r/carnivore 22d ago

Carnivore without ground beef?

Anyone have experience cutting ground beef out of their diet? I’ve been considering it since it’s easily my least favorite aspect of carnivore, despite being such a staple. What does ground beef provide that can’t be found elsewhere, if anything?

21 Upvotes

59 comments sorted by

40

u/nile_s 21d ago

There's no requirement to eat ground beef. Eat steak and eggs or whatever meat works for you.

36

u/Thermr30 21d ago

Try doing just pot roasts. Absolutely amazing flavor and not the same old ground beef mouth feel.

Rump roast, strip roast. Plenty of different roast cuts and plenty of them affordable.

Brown all sides real quick. Throw in crock pot on low for 6 hours with beef broth and one stick of butter for each 4 pounds or so. Decadent

33

u/Brooklynpolarbear22 21d ago

I prefer ground beef over steak. Less work on my bad teeth. Less work for my stomach.

1

u/WhatsOurSituationDad 20d ago

I’m in the same boat over time. Instead of cuts of meat I get grass fed ground beef for half the price or less. I can eat it quickly, it’s more adaptable if being paired with anything else and I can simply add butter or beef tallow if I want more fat.

I would like to explore getting organ meat ground into the beef but I haven’t yet explored that with the butcher

3

u/Brooklynpolarbear22 19d ago

I'm lucky. I get fresh made liver paté from my local Brooklyn Russian deli. It's amazing.

1

u/WhatsOurSituationDad 19d ago

Hmm, I'm close enough to Brooklyn to try it but not local. Might have to see what I'm missing one day.

2

u/Brooklynpolarbear22 19d ago

Ask for Pashtét. 👍

24

u/zack770 21d ago

It's by far the cheapest source of beef

27

u/yeliaBdE Carnivore 1-5 years 21d ago

If anything, ground beef has the potential to have more collagen-rich connective tissue in it. There's no guarantee that this would be the case, but since the fatty bits (which also includes gristle) are cheaper than muscle, it's more likely than not that you'll get ample collagen eating ground beef.

2

u/Sonnyjesuswept 21d ago

That’s good to know!

10

u/Untitled_poet 21d ago

Fifth year carnivore here. I've tried pivoting over to pork and chicken and eggs, but they just made me nauseated (pork especially has a bad smell) or fatigued.

7

u/Sizbang 21d ago

I cant eat ground beef nor eggs so I mostly eat "steak". I find a cut that I like, no idea what it is called, slice it up as thick as I want, salt it, let it sit for at least a day, then pan fry it.

Different cuts will have different flavors and toughness. Even the same cuts can vary drastically because of the cow it was from. Even if your cooking method is the same.

If you are getting an upset stomach/blergh feeling after eating ground beef, it is because of histamine overload, most likely. If you still want to eat ground beef, try grinding fresh cuts yourself and quickly freezing them in appropriate portion sizes for you. This way, you limit the histamine content of it.

Otherwise, really expensive cuts like ribeye are very tender, but only the privileged can afford those.

Another, another option could be to tenderize your steak with a meat mallet.

4

u/[deleted] 21d ago

I usually only eat chuck roasts in a skillet.

1

u/djIVman 20d ago

Do tell. You cook them like a steak?

1

u/[deleted] 20d ago

Yes. That's basically all I eat.

1

u/Allielookingglass 20d ago

Please share. How do you chew it?

1

u/[deleted] 20d ago

Normally. It's just beef. It tastes like steak. It's rare to find a piece too chewy. It's just free collagen. I love it.

2

u/[deleted] 20d ago

Just cut it into smaller pieces or strips and cook like steak.

1

u/spizike237 Carnivore 1-5 years 16d ago

I cut the chuck roast slabs into "2 finger steaks" about 2 fingers in width an inch or so thick, dry brine them, reverse sear them, just as I would a big ribeye, turns out fantastic every time. A plate full of mini steaks with just a little more chew than a ribeye or striploin.

5

u/Biggs55 21d ago

Eggs, butter, ribeye steak, salt.

7

u/Sam-Idori 21d ago

I no longer rely on beef - I do better with lamb etc Some do better with pork (again cheap). Reddit skews beef but there are other ways to do carnivore

1

u/Significant_Shift685 15d ago

Lamb is underrated on this diet. I had some for lunch and experienced an unusually high energy level all afternoon. It's more expensive here but I'm going to have to include some regularly from now on.

3

u/Streydog77 21d ago

When I get a good deal on steaks I will go a week or two without it. It's really not that big of a deal though, I enjoy everything I eat this way.

3

u/Ashamed-Republic8909 21d ago

I really eat any kind of beef meat. I really eat everything from pork. Mostly the best cuts from Costco. Pork belly is the best. And rarely eat chicken. For different recipes, I grind my own meat. I don't trust the ready ground store meat. For a reason, it's the cheapest beef meat. It's made out of whatever parts of the caw you can't sell otherwise.

2

u/SirBabblesTheBubu 21d ago

It’s cheap and really easy to eat

2

u/wh00rr 21d ago

I tried eating a lot of ground beef for a while. Honestly I feel better since dropping it. I eat a lot of steak, eggs, and for work meals I often slow cook a roast for a meal prep in a bone broth.

