Jalapeño ground beef

[BRYARRR_80]

I currently buy jalapeño patty mix for my ground beef when I want to make jalapeño ground beef and jalapeño Patties. The price per bag to make just six pounds of jalapeño Pattie’s is getting pretty costly for me since I normally do 100 or so pound batches at a time. If I were to switch to just using jalapeño flakes to lower my cost per pound, how much jalapeño flakes do y’all suggest using per pound of ground beef or on a 25 pound batch of ground beef. Thanks for the help.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

00.6% dried jalapeño flakes is what I used commercially when adding to a meat block, usually for brats. It’s a good starting point and you can adjust to your taste.

[Dave in AZ]

Deepwoodsbutcher that seems like a really tiny amount, less than 1 gram per kg of meat. I’m wondering if you got the decimal one place off? Did you mean 6%, or maybe 0.6%? Most every spice I add like cayenne, pepper, garlic etc. is usually 1 to 2g per 1000g meat, so 0.1%?

I recently made philly cheesesteak brats and used 1 jalapeno, 35g, into a 1371g block, so 2.5%, and you could just detect it. I’ve read dried to fresh is like 3x, so that would be 0.8% dried maybe, and I’d want 2 or 3 times that if I was going for a jalapeno flavor, myself. But I could see going light and just 0.8% if going for subtle. Just checking since I always have to doublecheck that % decimal myself…

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

Dave in AZ if you have an opinion on the correct amount/ percentage to use, please share it. I was offering my experience as a starting point. I realize this my not be to everyone’s taste, but this is the number (and I did double checked my notes) that my shop owner asked us to use in his recipes. Generally, most recipes call for other seasonings as well. Sometimes this includes jalapeño in powdered form. The flakes are sometimes added to achieve a desired appearance in addition to some flavor. Since using flakes can get expensive, I would generally use flakes for appearance and other forms to enhance the flavor if desired. For example, if making jalapeño brats from a premixed seasoning, the package will already contain the flavor. Recipes are subject to change and this is what makes it fun to expariment with. I speak from a commercial standpoint, so cost is a major factor in my recipes. I realize that without other ingredients being added, this would likely be too small of an amount to add much flavor alone. It’s better to add too little then too much. A starting point is just that, a place to start. I’ll add, if you want to use just flakes, 3oz to 25 pounds might work for you. This should have some kick to it, so again may need adjustments.

[Dave in AZ]

Deepwoodsbutcher thx for your great info, I am sure your experience on these things is way better, and I don’t question it at all. I just thought it worth double checking with you since it’s so easy to do a typo on %s, and not that many folks write out recipes in that format, and it seemed light.
Your commercial experience makes me always
take notice of your amounts, and I wanted to be sure, thx for confirming
k
Your comments on why that might be and how flakes are used in commercial blends were very informative, thanks. The only flakes I’ve used were from dried jalapeno peppers from garden.

[Bob Stehlik]

@deepwoodsbutcherThanks for the information. It makes a lot of sense that you can always increase the amount added but it’s very difficult to “neutralize” an overwhelming amount of an ingredient.

[processhead]

BRYARRR_80 I would add that since you are working with large amounts of ground beef it would be well worth your time to experiment with smaller batches (1 lb) and getting the flavor you are after before scaling up the amounts for large batches.

[Jonathon]

BRYARRR_80 I’d echo what processhead says and I’d also say between 3-6% once rehydrated is pretty standard. However, jalapeno flakes were one of those odd things that got REAL hard to get for a while there and the price went crazy, I don’t know that sourcing them is going to be a lot cheaper…now, it could be, but it might now be. Since you work in large amount, we can special order in bags that do 100 lb each from Excalibur of the patty mix. Probably have to buy a case, which would be 5 of those bags but if you are interested reach out to cs at either [email protected] or 800-835-2832 and give them SKU 4550521182 and see what they can do for ordering.