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Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

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Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#281

Post by Mz »

athenot wrote: post #143
downandout wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Decent imitations of highly processed meat exist already I am a meat eater and I can tell you that, in my experience, this simply isn't the case. Your opinion is colored by the fact that you really, really, want it to be a decent imitation because you're a vegetarian. Every imitation meat product I have ever tasted has been immediately recognizable as such, and was almost inedible. Unfortunately, the idea of fake me…

I'm also an omnivore and have made the same observation. I think the larger issue is why do we stubbornly try to make one thing taste like another? I may be a meat-eater but I can fill my heart's content at a number of Indian vegetarian places, to the point where I don't realize I didn't eat meat. The meal as a whole is fully satiating and nourishing. In the same vein, I love tofu when it tastes like tofu. But when s…

I think the larger issue is why do we stubbornly try to make one thing taste like another?

For the same reason that people use birth control instead of abstinence: People like to "have their cake and eat it too." If we can get the part of something we value minus some downside we deem undesirable, we are all over it.

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#282

Post by mark-r »

douche wrote: post #219
pombrand wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge problem with the vegan meat replacements is that they're a lot more expensive than beef, around $7/lb vs ground beef at $3/lb. Like with coal vs solar, for imitation meat to win the market it needs to get less expensive than real meat (and taste as good).

Pork is even cheaper, for some reason. I've been buying boneless pork chops for something like $1 - $1.50 /pound for years from Market Basket stores.

With the surge of popularity of bacon, there are a lot of pigs being brought to market. Any part of the pig that isn't bacon ends up being cheap because supply/demand.

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#283

Post by broAhmed »

icelancer wrote: post #273

I feel like I see these posts regularly on HN and reddit from various companies with "meat killing" veggie meats, but they are never for sale. I sign up for the newsletters and no one ever has products for sale, just more hype. When can I try these?

As mentioned in the article, another company Beyond Meat makes some products which are currently available in some stores. Their website has a locator for which stores carry them.

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#284

Post by kbenson »

ergothus wrote: post #274
kbenson wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Efforts thus far have had only mild success (IIRC, it's been done at great cost, and it reportedly tasted terrible). I have so much hope for this. I'm not vegetarian, but I wouldn't mind cutting out animal cruelty from my life as much as possible, as it is a place I recognize cognitive dissonance in myself. I'm really hoping they can get the cost down, and since it's controlled, can start experimenting on ways to i…

> What animals are harmed to help us get better lab-grown meat? I'm assuming the acquisition of the original cells is not done at all kindly, (as in, I suspect the animal doesn't survive it), and that this is done many, many times before they perfect the process, but I'll admit that's an assumption on my part and it could be well within my ethical boundaries. I don't plan to prejudge any options until I actually know…

> I'm assuming the acquisition of the original cells is not done at all kindly, (as in, I suspect the animal doesn't survive it), and that this is done many, many times before they perfect the process

I was sort of under the impression it's animal stem cells, which doesn't necessitate death on the part of the animal (although I'll give you it's probably likely, to easy harvesting in some way). Like human stem cells, they aren't consumed entirely in use, which is good since US law precludes any new lines of stem cells in research[1]. There are 279 approved lines of cells in the US, but most researchers just use two or three lines. They just culture more cells from that line when they need them.

Well, it's only hypothetical in that it costs far too much at the moment, but if if trends continue from the extremely small dataset I've seen[2], we're seeing a 60% drop in price per year. If it's $18k a pound now, it should be under $10 a pound in 15 years (which might match the cost of beef with inflation by then). So, count on it in 15 years. Totally scientific. ;)

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem-cell_line#Access_to_human...

2: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lab-g...

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#285

Post by tamana »

downandout wrote: post #170
athenot wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also an omnivore and have made the same observation. I think the larger issue is why do we stubbornly try to make one thing taste like another? I may be a meat-eater but I can fill my heart's content at a number of Indian vegetarian places, to the point where I don't realize I didn't eat meat. The meal as a whole is fully satiating and nourishing. In the same vein, I love tofu when it tastes like tofu. But when s…

>I think the larger issue is why do we stubbornly try to make one thing taste like another? In my opinion, it's because vegetarians know that their diet is an extreme departure from the norm, and anything they can do to feel more included in the mainstream, they will do. I have relatives that are vegetarians, and being vegetarian limits their social lives to some degree (I'm sure the impact is partially dependent on…

I pity the provincial world you love in where nobody can tolerate a departure from slabs of meat. It's such a rural American perspective, alien to most of the world.