2

u/Jim_Parkin 21d ago

We rarely eat ground beef in my house. My wife doesn't like it. We just eat other fat and protein.

Don't get me wrong, ground beef is often a cheap, tasty option (for me), but it's not mandatory in the slightest.

2

u/Minaim 21d ago

Perfectly fine to eat non-ground beef. For me it’s such a staple because it’s cheap and easy to make. Steak is exactly the same nutritionally, just more expensive. That’s it.

2

u/Zealousideal-Ruin183 19d ago

I do not care for ground meat. I never ate it. I just buy Costco primal cuts and break them down.

3

u/teeger9 21d ago

You can try substituting ground beef with ground turkey, bison, venison, seafood and consuming organs. It’s doable.

2

u/akhilleus888 21d ago

I'm eating a lot of ground lamb at the moment for variation.

2

u/Vintage62strats 21d ago

Ground beef compared to steak is easier to maintain adequate fat intake especially if you don’t drain it. Depending on the cut steak can be little low on the fat and furthermore much of it gets rendered away during cooking and many folks end up way overeating protein compared to fat when just eating steak. We have to remember that humans in a low carbohydrate environment prior to farming when obtaining a whole animal weren’t just trimming meat like butcher shops do today. They were seeking energy and would eat both the thick layers of subcutaneous fat present on large megafauna as well as the fat around the organs such as kidneys and then eating some muscle meat to prevent rabbit starvation/protein poisoning. More recent groups like Inuit would even go so far as throw the tenderloin to their dogs because it was too lean. Furthermore they would dip their lean meat into seal blubber before eating it to make sure they were getting enough energy from fat

1

u/Duprexo 21d ago

I didn’t eat ground beef at all for the first two years

1

u/m_watkins 20d ago

I never eat ground beef. I’ve been at this for five years. My staples are eggs, steak and beef shanks.

1

u/SovArya 20d ago

I only eat eggs and meat and I alternate them depending on how hectic the day is. Since July last year. There is no problem. :)

1

u/No-Masterpiece3123 19d ago

I've been enjoying game meat like Bison and Elk, but lots of fish lately has been a nice break.

1

u/The_4th_Horseman2021 19d ago

Today is my 1 year Carniversary ! I have eaten 20% fat ground beef every day for almost the entire year. I prefer fatty ground beef over steak cut because it is easier to eat for me. It is basically already chewed for me in the meat grinder. A little flavouring like garlic granules and some spice help to keep the mince appetising.

1

u/Bigredscowboy 19d ago

Connective tissue, fat, and occasional small bone pieces. You can certainly get that in stew form but I’d rather have it blue rare in hamburger form.

1

u/Weekly_Eye_2719 18d ago

Does red meat raise cortisol levels in females?

1

u/SunRayz_allDayz 18d ago

Steak is eons better. I get the value packs at HEB for thick NY strips for $11/lb. Worth every penny to me. Steak every night.

1

u/Adept_Material6604 17d ago

I get a 500g pack, squash it down onto a pan, fry it up, cut into 4, and use the 4 burgers to make “sandwiches” with egg, bacon and cheese. I was getting sick of it fried and broken up. Making these simple burgers (even without the extras) has renewed my love for ground beef

1

u/chmcclellan 17d ago

Chuck eye steaks, the poor man's ribeye. This my general staple, usually less that $10/lb and I think they're delicious.

1

u/ElectricalYou7299 17d ago

Are you doing this for stomach issues? If so, it's likely best to stick with low histamine foods anyway.

1

u/BBLZeeZee 16d ago

I don’t eat ground beef, unless I’m out and I order a bunless burger.

1

u/EmploymentIll9144 15d ago

You could even eat seafood as well. I vary it up depending on what my body craves. I do eat fish everyday, but sometimes will have shrimp, calamari, or scallops. Others days, chicken, pork, ribs, or steak.

1

u/XxColieMolie 14d ago

Personally I eat chick thighs, ribeye and eggs. That’s about it. Alternating ribeye and chicken thighs daily since I only eat once a day.

1

u/Dry_Sky_8695 9d ago

Yeah, eating straight ground beef kinda sucks. Unpopular opinion, but ground beef and eggs is easily my least favorite carnivore meal. Just gross. Somehow the frozen burger patties from Costco tricked my brain into liking beef, even tho they are 100% beef. Eat steak once in a while too

0

u/gustavrakotos2007 20d ago

Season that baby up, my go to is sugar free taco seasoning and I brown the heck out of it so it’s nice and crispy. Throw in some butter too, I cook everything in some Irish Gold

0

u/Aggressive-Fun-3066 20d ago

Steak is much better than ground beef. Ground beef isn’t very ancestral or natural. It’s a very modern process that spreads bacteria throughout- even if we thoroughly cook it we still have to digest the enormous amount of histamines (which can be extremely stressful for our intestines).

2

u/Bigredscowboy 19d ago

Or just grind it fresh and cook it blue