Ground meat

Not to be confused with mincemeat or MINCE.

"Keema" redirects here. For the Estonian village, see Keema, Estonia. For Syrian village, see Kimah.

Ground meat in sausage making

Ground beef in an industrial grinder

Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, and keema or qeema (Hindustani: क़ीमा (Devanagari), قیمہ (Nastaleeq), (pronounced [ˈqiːmaː]) in South Asia, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other meats are prepared ground in a similar fashion, including pork, lamb, and poultry. In South Asia, both mutton and goat meat are also minced to produce keema.

Dishes

Ground meat is used in a wide variety of dishes, by itself, or mixed with other ingredients. It may be formed into meatballs which are then fried, baked, steamed, or braised. They may be cooked on a skewer: kabab koobideh, adana kebabı, ćevapi. It may be formed into patties which are then grilled or fried (hamburger), breaded and fried (menchi-katsu, Pozharsky cutlet), or braised (Salisbury steak). It may be formed into meatloaves or pâtés and baked. It may be used as a filling or stuffing for meat pies and böreks, and also as stuffing. It may be made into meat sauce such as ragù, which in turn is used in dishes like pastitsio and moussaka. It may be cooked in sauce to make chili con carne or keema curry.

South Asia

Keema curry on a bun (pau), a popular Mumbai street food

Keema or qeema is used in a variety of dishes:

• A stewed or fried curry dish of minced beef, mutton, or other meats with green peas or potatoes. It usually includes ghee/butter, onions, garlic, ginger, chilis, green peas and spices.
• Grilled on a skewer, and called seekh kebab.
• As a filling for samosas or naan.

The word ultimately comes from a Turkic word qıyma 'minced meat', and is thus related to the Persian gheimeh, the Turkish kıyma, and the Greek κιμάς.

Food safety

Ground meat has food safety concerns not associated with whole cuts of meat. If undercooked, it can lead to sickness and food poisoning. In a whole cut from an animal, the interior of the meat is essentially sterile, even before cooking; any bacterial contamination is on the outer surface of the meat. When meat is ground, bacterial contamination from the surface can be distributed throughout the meat. If ground beef is not well cooked all the way through, there is a significant chance that enough pathogenic bacteria will survive to cause illness, moreover the warming will speed the reproduction of bacteria. Undercooked Jack in the Box hamburgers contaminated in this manner were responsible for four deaths and the illness of hundreds of people in 1993.

To ensure the safety of food distributed through the National School Lunch Program, food banks, and other federal food and nutrition programs, the United States Department of Agriculture has established food safety and quality requirements for the ground beef it purchases. A 2010 United States National Research Council report reviewed the scientific basis of the Department’s ground beef safety standards, evaluated how the standards compare to those used by large retail and commercial food service purchasers of ground beef, and looked at ways to establish periodic evaluations of the Federal Purchase Ground Beef Program. The report found that although the safety requirements could be strengthened using scientific concepts, the prevention of future outbreaks of food-borne disease will depend on eliminating contamination during production and ensuring meat is properly cooked before it is served.

See also

• Forcemeat
• Mincemeat
• Pink slime