Should I Use Baking Soda in my Ground Beef?

The simple answer to this question is YES if you are planning on frying it in your skillet (think taco meat)! If you are using it for almost any other purpose then the answer is NO. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I should use baking soda in my ground beef, and finally settled on the answer above after about a year of testing.

Why should I use Baking Soda in my Ground Beef?

Now that we’ve answered the “Should I?” question, let’s move on to the “Why Should I?”. This is a much more interesting question as it involves some science! I won’t bore you with all of the detailed sciency stuff, but here are the basics behind what happens when you use baking soda in your ground beef.

Ground beef is mildly acidic on its own. By adding baking soda (a base) it cut’s the acidity and raises the pH of the beef. By doing this the following things happens:

1. Muscle proteins start to want to repel each other instead of attract each other enhancing tenderness.
2. By causing the proteins to repel each other, it stops them from squeezing all of the moisture in the meat during cooking.
3. The Maillard Reaction happens more easily allowing your meat to actually brown up instead of turning a dull grey color!

So What Does This Look Like in Real Life?

In the real world, this means that you end up with a much better meal than you otherwise would have. The meat retains most of it’s natural moisture, making it much more tender, and flavorful. At the same time it’s easier to get that nice browned look to it instead of the dull grey look you’re probably used to. Oh, did I mention you’ll barely have anything to drain out of the pan when you’re done? It really is an amazing trick and I use it every single time I’m going to fry up ground beef for any reason.

How Do I Do It?

The good news is that it’s super simple. You only need three things, baking soda, water and your two hands! I experimented extensively with different amounts of baking soda and found that 1/2 Tsp works the best. Simply add 1/2 Tsp of Baking Soda and 1 TBS of water for every 1 lb of ground beef, then mix it thoroughly with your hands and let it sit for 15 minutes.