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Viral TikTok hack for rinsing cooked beef mince divides internet
A TikTok user has divided the internet after sharing their viral kitchen hack for rinsing beef mince with water after cooking.
Emily Harper (@eemilydharperr) says in her video that she learnt the trick when studying nutrition, and the intention is to make the meal healthier.
“Let me show you what I learned in Nutrition a couple years ago,” she captioned the post.
The video shows Emily cooking beef mince in a frypan, which eventually becomes filled with grease.
“All this grease is disgusting,” she said. “So get rid of it!”
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She then pours the cooked meat into a colander and thoroughly rinses it with water in the sink to get rid of the oil.
After this, Emily puts the mince back in the pan to continue cooking.
While the video currently has over six million views on TikTok, Emily disabled comments after sparking quite a large social media debate.
However, thousands of people have since shared their opinion on the technique on Facebook.
“This is horrifying,” one wrote. “Rinsing it might get rid of the grease - but it also gets rid of the flavour.”
“My wife does this. I cry a little each time,” someone else said, with a third commenting, “This is crazy! Do you also rinse off a steak after it comes off the grill?”.
The kitchen tip also caused outrage on Twitter, with a user tweeting: “That video of someone rinsing their ground beef is going to ruin my week.”
Others pointed out that draining the fat in the sink can clog up your pipes and ruin your plumbing system.
Meanwhile, there have been a number of supporters for the hack who say that they prefer to rinse their mince after cooking.
“I drain and rinse if it is higher fat ground beef, then season to taste. I mean, don’t knock it till you try it, I guess,” one person remarked.
“I’m almost 60 and I have always rinsed mine off this way!” another shared.
While it is successful in reducing fat, nutritionist Kristin Koskinen told TODAY Food that rinsing cooked meat actually ends up losing many important nutrients.
“Rinsing ground beef isn’t a new idea, it’s been around for generations as a weight-loss hack,” she said.
“Generally speaking, it’s not a trend I recommend following. It will get rid of extra fat which will decrease the amount of calories per serving, but with it may go important nutrients.”
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