Cooking ground beef without the fat rendering off

Question

I like to cook ground beef by putting it in an oven safe dish and baking it at 350 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. This works great for my purposes, but so much of the delicious fat is rendered to a liquid, e.g. there is a little island of beef in a pool of fat.
I would very much like to consume this fat rather than waste it. I do not fare very well directly eating the liquid/(semi-liquid after cooling) fat.
Can you think of any way to cook ground beef that does not result in rendering the fat? Maybe what I am asking for is impossible - if the ground beef needs to reach an internal temperature of 165, and fat starts to render at 135-140, ..
Alternately: can you suggest a method of cooking that results in smaller fat loss?

Johanna · Accepted Answer

Counterintuitively enough, cooking it at a higher temperature will help. The longer you spend cooking it, the more fat will render out. Cooking it faster means more fat will still be in the meat, even if the temperature in the oven is higher.

Correct answer by Johanna on December 20, 2020

Graham · Answer

Start with less fat.
To state the obvious, 5% fat steak mince has a lot less fat than 20% fat beef mince. You'll have much less of a problem with excessive fat with that. It'll generally taste better too.
Make a roux.
When browning off the mince, add a 50-50 mix of flour and cornflour to turn the released fat into a roux. When you then add water, the roux gives you a nicely thickened gravy instead of just fat.

Cooking ground beef without the fat rendering off

2 Answers

Start with less fat.

Make a roux.

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