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Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, etc.


rotuts

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no one has suggested that you couldn't

 

get those calamari after the single bite of PLT

 

apiece , w photo documentation

 

to cleanse the palate.

 

an Ice Cold Beer would be included w the calamari and

 

perhaps fome jasmine or herbal tea.

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1 minute ago, rotuts said:

no one has suggested that you couldn't

 

get those calamari after the single bite of PLT

 

apiece , w photo documentation

 

to cleanse the palate.

 

an Ice Cold Beer would be included w the calamari and

 

perhaps fome jasmine or herbal tea.

 Maybe @Kerry Beal will be up for it. I’ve never seen her turn down a challenge.  

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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16 hours ago, lemniscate said:

The Costco Al Pastor meat substitute bowl has disappeared here locally. Very low demand.

I hope the same happens here. My local Costco  >:( completely dropped the BBQ Beef sandwich which I loved (big enough for two meals or one meal for two people). 

 

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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@TicTac

 

I agree with you completely.

 

this is about Tech of sorts making something

 

then creating a Market for it w PC Hype , and HyperHype via

 

the Thumb Typing Ultra Fast Media.

 

UltraInvestors , not really betting their own money

 

see a need for continued massive profits , as a continuations of their

 

HedgeFund profits 

 

more for me now , possibly a bit for your in a bit.

 

for me Im interested in the taste  and the economics 

 

I think many things that seem complicated are not :

 

I might recite the roster , but will not.

 

what to eat less beef for  1   (#R^#@R%   2 ) $T)%T&#%R&#@ 

 

well , eat less beef !

 

synthetic beef will reach a steady point 

 

and only supply the Out to Brunch , as long as their are Ferns , and Large Green Potted Plant

 

those that order an Egg White Omelette .

 

but so interesting to follow 

 

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@rotuts - agreed!

 

It almost makes me want to market my 'umami bomb' bean burger.  Sure it does not taste like beef (I did not attempt to make it so!), but it sure is delicious!

 

Never ceases to scare me how susceptible most of the population is to marketing bull$h!t!

 

 

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Oh hell we have the thriving chain Veggie Grill here. All mock meat. Years ago I bought a cold prepared dish at 99 Ranch - i did not realize until  later that it was Buddhist vegetarian - I thought it was a ham/spam product in there - but nope-  t'was fake meat in 1994....   https://www.veggiegrill.com/

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Tonight I took the liberty to revisit the “Beyond Meat” burger at the Cathay First Class lounge at Hong Kong, prior to my flight to Germany. The other choices were tempting, but I felt I needed to give the product one chance to convince, with some modifications to counteract the shortcomings of last time ...

 

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So, this time I ordered it with Grueyere and extra pickles (and double fries). Well - it makes a decent burger! I was contemplating about the texture and actually it it close to a burger made from lean beef and cooked medium-rare. Tastewise it is lacking; but with the extra pickles and the sharp cheese it works out. Extra ketchup to counteract the slight “dryness” (as opposed to a full-fat beef patty and two larger whiskey highballs completed a quite pleasant meal.

 

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So, I cooked my Impossible Burger product tonight.  I used a recipe from Milk Street Tuesday Nights for Vietnamese meatballs in lettuce wraps.  The recipe was written for pork so I used the cooking guidelines on the Impossible site (425 for about 10 minutes) and the meatballs temped at 130 and were "bleeding."   Obviously this is not the best method for tasting the product itself (the meatballs had cilantro, chiles, scallions, fish sauce etc).  My husband and I both enjoyed it.  I'm tentatively a fan, and can see us not buying ground turkey or chicken anymore.

 

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13 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

So, I cooked my Impossible Burger product tonight.  I used a recipe from Milk Street Tuesday Nights for Vietnamese meatballs in lettuce wraps.  The recipe was written for pork so I used the cooking guidelines on the Impossible site (425 for about 10 minutes) and the meatballs temped at 130 and were "bleeding."   Obviously this is not the best method for tasting the product itself (the meatballs had cilantro, chiles, scallions, fish sauce etc).  My husband and I both enjoyed it.  I'm tentatively a fan, and can see us not buying ground turkey or chicken anymore.

