So after the failed experiments using Tabasco to try to spice up my taco meat, this time I decided to try something a bit different.

When I originally began this set of experiments, I bought a variety of spice packs. Two of those were Kroger house brands, one labelled "original" and one labelled "mild". Well, if the latter is mild then presumably the former is not, and I decided to find out.

These packages say they're for seasoning one pound of hamburger. Most people doing this will use cheap high-fat burger and will drain off the grease. I was using low-fat (7%) burger, and the smallest packages I can find are 1.3 pounds. So I ended up using both of those packages this time, and it worked pretty well.

The Kroger house brand has different cooking instructions than the "Taco Bell". That one said to boil for a while, then let simmer for 10 minutes. The Kroger said "boil for 2-4 minutes", and after I did so I could see that the sauce thickened up nicely, and letting it simmer for 10 minutes would have not been good.

Looking at the ingredient lists, the Taco Bell had flour, and the Kroger had corn starch. That would seem to explain it.

So having done all this yesterday, and frozen it all up (19 cubes, this time) I tried two of them just now.

And indeed the result has a bit of a heat bite. It wasn't intolerable; indeed it wasn't strong at all. But part of why it didn't get to me, I think, is that I picked up a package of sour cream when I bought the burger this time, and put a big spoonful of it on the plate with my quesadilla.

I think next time I'll try two of the Kroger "regular" packages. But with 17 cubes of meat remaining, it'll be a while.

UPDATE: Avatar meta-comments.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 05:30 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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