Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, etc.

[chromedome]

15 hours ago, gfweb said:

Whopper, which I do like, has mayo and ketchup to lube-up and camouflage the meat texture and taste.  Wonder what it'd be like with just the patty compared to real meat?

Very few of the "real" burgers fare well under those circumstances...

[Margaret Pilgrim]

You might have read how loyal a supporter of BM I've been.    I LOVE Carl Jr's Beyond Burger.    Its juicy patty, ton of fresh veg, good bun.    Only problem they are BIG.    Half one with fries on a combo is good for me...and also for husband.  

 

So we're driving to the country and starting to plot our lunch stop.    Husband suggests splitting a Beyond.    Sure.    So we walk in and husband spots the promo poster for a Barbequ Beyond.    I can't squelch his enthusiasm altho it sounds gross.    

 

Wasn't wrong.    Soggy  bun.   Overcooked patty that resembled the typical/worst real burger.   NO VEG except for a thick deep fried onion ring.    Just about everything I dislike about fast food burgers.    It was, in short, awful.   Thank God for the fries.

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Continuing to beat that horse, husband just called en route to the country to say he had stopped at Carl's Jr and had a Beyond Burger and was served something he could only describe as overcooked, tasting warmed over.    Maybe it is just this Carl's, and other menu items have been of high quality.    But it seems they are not understanding how to treat or handle Beyond.     Too bad.    The first one I had there was excellent.

[liamsaunt]

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has an article in today's New York Times about how to cook with plant-based meats.  There are some interesting sounding recipes.  I have one more package of Impossible Burger languishing in my freezer, and might use it to make one of his suggested recipes.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/dining/impossible-beyond-meat.html

[heidih]

43 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has an article in today's New York Times about how to cook with plant-based meats.  There are some interesting sounding recipes.  I have one more package of Impossible Burger languishing in my freezer, and might use it to make one of his suggested recipes.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/dining/impossible-beyond-meat.html

 

Further to that Kenji did a short piece at the beginning of this hilarious interview with Claudia Fleming https://soundcloud.com/user-306003081/special-sauce-kenji-on-5  The question was about a plant based product that would be more like shredded pork or chicken. He mentioned jackfruit which is the darling of vegan cooks around my parts but also Butler's soy curls.  https://butlerfoods.com/orderonline.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAwP3yBRCkARIsAABGiPqW3ZcIT2KRYwDllXfgErekNX5-OEfy4RiY5qDryHCPaRaqFsHenDkaAv1nEALw_wcB

 

[chromedome]

The Sierra Club's environmental-impact burger throwdown:

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2020-2-march-april/taste-test/which-greenest-burger-land?mostpopular=true

 

 

[rotuts]

@chromedome

 

interesting    the S.C.  can be quite Polemical  OK :

 

""   environmental and animal-welfare disaster that is the beef industry ""

 

of disasters , this is indeed on the list.   but there are dozens of others far far worse.

 

so  the simple take away :

 

"" 

But do they make more sense, in the long run, than beans and rice? Probably not."

If you're going to eat any burger, Heller adds, eat it infrequently.  ""

 

Rice and Beans has fed the world   for a very long time.  esp the poor.

 

 

[heidih]

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

Rice and Beans has fed the world   for a very long time.  esp the poor.

 

Part of the reason I  support Steve Sando (Rancho Gordo) for his efforts in fostering bean diversity. A chickpea in every pot!  

[rotuts]

Im embossed i'm a few boxes behind

 

not any more.

[chromedome]

Spotted something interesting in my most recent grocery flyer.

Maple Leaf Foods, one of Canada's leading meat-packing companies, is also the owner of the LightLife brand of faux-meats (not as well known as Beyond and Impossible, but a very similar product). They're now selling 50/50 blends of real and faux meat (burgers, sausages, etc) for the "I'm an omnivore but want to eat less meat" demographic.

 

https://www.mapleleaf.ca/maple-leaf-50-50/

[rotuts]

obviously ' Industry "  doesnt want to miss the meatless  boat.

 

thanks for the link.

 

but , please CEO's  worrying about your future :

 

 

a sign of our times ;

 

"' I want Meat , but I don't want to eat it. "

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

having not much else going on right now ,

 

I looked into BYND:

 

this came up  and I found interesting ;

 

From  " Wells Fargo "  ,   you remember them ?   they were in the news recently

 

https://www.barrons.com/articles/sell-beyond-meat-stock-fake-beef-expensive-covid-19-job-losses-51588344068?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

 

 

[chromedome]

15 minutes ago, rotuts said:

obviously ' Industry "  doesnt want to miss the meatless  boat.

 

Major players like ADM, Cargill and Perdue are significant investors in faux meats and lab-grown meat initiatives, just as oil companies are major investors in renewables. They've all learned from the example of IBM.