 

 

Your application makes sense to me, Not just a splat of patty. I may cave and try

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@Margaret Pilgrim

 

Ive never made a 4 Star Meatloaf w beef , or " Meatlaof - Mix "

 

my Turkey Meat Loaf   on the other hand ,  has gotten a lot of Kudos , and I love it.

 

but I like the " Traditional USA Turkey Dinner "

 

I'd never make a BYND loaf of any kind.  I just don't see the point.

 

I can see Vietnamese meatballs , for a non beef eater.

 

but its not the fake-meat , its the seasonings Id say.

 

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Parenthetically, I had occasion to be in a Carl's Jr. last week.    I wanted something small, so ordered the smallest burger.    Very good bun, a ton of fresh veg (iceberg, tomato, onion), pickles, mayo.   Then the beef.    A third inch thick patty of dry, dense, well done ground meat.    Toss it and you have a good sandwich.   

 

I'd blind choose the Beyond easily.      But I am judging strictly on my personal preferences, not on nutritional or ethical concerns.    I just can't swallow well done ground beef.    BEYOND has the mouth feel and texture I look for, plus enough grill flavor to trick my palate.    

 

I know.    I'm weird. 

eGullet member #80.

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Relevant article in The New Yorker: Can a Burger Help Solve Climate Change?

 

Quote

Pat Brown [is a] sixty-five-year-old emeritus professor of biochemistry at Stanford University, Brown is the founder and C.E.O. of Impossible Foods. By developing plant-based beef, chicken, pork, lamb, dairy, and fish, he intends to wipe out all animal agriculture and deep-sea fishing by 2035. His first product, the Impossible Burger, made chiefly of soy and potato proteins and coconut and sunflower oils, is now in seventeen thousand restaurants.

 

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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  • 2 weeks later...

NYtimes got around to reviewing the FakeMeat burgers , plain on a bun , and w fix'ins :

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/dining/veggie-burger-taste-test.html

 

as this is probably behind a pay wall , for review purposes the top two  were :

 

 

1. Impossible Burger

★★★★½

Maker Impossible Foods, Redwood City, Calif.

Slogan “Made From Plants For People Who Love Meat”

Selling points Vegan, gluten-free.

 

Price $8.99 for a 12-ounce package.

Tasting notes “The most like a beef burger by far,” was my first scribbled note. Everyone liked its crisp edges, and Pete noted its “brawny flavor.” My daughter was convinced it was a real ground beef patty, slipped in to confuse us. The only one of the six contenders that includes genetically modified ingredients, the Impossible Burger contains a compound (soy leghemoglobin) created and manufactured by the company from plant hemoglobins; it quite successfully replicates the “bloody” look and taste of a rare burger. Melissa deemed it “charred in a good way,” but, like most plant-based burgers, it became rather dried out before we finished eating. 

Ingredients Water, soy protein concentrate, coconut oil, sunflower oil, natural flavors, 2 percent or less of: potato protein, methylcellulose, yeast extract, cultured dextrose, food starch-modified, soy leghemoglobin, salt, soy protein isolate, mixed tocopherols (vitamin E), zinc gluconate, thiamine hydrochloride (vitamin B1), sodium ascorbate (vitamin C), niacin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin B12.

 
 
and
 

2. Beyond Burger

★★★★

Maker Beyond Meat, El Segundo, Calif.

Slogan “Go Beyond”

Selling points Vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, non-G.M.O.

Price $5.99 for two four-ounce patties.

Tasting notes The Beyond Burger was “juicy with a convincing texture,” per Melissa, who also commended its “roundness, with lots of umami.” Her daughter identified a faint but pleasing smoky flavor, reminiscent of barbecue-flavored potato chips. I liked its texture: crumbly but not dry, as a burger should be. This burger was the most visually similar to one made of ground beef, evenly marbled with white fat (made from coconut oil and cocoa butter) and oozing a bit of red juice, from beets. Over all, Pete said, a “real beefy” experience.

Ingredients Water, pea protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, cocoa butter, mung bean protein, methylcellulose, potato starch, apple extract, salt, potassium chloride, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, sunflower lecithin, pomegranate fruit powder, beet juice extract (for color).

