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Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

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Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#511

Post by grecy »

rayiner wrote: post #501
grecy wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the fat, salt and sugar content of what you're eating from McDonald's It's no closer to food than Doritos or Coke are.

The fat and salt content of the meal I’d get at a fancy restaurant is also very high, but nobody would call that “not real food.” Yuppies only fixate about the nutritional content of fast food because the proles eat it. It’s a species of virtue signaling.

Of course you could choose to buy that - but that's like saying I'll fly to Cancun and stay in the worst possible $1/night hotel... obviously you're going to have a bad time.

I personally would choose grass fed beef or bison or chicken, multiple steamed or roasted vegetables and I would not add salt, ketchup or salad dressing. And no soda.

In that case, the food is of much higher quality than anything I can buy at McDonalds.

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#512

Post by Aromasin »

0xffff2 wrote: post #424
telesilla wrote: post #103

I'm preparing a large dinner for an organisation at the moment and decided that we'd make the menu vegan/vegetarian (we use a wonderful Italian caterer, so flavour isn't going to be missed). When I mentioned it to some omnivore colleagues, they asked why and I shrugged and said "the Amazon is burning". They shrugged back and said, makes sense. It's not many years since I would have expected complaints at not catering…

vegan/vegetarian Which is it? Vegetarian would hardly be worth complaining about, but I'm really struggling to come up with a vegan Italian menu that sounds appetizing.

A menu off the top of my head;

-A mixed antipasto (olives, sun dried tomatoes, bruschetta, breaded garlic mushrooms, griller artichokes, dolmades etc.) to graze on before the meal.

-Panelle Palermitane to start, which are these crescent shaped fitters made with chickpea flour, parsley and pepper. They're a popular street food in northern Sicily. Highly recommend with a little drizzle of lemon juice.

-I can think of 10 odd pasta dishes that could be had for main but a favourite of mine would probably be a puttanesca; a pasta dish with olives, capers, eggplant and red pepper flakes. Proper rustic food and very filling.

-For desert you could have a Castagnaccio which is a chestnut cake with fruits. No milk or egg involved. Great with a shot of espresso!

-Sorbets throughout to cleanse the palate.

That's just 1 option for each part, but you could probably build a dish for each course for each day of the week if needed - all varied in ingredients and flavours.

Honestly, I'd say close to 30% of my diet is Italian - all of it vegan. There are plenty of options. Unfortunately most of the food people think of when they think Italy is something lathered with cheese and cured meats, but when I travelled through there most of the diet consisted of legume based stews, casseroles and soups, and plenty of bread and salads.

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#513

Post by [deleted] »

ceejayoz wrote: post #402
ghaff wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are only 579,000 results for that phrase from a Google search. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22plant-based+meat%22&oq=%2...

102,000 of those are "plant-based meat alternatives". 46,700 are for "plant-based meat substitutes". I'd imagine there are quite a few other synonyms that continue to winnow it down.

[deleted]

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#514

Post by mynameisvlad »

wolco wrote: post #432
mynameisvlad wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several things to unpack here: - Unless you are in the SLT of KFC, you have absolutely no way to know what's in their spice blend. It is one of the most closely guarded recipes in the world. - There's famously 11 spices in the original recipe. So not only could you not possibly know what's in it (and therefore what's questionable), but you didn't even get the number of ingredients right to criticize. - Based on all t…

Read the original link for details on the 29 ingredients not to be confused with spices. Let's address the mystery of the 11 spices. Here they are.. 2/3 Ts Salt 1/2 Ts Thyme 1/2 Ts Basil 1/3 Ts Oregano 1 Ts Celery salt 1 Ts Black pepper 1 Ts Dried mustard 4 Ts Paprika 2 Ts Garlic salt 1 Ts Ground ginger 3 Ts White pepper Have fun frying tonight.

> on the 29 ingredients not to be confused with spices.

> and 26 questionable substances out of 29 for the spices.

Maybe you should take your own advice there, buddy. I was specifically replying to what you said in your comment.

Furthermore, you can very well guess what's in the spice blend, but you still have no way to actually confirm it, nor any way to confirm it's the current recipe, or if the recipe diverged from the first one used (which was indeed leaked).

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#515

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

claudiawerner wrote: post #466
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the general US appetite for "dark meat" chicken is so low Which is sad, IMO. "All white meat chicken breast" is a bug, not a feature, IMO. Leg and thigh meat has so much more flavor and is much more juicy than breast meat.

