is fully cooked, you just need to cook the raw meat until it's to a safe temperature.

Of course, in terms of storage safety, you'll want to consider the cumulative time that the older meat has been around, so I wouldn't necessarily consider doing this with cooked meat that's been sitting in my fridge for multiple days if I was going to be serving this to other people (I'm not so risk adverse when I'm just cooking for myself), or treat this as a way to extend the life of the older meat.

But as Anastasia hinted at, you could also mince up the cooked meat and use it other dishes ... and those don't necessarily need to include more raw meat. I've chopped up roasts or steaks to make stews, fajitas, dirty rice, stir-fry, stroganof, casseroles, hash, etc. (although how heavily you've flavored the original meat may affect what you can do with it afterwards)