 
 
I never cooked the IB at home.  only had it at BK
 
one thing is they don't comment on ' after taste '
 
for me , the IB had a pronounced free split pea flavor.
 
of interest on the economic side of these trends :
 
BM.jpg.bbbc3ef6b655fb5797f2b4aa37cc6c9c.jpg

 

 

the lock-up period ends Oct 29th.   that's the date any shares owned by employees , early investors etc can be sold

 

on the op[en market.

 

 

 

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Today was supposed to be my CFS delivery, three days worth of fish.  Storms offshore prevented the boats from going out and now the fish is coming Friday.  So, not wanting to go to the food store, I broke out another package of Imposible Burger and made Italian-American style meatballs.  The seasonings were basil, oregano, garlic, onion, red pepper flakes, and cracked pepper.  Binders were egg, breadcrumb and pecorino.  No added salt because this product has plenty of sodium.  Served with sauce I made from the last vacuum sealed and deep frozen bag of tomato pulp from last year's garden.  Pretty tasty for mystery food.

 

 

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I’m not sure how well it’s selling in my area  ... - the price has gone (I think in the last 6-8 months) from around $8.99 for a 4 pack of patties - to $5.99 for the same 4-pack - I don’t believe it’s a sale price - I’ve been seeing it consistently. btw - I live just East of Dallas - 

 

However, beef itself seeks extremely well here. 

I have an EpiPen ... my friend gave it to me when he was dying ... it seemed very important to him that I have it ... 

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in todays WSJ there was a short opinion piece on BYND and Faux-Meat :

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/plant-based-meat-is-all-hat-and-no-cattle-11572997943

 

for review purposes here :

 

 

Beyond Meat’s stock has tumbled back to Earth after peaking at $234.90 a share in late July. The “plant-based meat” company’s stock closed at $81.45 Tuesday, and it may be the beginning of worse to come. What if the alt-meat industry turns out to be a nothingburger?

Beyond Meat’s current value is six times the size of the entire fake-meat market even though the company’s market share is only 2.1%. Much of the talk about Beyond Meat’s prospects has focused on increased competition, especially from meat industry giants looking to hedge their bets.

Conagra’s Gardein and Kellogg’s Morningstar Farms have established customer bases and brand recognition. In 2017 Maple Leaf Foods,Canada’s largest protein producer, acquired Lightlife and swallowed up 38% of the U.S. plant-based protein market. Now, producers including Tyson, Smithfield and JBS are joining the plant-based party.

But will consumer demand for alt-meat grow, or are consumers merely trying out an expensive curiosity?

There are signs of slippage. Tim Hortons has pulled Beyond Meat products from all Canadian stores outside British Columbia and Ontario. Del Taco reports sales from Beyond Meat products were down 33% in the third quarter. McDonald’s faux-burger test in Canada hasn’t been a blowout, while Popeye’s selling out of its new chicken sandwich shows demand for real meat is still high.

 

and

 

Plant-based burgers aren’t healthier than meat, despite their health halo. The Beyond Burger has 400% more sodium than an actual lean burger, along with roughly the same amount of calories and fat. Fake meats are ultra-processed, according to the NOVA food classification system. They can have upward of 40 ingredients, including titanium dioxide, a whitening agent used in paint and plastics, and methylcellulose, a bulking agent commonly used in laxatives.

Brands such as Panera have marketed “clean food” with few or no additives. Fake meat goes in the opposite direction, and the deceptive health halo around it is a significant liability. Nearly 40% of consumers say they eat plant-based products to avoid processed foods. Will they keep eating faux meat when they find out the truth about it?

Increased competition from established food companies will put pressure on startups like Beyond Meat in the short term and likely reduce margins. But more entrants doesn’t necessarily mean more demand. In 2013 “gluten-free” was the health craze. Companies left and right were adding gluten-free consumer options. As studies revealed gluten-free products weren’t healthier or necessary, except for consumers with unusual medical conditions, the trend faded away.

Likewise, if consumer interest in “plant-based meat” is more curiosity than commitment, these companies could be in a serious food fight for dominance over a mere niche market.

 

 

 

I find this ' market ' very interesting to follow.  a lot of PR and psychology involved in these products .

 

then there is this :

 

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4302385-beyond-meat-time-buy

 

as far as I can tell , its not a pay site.

 

I personally think the ice is thin and Big Beef need not worry about them.  they do have plenty of other things to worry about.

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