Dumb question, I know. But X-tra lean ground beef is expensive and they don't sell it by bulk at the Costco.

No, not really. Most of that runoff is just water if I'm not mistaken. :)

Dumb question, I know. But X-tra lean ground beef is expensive and they don't sell it by bulk at the Costco.

No. How lean are you looking for?

I think the costco I go to sells 85/15 and that should be good enough for most peoples purposes. You can grind your own top round that you buy in bulk from there.

When you cook ground beef in crumbles, it reduces some of the fat. Rinsing and draining will reduce even more of the fat.

A 4 oz raw portion of regular hamburger that has been cooked, drained and rinsed has approximately 155 calories, 9g fat, 4g saturated fat and 46 mg cholesterol. Compared to the values for super-lean ground beef, drained and rinsed crumbles have 15 fewer calories, 1 more gram total fat, 1 more gram saturated fat and 15 fewer miligrams of cholesterol. Because of this information I recommend regular ground beef that has been cooked, drained and rinsed to anyone who is trying to eat a healthier diet. (http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/reducedfatgroundbeef.htm)

She's comparing undrained super-lean ground beef. If you rinse and drain that super lean ground beef, it's fat content would also be further reduced, though not as significantly, because it's already so low in fat.

I would never make regular ground beef into burgers because all that fat gets trapped inside, but sometimes the extra lean beef makes them turn out a little dry, so I interchange them depending on how lean I feel like eating, or combine them to get something midway lean/extra lean.

I ALWAYS mix my ground meats with texturized vegetable protein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_protein). It's granulated soy that you can find in natural food stores, extremely low in fat, and high in protein and fibre (http://www.truestarhealth.com/Notes/1972005.html). For burgers, I mix rehydrated TVP into the beef with some seasonings and usually also some egg, chopped vegetables (peppers, onions, grated carrot, zucchini, etc.) and mustard and/or a tomato based sauce (sometimes ketchup or barbecue sauce). You might want to add a bit of beef bouillon powder if you like. For crumbles like chili or spaghetti sauce, I usually rehydrate with only half of the water, and use tomato sauce to make up for the difference, giving it a more robust flavor.