I agree on the flavor but I think part of it is that it's a lot of hassle and just doesn't look as appealing as breast meat. There's a higher chance of biting into gristle/something hard, the meat can be "slimy", and I find that at chains that do "fried chicken", at least, they do a generally poorer job of breading the meat. It's not crunchy and battered like a "chicken tender". Thighs are a different matter since yo…

"Boneless wings" are nothing more than chicken nuggets with a fancy name.

When I cook any recipe with chicken, I replace the chicken breast with boneless thighs (Which actually is thigh meat with the bones removed), and it comes out so much better.

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#516

Post by dragonwriter »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #439
tptacek wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you make a clearer, better-cited case for "low cost chains serve meat that could barely even be called meat"? KFC serves (primarily) whole muscle chicken†, and the general US appetite for "dark meat" chicken is so low that we've been accused of "dumping" it on other countries and messing up their markets --- KFC seems to have no trouble sourcing its inputs effectively. KFC's suppliers include all the major chicke…

> and the general US appetite for "dark meat" chicken is so low Which is sad, IMO. "All white meat chicken breast" is a bug, not a feature, IMO. Leg and thigh meat has so much more flavor and is much more juicy than breast meat.

> Leg and thigh meat has so much more flavor and is much more juicy than breast meat.

It's only “much more juicy” if you prepare or cook the breast meat wrong. Of course, you often do that if you you cook them together since dark meat needs to be cooked to a higher temperature for food safety reasons.

But, yeah, dark meat has a lot more flavor (and dark meat cooked on the bone has the best.)

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#517

Post by tptacek »

dragonwriter wrote: post #516
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the general US appetite for "dark meat" chicken is so low Which is sad, IMO. "All white meat chicken breast" is a bug, not a feature, IMO. Leg and thigh meat has so much more flavor and is much more juicy than breast meat.

> Leg and thigh meat has so much more flavor and is much more juicy than breast meat. It's only “much more juicy” if you prepare or cook the breast meat wrong. Of course, you often do that if you you cook them together since dark meat needs to be cooked to a higher temperature for food safety reasons. But, yeah, dark meat has a lot more flavor (and dark meat cooked on the bone has the best.)

Kenji Alt debunked this, and did a test to confirm; the bone insulates the meat and evens out cooking, but doesn't add flavor.

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#518

Post by phonypc »

grecy wrote: post #502
crazygringo wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fries and Coke are fries and Coke. But the burger is certainly food according to anyone's definition. Get a quarter pounder with cheese and tell me how that's nutritionally any different from a burger you make at home with standard supermarket ingredients -- ground beef, hamburger bun, american cheese, ketchup, pickles, onions. Yet nobody complains about that at a neighborhood, family or church cookout.

The yellow, sugary bun is nothing I would ever bring into my own home. Not being American I'm always shocked by how low-quality the bread in the US is. Neither is the cheese, or the ground beef which would be the lowest quality possible meat in existence. What exactly did they feed those cows, and what antibiotics were they given? You are correct that I could buy and eat that stuff at home, but like I said, I could a…

Fast food buns don't tend to be particularly yellow or sugary. That's brioche, or called brioche-style at least, and comes with a price premium.

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#519

Post by phonypc »

grecy wrote: post #511
rayiner wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fat and salt content of the meal I’d get at a fancy restaurant is also very high, but nobody would call that “not real food.” Yuppies only fixate about the nutritional content of fast food because the proles eat it. It’s a species of virtue signaling.

Of course you could choose to buy that - but that's like saying I'll fly to Cancun and stay in the worst possible $1/night hotel... obviously you're going to have a bad time. I personally would choose grass fed beef or bison or chicken, multiple steamed or roasted vegetables and I would not add salt, ketchup or salad dressing. And no soda. In that case, the food is of much higher quality than anything I can buy at Mc…

You've missed his point. People are apt to call fast food not-food supposedly because of its lack of nutritional value, but don't respond in the same way to something like an expensive steak with Bearnaise sauce and buttery mashed potatoes.

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#520

Post by inimino »

rayiner wrote: post #451
inimino wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High end restaurants aren't skimping on ingredients to survive on razor thin margins in a cut-throat value-driven market segment.

What difference does that make?

The outcome is going to be different if a chef uses an unusual ingredient to create an experience, vs a chain using that same ingredient to cut costs, because they have different incentives. The chain has an incentive to buy from the cheapest source, and using more of a filler ingredient can help them cut costs. These factors aren't relevant for a high-end restaurant where the cost of ingredients is less significant to the bottom line.
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