 

If you ever have the chance, read Tom Watson Jr's memoir "Father and Son and Company," about his years with IBM. A crucial turning point comes at the beginning of the 50s, when newfangled electronic computers showed signs of perhaps some day challenging IBM's business machine hegemony (then built around punch-card technology). Watson Sr's first instinct was to launch all-out war on the upstarts, including a scorched-earth campaign that would have denied IBM equipment and support to any company that bought an electronic computer.

Watson Jr had a different idea..."What if we built our *own* computer?"

We all know how that turned out. IBM's existing market leverage, combined with a stellar new product, gave them several additional decades as a top company in their space. Entrenched players getting into the "next-gen meats" space hope to do the same.

[rotuts]

@chromedome 

 

Ill look into that book , as soon as my library re-opens.

 

Im not disagreeing w innovation.

 

Im finding the faux meat niche relatively small compared to beef

 

at the current price point.  its going to be quite some time to that price point down

 

for the average person.

 

however , Beef is a pretty big 

 

so the niche for FBeef is real

[chromedome]

Yes, beef in general is a pretty big niche (there's faux pork and chicken too, but that's neither here nor there), and the faux products don't make much of a dent in the overall number. I think they appeal to the same consumer who seeks out pastured, humanely raised and otherwise-premium beef products...not 100% overlap, but surely a significant chunk in the middle of the ol' Venn diagram.

In either case, there are both real and assumed benefits to be had in exchange for the premium price, and some are willing to go that route. Not gonna displace mass-market beef anytime soon, but it took a while for automobiles to displace horses as well.

[rotuts]

@chromedome 

 

you might enjoy this book :

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/19/thomas-kuhn-structure-scientific-revolutions

 

re.: IBM

 

it was very very very Hot when i was in college 

 

in a nutshell  :    Science progressed , because scientists got old and died.

 

 

[chromedome]

I've read partway through it once before, but got interrupted and never got back to it. Some of his conclusions have been hotly refuted by others, of course, but it's been a highly influential book and I really should finish it one day.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 hours ago, chromedome said:

Not gonna displace mass-market beef anytime soon, but it took a while for automobiles to displace horses as well.

 

Given the choice I'd prefer cattle.

 

[rotuts]

someone was very brave , or foolish to taste these , these days.  and took his son :

 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/tried-3-plant-based-fast-183000269.html

 

yikes !

[BKEats]

i mean, the person should have tried them next to their real offerings.. Are we assuming that the meat versions of these monstrosities are good? 

[BKEats]

Here is a beyond sausage on a portuguese roll with pickled peppers and mustard... I think the beyond sausage is a fantastic product.  Especially the farther I am from eating pork based sausage 

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by BKEats (log)

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, BKEats said:

i mean, the person should have tried them next to their real offerings.. Are we assuming that the meat versions of these monstrosities are good? 

Yeah, that.

It wasn't a review or a critique, as such, just an opportunity for a bit of snark. (shrug) Fill your boots, dude...

[rotuts]

Interesting ;

 

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/07/03/3-differences-between-beyond-meat-and-impossible-f.aspx

 

this stuff isn't for me

 

but its interesting to follow .

 

at least no ( publicly disclosed )  effort is being made to create

 

Beyond or Impossible Bacon.

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

Interesting ;

 

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/07/03/3-differences-between-beyond-meat-and-impossible-f.aspx

 

this stuff isn't for me

 

but its interesting to follow .

 

at least no ( publicly disclosed )  effort is being made to create

 

Beyond or Impossible Bacon.

LOL I"d be deeply shocked if someone isn't working on it, somewhere. At least as something that can be sold in "pre-cooked" form, to avoid the whole complication of streaks of fat (difficult to replicate, essential to the cooking).

 

Up here one of our major meatpacking companies, Maple Leaf, is the owner of the Light Life brand of faux-meat products. They've recently begun selling 50/50 mixes of real and faux meat, as I believe I've mentioned upthread, presumably for those who want to reduce but not eliminate their meat consumption. I had the opportunity to buy a 2-pack of the burgers at a deep discount ($2.99 instead of $6.99 or $7.99) so we tried them the other night.

They weren't bad. The texture was slightly off compared to a conventional burger, but the veg content (like Beyond, the Light Life product is built from pea protein) actually may have worked in its favor...pre-formed supermarket burgers often have a distinctively "chewy" texture, which in this case seems to have been negated by the veg protein. My GF is under orders to keep red meat consumption to a minimum to a) address her suddenly-high cholesterol, and b) skew her diet in a less inflammatory direction to reduce the risk of her RA flaring up; so this is something we'll probably eat repeatedly through the summer. I also have a pack of the 50/50 ground beef mixture that was purchased at a 50% discount, so that'll probably become meatballs or lasagna or something.

[rotuts]

Yikes !

 

 

Its Here   

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJYWM-5taIE

 

on the other hand , maybe you can program in 

 

"  Extra Wagyu "

 

you know , that synthetic white Cr*p !