What Do the British Call Ground Beef

• #1

Hi,

I'm wondering if "ground meat" is used at all in the UK for what in the UK is usually called "minced meat."
I looked up "ground meat" and found this on Wikipedia:
Ground meat (usually called minced meat or occasionally mince outside North America) is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife.

I then looked up "minced meat" in the COCA corpus and found only a few results. So, obviously, Americans prefer to say "ground meat."
I then looked up "ground meat" in the BNC corpus and found no results; looked up "minced meat" and still no results. I must have done something wrong.

So is "ground meat" used at all in the UK?

Thanks!

• #3

Which BNC did you search?

I have just done a search, and see 7 occurrences of minced meat, 22 occurrences of minced beef, 9 occurrences of minced pork, 8 occurrences of minced lamb, and so on. (Actually ground beef came up 4 times.)

Ground meat sounds distinctly American. I think ground is used for thorough crushing, as entangledbank says, but also for dry items in BrE - therefore ground almonds, ground ginger, ground chilli. Chopped could be used for rougher work, for wet or dry items - chopped onions, chopped garlic, chopped tomato. (I think Americans might talk about minced garlic though.)

• #4

My experience, from cooking with both, is that ground beef from the US and mince(d beef) from the UK are very similar in consistency and size of the "bits". The US also uses the term for pork, turkey (lamb is not eaten that much in the US). The other "ground" (non-meat) stuff in the US is also, as elsewhere, much finer, like pepper, ginger, cumin, nuts etc.

Bevj

Allegra Moderata (Sp/Eng, Cat)

• #7

In BrE use, mince pies are made from pastry and mincemeat I can assure you they are still popular.
Minced meat is often just called 'mince' and is the beef/pork/etc. 'ground' meat.

• #8

Wow, thank you! Learned a lot.

• #11

I'm really surprised to find that I can't find previous threads on this topic

As I understand it, AE "ground <meat variety>" is just the same as BE "minced <meat variety>".

So I can wander down to my friendly butcher and ask for minced beef, minced lamb, minced pork, ... .... .....

But if I wander down to my friendly butcher and ask for "mince", he will sell me minced beef.

• #12

"I've got two packs of ground beef"
That's what this Canadian said while cooking meatloaf. A BE speaker would replace "ground" with "minced", right?

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2022

• #16

A British speaker could also say 'mince' by itself because minced beef is the most usual sort. If the meat is not beef, then they would say 'minced [-]'.

• #18

Yes, in the UK.

But I would specify the quantity. How much is a 'pack'?

• #22

Most people would assume you meant beef that been minced.

• #27

Tesco is a shop and must clearly identify the products. People talking is something completely different.

• #31

Whereas in BrE, onions, herbs and ginger are chopped rather than minced. Mince is used for meat. (OK, one exception is mincemeat used in mince pies.)

• #36

So "mincing" is cutting with a knife...

It's not rocket science: you mince things with a mincer (or nowadays a food-processor), you chop things with a chopper (or a sharp knife). The packs of minced/ground beef you buy in any supermarket, and the loose stuff you buy at a butcher's have been through the machine. If you want it chopped, buy a steak and a sharp blade and do the work yourself.

(Elizabeth David strongly recommends chopping very fine when preparing minced-beef dishes because she says the meat remains juicier. Much as I love her, I rarely follow her advice. As another writer said: "Life's too short to stuff a mushroom".)

... it would still be weird to ask an American to mince beef, as this verb doesn't collocate naturally with meat, right?

In America: right.
In Britain we say things differently, that's all.

allenfarinell.blogspot.com

Source: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/ground-meat-minced-meat.2455379/

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