Yield: 8 tacos (about 2 oz / 57 g raw beef each)

Baking Soda Taco Meat: When to Add It and the Sodium

A technique fact-check of baking soda in taco meat: where it goes in, how three published recipes order it, the sodium per taco from the soda, beef and salt, and the 160 F check.

Prep Time10 minutes

Cook Time15 minutes

Rest after mixing in the soda15 minutes

Total Time40 minutes

Ingredients

Beef and baking soda

• 1 lb (454 g) ground beef, 90/10, 454 g; the nutrition below uses raw 90/10
• 1/4 tsp (1.15 g) baking soda, 1.15 g; food-grade, aluminum-free, not baking powder
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) water, 15 mL; water for dissolving the soda

Filling

• 1 tsp (about 5 mL) salt, about 5 mL is our volume conversion; added after the rest, with the spices
• per package or to taste taco seasoning, homemade blend or packet, follow the weights on the package or your blend; its sodium is not counted in the nutrition
• as needed tomato sauce or water, measure the liquid in mL as you pour; added only after the beef has browned; not counted in the nutrition

Instructions

Method

1. Dissolve the soda. Stir 1/4 tsp (1.15 g) baking soda into 1 tbsp (15 mL) water until no grains are left.
2. Mix it into the raw beef first. Break 1 lb (454 g) raw beef apart in a wide bowl. Drizzle the soda water over it and work it through until it is spread evenly. No salt and no spices yet.
3. Rest 15 minutes. Let the beef sit for 15 minutes. The three pages don't say where to rest it. Once Upon a Chef rests its beef 15 minutes to 1 hour; we use the short end.
4. Add the salt and the spices. Mix 1 tsp salt and your taco seasoning through the rested beef.
5. Brown before any liquid. Heat the skillet, add the beef in an even layer and leave it until the bottom shows color. Then break it into crumbles and keep cooking until it is browned. Keep the liquid out of the pan until now.
6. Add the liquid and simmer. Pour in the tomato sauce or water and simmer uncovered until the filling is as loose or as thick as you like.
7. Check 160 F. Put a food thermometer into the filling and read it in more than one spot. The beef must reach 160 F (71 C). Color is not a reliable sign it is done.

Notes

Dose: 1/4 tsp (1.15 g) per lb (454 g) is our default from the ground beef page. The three taco pages use 1/4 tsp (ATK), 1/2 tsp (Once Upon a Chef) and 1/2 tsp (Fox 13). None of them gives a beef weight, so we cannot convert their doses to a dose per pound.

Order: this is our card's choice. The start (soda in the raw beef before the spices) is drawn mostly from Once Upon a Chef and ATK. Browning before the liquid comes from Once Upon a Chef alone; ATK says to cook until no longer pink, and Fox 13 has no browning step.

Times: prep, rest and pan times are our planning figures. The three pages give no total time; the only pan time is ATK's 5 to 7 minutes to break up the beef.

Salt: 1 tsp, with about 5 mL as our volume conversion. For sodium we use the FDA equivalence of about 1 tsp of table salt to 2,300 mg sodium.

Nutrition note: values are estimates calculated by us. The beef figures and macros reuse the numbers on our ground beef page (typical USDA FoodData Central values for raw 90/10 ground beef, FDC 174030), halved for a 2 oz (57 g) portion, plus the baking soda and 1 tsp salt. Eight tacos at 2 oz (57 g) of raw beef each is our assumption, filling only, no shell. Sodium is about 39 mg from the soda, about 37 mg from the beef and about 288 mg from the salt. The seasoning, liquid and any onion are not counted, so the sodium is a floor. Carbs, sugar and fiber are left out because the seasoning and tomato sauce cannot be calculated without their amounts. Cooking and draining change the final numbers.

Storage: the Once Upon a Chef page gives up to 3 days in the refrigerator and up to 3 months in the freezer for its cooked filling. We found no source on keeping raw beef already treated with baking soda.