It beggars belief that you claim to be related to a vegetarian and you think that kids subsist on tofu, or even that meals are a major part of kids hanging out. Kids eat chips and pizza and pasta, all of which is vegetarian.

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#286

Post by tamana »

ergothus wrote: post #188
downandout wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think the larger issue is why do we stubbornly try to make one thing taste like another? In my opinion, it's because vegetarians know that their diet is an extreme departure from the norm, and anything they can do to feel more included in the mainstream, they will do. I have relatives that are vegetarians, and being vegetarian limits their social lives to some degree (I'm sure the impact is partially dependent on…

Your response is logical, but ultimately not true for me. As a vegetarian, I'm weird. As a picky vegetarian, I'm even weirder. That's fine, I'm used to weird, and I don't expect people to cater to my weirdness. For me, it's not about specific taste. When I went vegetarian, I lost the taste for red meat. Last time I had it (10+ years now) it was NASTY - I remembered it tasting good, but it doesn't meet (ha!) that memo…

Some meat eaters and conformists in general have a bizarre insecurity that causes them to invent elaborate just-so stories to explain how anyone who is different from them.

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#287

Post by XorNot »

ethanbond wrote: post #202
collyw wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but I am asking if thee is anything specific about carbohydrates that should be avoided (unprocessed or otherwise). Lots of people replying, no one answering my question.

No, just like there is nothing wrong with lead in safe amounts. It's a tautology and you're trying to remove your question from the context of the reality in which the statement was made.

There are no safe levels of lead. Quite literally no one has ever found a lower bound on its toxicity.

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#288

Post by douche »

tamana wrote: post #285
downandout wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think the larger issue is why do we stubbornly try to make one thing taste like another? In my opinion, it's because vegetarians know that their diet is an extreme departure from the norm, and anything they can do to feel more included in the mainstream, they will do. I have relatives that are vegetarians, and being vegetarian limits their social lives to some degree (I'm sure the impact is partially dependent on…

I pity the provincial world you love in where nobody can tolerate a departure from slabs of meat. It's such a rural American perspective, alien to most of the world. It beggars belief that you claim to be related to a vegetarian and you think that kids subsist on tofu, or even that meals are a major part of kids hanging out. Kids eat chips and pizza and pasta, all of which is vegetarian.

Pizza, at least pizza that is fit to eat, is not vegetarian...

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#289

Post by douche »

pappyo wrote: post #268
anotheryou wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ah sorry :) alright. As a non native vegetarian I don't even really know what "chuck" is, haha...

Ho! A learning opportunity. I know you're a vegetarian, but maybe this might interest you...or someone. The chuck sub-primal cut is the shoulder of the cow. As you can imagine, the shoulder gets a lot of use while the cow is alive, so there is a lot of connective tissue which makes the cut tough (fwiw the muscles that are rarely used are the most tender to eat) However, a cow being a cow and not a horse, there is a g…

A properly cooked seven bone chuck steak is a taste to behold, though. Far and away my favorite cut, with all of the marbling, on the grill. Obviously, not for you if you like your steak more than medium rare, though, since cooking it all the way through tends to make it tougher than hell.

Re: Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat

#290

Post by ergothus »

cthalupa wrote: post #179
matt4077 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in Africa chicken isn't regarded as meat, to give one example from my own experience. In western countries, there's some ambiguity around eggs, fish, and possibly lard but only as far as vegetarians can't all agree on those either.

There's plenty of disparity on what vegetarian means in India too. It varies by region and caste and plenty of other things. Some find eggs, fish, and other things acceptable, some don't, and only ~30% of observant Hindus would fit a strict definition of vegetarian. Brahmins are often more strict, etc etc.

Good to know. Reminds me of my favorite expression. "Inside the U.S., a hundred years is a long time. Outside the U.S., a hundred miles is a long distance".
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