Lettuce Wrap 20: Petri Dish Meats (T&C Talk)

About this Episode

We discuss the state of “plant-based meat alternatives” then taste seven different burgers, beef and not-beef, to see if we like (or can even identify!) the plant-based ones from Impossible Food and Beyond Burger. These are definitely not your old-school alternatives like Boca Burger or Gardenburger. Do these lab-engineered foods actually taste like beef? Can a self-described carnivore and a non-beef eater find common ground in these patties, or will we be left asking “Where’s the beef?!”

We start off talking about the explosion in the public consciousness about “plant based meat alternatives”, driven in part by Burger King, Carl’s Jr., White Castle and other fast food places including them on their menu (and the generally positive reviews they’ve gotten). Then we dive into the healthiness of eating plant-based burgers compared to beef burgers, talk a bit about the general squickiness we feel about eating foods engineered in a lab, and briefly explore their environmental impact.

Then we get to eating! Producer Jason, a self-professed burger lover, joins us in the taste test, where poke, prod and closely examine each burger to figure out which is which, while debating the definition of “burger” and “meat”.

We wrap up this episode with a philosophical discussion on knowing vs. not knowing what we’re eating, if beef will always be our first choice, and whether the next generation will consider animal flesh to be the weird thing to eat.