How can I reuse or recycle overcooked barbeque meat?
Inspired by thinking about barbeque-related food packaging on Monday, we’re having a bit of an impromptu bbq themed week here on Recycle This. This is a less a “reuse or recycle” and more a “how do you use it up?” question…
There always seems to be a few burgers or sausages leftover at barbecues – left on the grill or the keep-warm grill even though no one wants them and they go dry or turn to indiscernible black lumps.
Of course this situation could be avoided all together but only cooking the correct meat (hard to judge) and obviously it’s better to take them off before they reach that point when they’re still edible and have them as leftovers at some point but does anyone have any recipes for dried out meat? Our fussy-when-she-wants-to-be dog turned her nose up at dry-but-still-edible burger the other week but I suspect the cats would have gone for it if we’d been at home.
And what about when they’ve gone beyond that and are, essentially, greasy charcoal? Can they be crushed/ground up and used as a soil fertiliser like other charcoal?
(Photo by DeusXFlorida
Simple – in a bokashi bin!
Could it be made into a stew? Or stock? Or dog food?
If they were charcoal-y, I’d go ahead and add them to the garden/compost. If they were just dried out, I’d chop/crumble them, and heat up some boullion/broth to barely cover them, and let it sit a bit. Then it might be fine for soup, or meatloaf? Just guessing here….
my friend left some outside on the ground (through accident rather than planning) and in the middle of the night was woken by very loud hedgehogs munching them and slurping up the fat under the bbq. So maybe they would be good hedgehog food?
Before you think of reusing it for broth, gravy or the like, you should know that your burnt meat contains a fairly worrisome level of both polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic amines, which are mutagenic and carcinogenic. You’re not saving anything by compromising your health (or your pet’s).
Here’s a links for information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterocyclic_amines
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/heterocyclic-amines
You can find specific studies on http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Amazing things here. I am very happy to see your post.
Thanks so much and I am having a look forward to contact you.
Will you please drop me a mail?