Recipes for pink slime

April 22, 2021 1:23 AM

So I ended up getting some inexpensive ground turkey that turned out to be a few tubes of pink slime. Recipe ideas?

2kg in 4 tubes (250g ea) of ground "turkey" that ended up being tubes of "pink slime." (mechanically separated meat)

I defrosted one, pan-fried a tube; very disappointed with what I bought with how I cooked it. I guess I'll get a package of (taco) flatbread and eat the turkey crumble I fried up with sour cream and salsa.

I can envision adding more amounts of bread crumbs, shape them and squish them into nuggets, press into crumbs, then shallow fry.

Any other ideas on good uses for turkey slurry?

Good grief, my living area smells disagreeably. Good thing it's unseasonably warm; sliding doors: open.

posted by porpoise to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

I'd use it to make a meat sauce for pasta dishes. You could go as fancy as you want, or cook it in a pan and dump a preferred can of pasta sauce on top and heat until warmed through.

You could make meatballs as well.
posted by AlexiaSky at 2:03 AM on April 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

Chili. There are so many other things you dump into chili that it kind of doesn't matter.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:42 AM on April 22, 2021 [8 favorites]

My go-to turkey meatloaf is heavily spiced, and with the tomatoes and carrots will have some texture again.
posted by cobaltnine at 3:53 AM on April 22, 2021 [3 favorites]

Definitely meatloaf. Add bread crumbs, season into oblivion, apply saucy glaze of choice. Bonus: slurry probably forms loaf better than structural crumbles!
posted by bowtiesarecool at 4:11 AM on April 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

Been there. I found out the hard way that ground turkey in a tube is always pink slime. I found very little that I could do with it other than some sort of meat-like sauce or chili, and even the chili was mediocre owing to a lack of substance of the pink slime. It will make an acceptable taco or burrito filling, though.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:12 AM on April 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

I have made decent frozen burrito filling by mixing tube meat with an equal amount of mashed cooked beans (black or white). I add 'taco' spices then bake in any baking dish, stirring a few times as it cooks. The stirring makes the filling a bit drier for a less soggy burrito.
posted by i_mean_come_on_now at 4:32 AM on April 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

You have described it as inexpensive slime that smells disagreeable. When these sorts of procurement mistakes are made in my household, the humans are sad but the dog rejoices.

If you have the food budget not to HAVE to eat this and the dog treat budget and a dog to spoil:

Straight into dog meals of meat/rice/a little of the dog safe veggie in the back of the fridge that’s a little too soft for you to want to eat yourself and some water or stock boiled up then immersion blended, a touch of salt.

Balls of fried turkey meatballs for treats. Excess in the freezer for a later date.
posted by slateyness at 5:44 AM on April 22, 2021 [7 favorites]

Sorry about the pink slime outcome; I tend to agree with slateyness here. However I'm not always in the position to pitch food to the dogs, and this is my go-to turkey nugget deliciousness by Ottolenghi. It is really a great recipe and makes a lot!
posted by missmobtown at 7:33 AM on April 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have a couple tubes of ground beef. It's also pink slime. :D

I think the other day I made "ground beef with broccoli" by using frozen florets, and a ton of spices.
posted by kschang at 10:27 AM on April 22, 2021

What about ravioli filling? I mean, one can only eat so much ravioli, but doctored with fine bread crumbs, parmesan, maybe mushrooms, they could make a really lovely stuffed pasta.
posted by headspace at 10:45 AM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]