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Meatless meat
May. 15th, 2019 10:58 amI am in a quandary right now over whether I should make another cup of coffee at home, or walk down to our new local coffee shop.
I want to support the shop and encourage more of that kind of stuff to move into our neighbourhood, so I think I'll go for a walk once I get the bread started. OK, crisis averted - on with the meat of this post.
Or lack of meat in this case.
Safeway/Sobey's has started carrying the Beyond Meat burgers. We've had them at A&W (before both of the restaurants in our neighbourhood caught fire and shut down - nothing suspicious there) and we liked them.
They sell them in two-packs, and the instructions seem to suggest that you treat them like regular burgers. They said something about cooking them for four minutes per side, but I prefer to go by visuals and temperatures. I gave them a good sear and kept them on the heat until they reached the recommended internal temperature of 165F. I also seasoned them the same way I'd have seasoned regular burgers on the grill.
The results were quite good. Other than the texture being a bit less chewy than a regular burger, the flavour and juiciness were on point. Like the ones they have at A&W, if I'd not known in advance that it was a vegan burger, I would not have guessed as much.
I think my only criticism with them at the moment is their premium price tag. I am all for reducing my carbon footprint by switching to plant-based proteins, but the manufacturers need to meet us halfway on that. I think this is likely an issue of production volumes, and if these things catch on more widely, the price will likely drop as they ramp up production to meet the market demand. Right now they can barely keep up with demand, so they are priced accordingly.
I also tweaked my custom burger sauce a bit last night, and I think I am zeroing in onperfection divinity pretty good! Since I am probably not going to be opening a restaurant that features my secret sauce, I'll give you the recipe if you want to try it.
I start with equal parts ketchup (French's if that makes any difference, because fuck Heinz) and mayonnaise.
Originally I planned to add Thousand Islands dressing and a bit of mustard to that, but since we didn't have the latter, I substituted French dressing in about half the amount of the ketchup or mayo. Since French dressing has mustard in it already, I skipped that. I then added some powdered onion and powdered garlic respectively. Finally I finished with a few drops of liquid smoke and a good dash of red pepper flakes. The resulting sauce has a nice mix of sweet, savoury, smoky and tangy all in one sauce.
In a slightly more formal layout:
1/2 tbsp Ketchup
1/2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1 tsp French Dressing
1/4 tsp Onion Powder
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
2-3 drops liquid smoke (more or less to taste)
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
Obviously adjust all of these up or down accordingly depending on your tastes, and how many burgers you are making.
I want to support the shop and encourage more of that kind of stuff to move into our neighbourhood, so I think I'll go for a walk once I get the bread started. OK, crisis averted - on with the meat of this post.
Or lack of meat in this case.
Safeway/Sobey's has started carrying the Beyond Meat burgers. We've had them at A&W (before both of the restaurants in our neighbourhood caught fire and shut down - nothing suspicious there) and we liked them.
They sell them in two-packs, and the instructions seem to suggest that you treat them like regular burgers. They said something about cooking them for four minutes per side, but I prefer to go by visuals and temperatures. I gave them a good sear and kept them on the heat until they reached the recommended internal temperature of 165F. I also seasoned them the same way I'd have seasoned regular burgers on the grill.
The results were quite good. Other than the texture being a bit less chewy than a regular burger, the flavour and juiciness were on point. Like the ones they have at A&W, if I'd not known in advance that it was a vegan burger, I would not have guessed as much.
I think my only criticism with them at the moment is their premium price tag. I am all for reducing my carbon footprint by switching to plant-based proteins, but the manufacturers need to meet us halfway on that. I think this is likely an issue of production volumes, and if these things catch on more widely, the price will likely drop as they ramp up production to meet the market demand. Right now they can barely keep up with demand, so they are priced accordingly.
I also tweaked my custom burger sauce a bit last night, and I think I am zeroing in on
I start with equal parts ketchup (French's if that makes any difference, because fuck Heinz) and mayonnaise.
Originally I planned to add Thousand Islands dressing and a bit of mustard to that, but since we didn't have the latter, I substituted French dressing in about half the amount of the ketchup or mayo. Since French dressing has mustard in it already, I skipped that. I then added some powdered onion and powdered garlic respectively. Finally I finished with a few drops of liquid smoke and a good dash of red pepper flakes. The resulting sauce has a nice mix of sweet, savoury, smoky and tangy all in one sauce.
In a slightly more formal layout:
1/2 tbsp Ketchup
1/2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1 tsp French Dressing
1/4 tsp Onion Powder
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
2-3 drops liquid smoke (more or less to taste)
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
Obviously adjust all of these up or down accordingly depending on your tastes, and how many burgers you are making.
