A manager of group homes for developmentally disabled adults is seeking creative ways to repurpose large weekly donations of fatty, collagen-rich beef tenderloin scraps from restaurants, which are unsuitable for direct consumption. The unseasoned, thick-cut waste—typically received in 8-10 pound frozen bags—has proven difficult to use in traditional dishes like burgers or ground meat due to its dry, crumbly texture. While the manager has experimented with trimming it for sandwiches or a beef "salad," they’re looking for practical recipes that could reduce food waste and stretch limited grocery budgets for residents’ activities. The challenge highlights how food rescue programs can face hurdles in transforming surplus restaurant trimmings into usable meals.
I manage group homes for developmentally disabled adults. We work with an organization to receive food donations from restaurants and distribute it to the people living in our homes. One of the things we get is frozen 8-10 pound bags of off cuts of unseasoned cooked beef tenderloin and we get a lot of it every week. We probably get 100 pounds weekly, sometimes more. It's very fatty and has thick bits of collagen in it. You couldn't eat it as is. It's pretty much waste product from the restaurant. I can spend some time trimming it and I make a chopped beef sandwich with it with onions and peppers. I also trimmed some and ran it through a meat grinder. https://imgur.com/a/k7vn8w6 The results was very dry and crumbly. It doesn't hold together to make a patty. I made a kind of tuna salad, but y'know beef. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I might be able to do with this? It feels like it would be such a waste to throw away and the more money I save on their grocery bills the more there is to spend on outings and activities. edit - here's a pic of some unground meat https://imgur.com/a/QA1CH2I submitted by /u/JamesIncandenza [link] [comments]
