A Failed Culinary Experiment: Ground Turkey Spaghetti

[Wanderer]

I recommend crumbled Boca burger...or even chopped pecans.
Mostly though, I use Nate's Zesty Italian Meatless Meatballs.

I made taco fixings out of crumbled boca burger the other night. I was skeptical, but ended up quite happy with the results.

[gonzo914]

Regular ground turkey has about 7 grams of fat in a 3 ounce portion. Extra lean ground beef (90/10) has about 9 to 10. But the extra extra lean ground beef -- the stuff marked 96/4 -- has only about half the fat of the 90/10 stuff. It's leaner than gound turkey. It's even leaner than buffalo, another meat that would be better than turkey in your spaghetti sauce.

Even if you use the 90/10, you can always rinse it in a colander and pat it with paper towels, which can also cut the fat in half.

The 96/4 ground beef is pricey, but it's better than gagging on ground turkey. It makes really good chili, too, although it doesn't make your coat shine like that pale pink stuff in the five-pound chub. I don't think that stuff is even ground beef; I think it's "ground meat."

[Lambchop]

Oh, this was a thread on spaghetti.

Well, since that's the case, I never use meat in spaghetti sauce. A sprinkle of cheese on top of spaghetti seems enough to me, and I don't even put meat IN the lasagna.

You don't need that meat, you know. Besides, it makes it easier to clean the kitchen. :roll:

[peeplj]

I ate about 1/2 of a plate; Shan ate less than that.

That's the only downside to all this eatin' healthy: I'm getting fairly convinced it's bad for you.

Our plan is to stick with lean ground beef from now on, well drained.

--James

P.S. Jen, smoked turkey and BBQ sauce sounds pretty good to me!

[mcbob]

we love our noodles served with only a good basil pesto sauce and parmesan...can't keep the kids out of it...no meat, but delicious! served with garlic bread..mmmmm

[Walden]

Sometimes I get ground buffalo, from govt. I like it in some things, but not spaghetti. Well... I mean American bison... I think carabao might be okay in spaghetti.

[Wombat]

Wait a minute. I don't get it. Which of the many pasta sauces does turkey taste bad in? All of them?

Probably tomato-based sauces. Actually, I find it to taste fine in some spagetti sauces, but generally, my approach to foods is not to try and pretend one thing is another. I'd rather enjoy greens as greens and breads as breads and so forth. I'd rather eat beef as beef and poultry as poultry.

I was wondering whether spaghetti sauce just meant Bolognese-style sauce to most people here. But James did mention beef at the outset so I suppose that narrows it down considerably, although I wouldn't even attempt to cook a Bolognese-style sauce unless there were red meat in the mix ... or no meat.

My first thought was that you simply wouldn't expect a sauce that goes with red meat to go with white meat. Perhaps a spaghetti sauce based on a chicken recipe would be more likely to work—adapt Cattiatore for example. But it is more complicated than that. Real Bolognese contains pork as well as beef. It doesn't contain herbs or garlic. It doesn't contain carrot or celery. Yet all these and more are used in Bolognese-style sauces. So the clash could be with any one of several ingredients.

Possibly the way to go with turkey is to adapt a Carbonara-style sauce. But then again, the object was to produce something healthy wasn't it?

[Walden]

Mmm... bacon...

[talasiga]

....
Turkey may be healthier...definitely it will cause you to eat smaller portions as that raunchy aftertaste grows and grows. But I believe we'll stick with beef at this point.

.....

I am a well read vegetarian on things dietary. I hope you don't mind me joining in this topic.

Have you considered free range chicken mince as a replacement? The important thing about any poultry is that the skin must be removed before mincing. The skin is where most poultry fat resides.

Now the topic of beef eating runs against my religious upbringing and my personal, spiritual and aesthetic sensibility, but from a strictly scientific, nutritional perspective why do you consider lean beef to be bad for the heart?

[OutOfBreath]

In an effort to try to cook with at least a nod towards current notions of healthy eating, my wife and I cooked up and tried spaghetti using ground turkey instead of ground beef.

Actually, ground turkey has more cholesterol than extra lean ground beef. After my heart attack and bypass surgery I had to start reading labels - I was quite surprised to see how little "common wisdom" regarding what is healthy refelects reality.

[FJohnSharp]

We use ground chicken too sometimes. But chicken fat is also bad for you. We started replacing beef with poultry in those type dishes as much for the avoidance of mad cow in beef as for health.

One thing to try, is to mix in some beef bouillion with the ground turkey/chicken so ti takes the poultry edge off the taste. However, you're stuck with the bouillion flavor, if that's objectonable to you.

[Nanohedron]

--ground turkey is foul.

Makes for fowl play with spaghetti, no?

[BillChin]

Have you considered free range chicken mince as a replacement? The important thing about any poultry is that the skin must be removed before mincing. The skin is where most poultry fat resides.
...

Ooo, I forgot about that, I have used skinless chicken breast sliced up. It is probably about as healthy a meat as there is. It can often be found at a good price.
+ Bill

[izzarina]

Well, since that's the case, I never use meat in spaghetti sauce. A sprinkle of cheese on top of spaghetti seems enough to me, and I don't even put meat IN the lasagna.

I made the best vegetarian lasagna last week (well, if I do say so myself that is ). Lots of zucchini and tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and garlic...all sauteed before hand. It was really yummy. I have to admit that it was way better than the meat filled kind

[Wombat]

Mmm... bacon...

Now that's a spaghetti western if anything is.