Cooking minced/ground beef with a jar of sauce
Backstory: I've never really lived independently before (even during college) and I've never really had to fend for myself much, so please forgive this elementary cooking question.
I have about 1kg of ground/minced beef, I also have a large (~700g) jar of "spaghetti sauce".
I asked my parents what to do, but they were too busy to give anything more than fleeting advice. I understand I have to simmer the beef in the sauce for about an hour or two?
...but the beef's packaging label says it only needs about 7 minutes of cooking in a skillet or saucepan at 70degC/160degF (which seems a bit low to me - I thought all cooking was done at 100degC or above?). There are no instructions given on the jar of sauce.
What do I do? Who is correct, the beef packaging or my mother?
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160°F is the internal temperature. You don't need to worry about it. To cook it, you do this normally till the internal temperature is 160°F. What I do is use the skillet to brown my meat all the way, use a wooden ladle or spatula to break it into smaller pieces, drain the oil, add sauce and herbs and spices, let simmer, cool and server.
Personal note: rosemary will make your spaghetti sweet and unappetizing.
Fry the mince in a saucepan big enough to hold the sauce until it's brown all over, add the sauce and simmer for an hour or two.
Mince is usually made from cheap cuts of meat. This means, while it will technically be cooked after a few minutes, it will also be tough and chewy. Browning it in the pan then simmering it slowly in the sauce will result in nice tender, tasty mince.
Incidentally, 1kg of meat is a lot for one person, so be prepared to portion it out into freezer bags or tubs. All you have to do then is defrost it overnight in the fridge then reheat in the pan for a quick meal.
You might also consider bulking it up a little with some diced onions and carrots; there might be some in the sauce jar but they will be mush. Fry them in the pan for 10 minutes on a medium heat before adding the mince and proceeding as above.
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