This just in from www.seriouseats.com: “Ground beef dinners can easily turn out dry or lackluster. A small amount of baking soda helps the meat stay juicy, brown more deeply, and develop a richer flavor. Here's the science behind the trick, along with how and when to use it at home.”

Don’t most of us rely on ground beef for many of our meals? It can be one of the hardest-working ingredients in a kitchen. Whether it's chili, hamburger soup, tacos or enchiladas, sloppy Joes, or a quick pasta sauce, ground beef cooks quickly, and adapts to most cuisine.

“But ground beef also comes with a common problem: It's surprisingly easy to ruin. Cook it a little too long, and those juicy bits of beef turn into dry, sandy pebbles. Crowd the pan, and instead of developing flavorful browned bits, the meat steams in its own juices and ends up gray and lackluster,” says Leah Collins, senior culinary editor at Serious Eats.

Leah shared some straightforward science on how to fix these issues. The answer is to add some baking soda. First of all, when baking soda is mixed with meat, it raises the pH of the meat's surface, making it more alkaline. That shift affects how the meat's proteins behave during cooking.

Normally, as meat cooks, its proteins tighten and bond together, squeezing out moisture in the process. That's why overcooked ground beef can become dry and crumbly. In a more alkaline environment, those proteins are less likely to contract as aggressively, allowing the meat to retain more moisture as it cooks.

Leah also explained that there's also the benefit of better browning: the meat takes on richer flavors and deeper color as it cooks, thanks to the Maillard reaction (a series of chemical reactions between proteins and sugars that create hundreds of new flavor compounds). Those reactions occur more readily at higher pH levels. Add some baking soda and the result is juicier ground beef with deeper color and a more savory flavor.

And what’s nice is how easy this is to do. Simply dissolve 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in 1 tablespoon of water. Add this mixture to 1 pound of uncooked ground beef. Gently mix until evenly distributed. Then finish by letting the meat sit for about 15 minutes or longer before cooking. Once the resting time is up, cook the beef as you normally would for your recipe.

This technique is most useful where you want distinct, flavorful crumbles of ground beef with plenty of browning. For instance, try it for:

·         Chili, where deeply browned beef contributes a richer flavor to the finished pot.

·         Taco meat, where it helps the beef stay juicy while developing crisp, browned edges.

·         Sloppy Joes, where better browning translates to a more savory filling.

·         Stir-fries and lettuce wraps, which rely on quick cooking over relatively high heat.

·         Pasta sauces, such as Bolognese-style meat sauces or quick weeknight meat sauces, where building flavor in the entire dish starts with properly browned meat.

Leah says this practice is especially helpful when cooking lean (90/10 or 93/7) ground beef, which contains less fat and is therefore more prone to drying out during cooking. That said, even fattier blends like 80/20 can benefit from improved browning and moisture retention.

You won’t want to use this technique for every recipe. If the ground beef simmers for hours in a braise or soup, for instance, the benefits may become less noticeable over time. But for quick-cooking weeknight meals where ground beef is the star, a small amount of baking soda can make a surprisingly big difference!