Beyond Burger

Fake, or should I say plant-based, burgers and meat are all the rage these days. Several restaurants are heavily advertising these alternatives to beef. I've also read a few articles that compare plant-based to real. Most of them are quite complementary to the plants. Livestock of all types seems to be the newest enemy in our environmental battles for a variety of reasons including cow farts and burps. 

So I tried to be environmentally correct last tonight. I cooked one of those plant-based burgers. It was a Beyond Burger from the Beyond Meat Company. Spoiler alert, this did not turn out well. 

See that nice pink patty in the above picture. My patties were closer to grey. I cooked the patty in a skillet on the stovetop. I even followed the recommended cooking instructions which were four minutes per side over medium-high heat. This "meat" does not smell that great raw and was even worse during cooking. Not a rancid smell, but not pleasant. It also tended to burn a little, the second side worse than the first. There was almost no juice exuded during the cooking. On the bright side, there were no grease splatters to clean up.

Now for the taste test. The short story, after two bites I threw the patty out. The longer story, it was rather dry and the texture was strange. It even seemed to have some gristle. Do they add artificial gristle for more realism? There was no pink center. In fact, there was no color variation except for the burnt spots on the top and bottom. 

The package states "previously frozen". The ones I bought were not frozen and were in the regular meat case. They are supposed to be eaten within three days of thawing. I did eat it by the "use by" sticker on the package although I have no idea when the store actually thawed the package. These plant burgers are no bargain either. The two ¼ lb. patties, a ½ lb total, cost $5.99. That makes this "meat" about $12/lb. That would buy some mighty special ground beef, more expensive than Wagyu beef.

I did some research and it seems these plant burgers are really no healthier than real beef. It depends on what you are most sensitive to or need in your diet. 

4 oz Beyond Burger →

Calories: 250

Total fat: 18 g

Saturated fat: 6 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 390 mg

Carbohydrate: 3 g

Fiber: 2 g

Protein: 20 g

4 oz Grass-fed beef burger →

Calories: 224

Total fat: 14 g

Saturated fat: 6 g

Cholesterol: 70 mg

Sodium: 77 mg

Carbohydrate: 0 g

Fiber: 0 g

Protein: 22 g

Another issue for me is the ingredient list. Beyond Burgers are truly a man-made manufactured product. Real beef contains one ingredient: cow. A Beyond Burger, however, includes 18 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, and beet juice extract (the beet juice gives the burger its meat-like “blood”). I did not detect any "blood". 

Beyond Burgers might be fine for some people, vegetarians or vegans for example. As for me, I'm going to wait for science to get a little better at imitating a cow. 

wjh