ground beef and pork mix
Also known as: carne picada mista, mixed ground meat
A pre-blended ground meat, roughly half ground beef and half ground pork, sold as a single product at many butchers and grocery stores (common in Portugal, among other places). The pork adds fat and a milder sweetness that straight ground beef doesn't have, giving a rounder flavor and juicier texture in soups, stews, meatballs, and sausage-style dishes.
Buying guidance
Where it isn't sold pre-mixed, buy ground beef and ground pork separately in roughly equal amounts and combine them by hand before cooking -- there's no real difference in the finished dish. A butcher counter will often grind a custom blend to order if asked, even where it's not pre-packaged that way.
Substitutions
- Ground beef alone -- leaner and beefier-tasting, missing some of the sweetness and richness the pork contributes.
- Ground pork alone -- sweeter and fattier, without beef's deeper savoriness.
- Ground turkey or chicken, blended half with ground pork -- a lighter option that still gets some richness from the pork half.
Tips & common mistakes
Treating it exactly like pure ground beef and draining off all the rendered fat after browning can leave a dish tasting flatter than intended -- the pork half renders a somewhat sweeter fat that's worth keeping in for flavor, within reason.
Storage
Spoils at the same pace as any ground meat -- plan to cook or freeze it within a day or two of buying. It also turns from bright pink-red toward gray in the fridge fairly quickly; that alone isn't a sign of spoilage, but a sour smell or slimy surface is.