A couple months ago, I wrote about my various attempts at finding substitutes for meat, something I started doing to cut down the amount of meat I consume, as doctors’ (repeatedly) suggested. That post talked about the entirety of my efforts, including how at first Nigel and I tried meat-like substitutes so that we could just adapt the meals we ordinarily made. I haven’t done much of that for the past few years, but yesterday I made an exception.
Back in November last year, US company Impossible Foods launched their burger patties in New Zealand. It had been delayed, like so much else, by Covid, and also because they needed to get regulatory approval for their fake blood additive, leghemoglobin, which is derived from genetically modified soy, something involves the fermentation of a yeast called Picha pastoris. Genetically modified food ingredients usually need special approval to be used in products sold in New Zealand, which is extremely restrictive in how and when genetically modified things can be used.
In March of this year, Countdown supermarkets started selling the Impossible Burger patties, and this past Wednesday I picked some up to try (photo below).
There are several aspects to burger substitutes: The first is, of course, the taste, but price and ingredients are also important. Ingredients are particularly important to me—even more so than taste—for a variety of reasons.
When I opened the pack and removed the patties, with some difficulty, I noticed how much they looked and felt like meat patties. The instructions said to cook two minutes per side to one’s choice of doneness. I made cheeseburgers with the burger patties (real cheese, not vegan) using my ribbed grill pan, and turned each pattie three times, as I would with real meat patties, because it puts a nice sort of lattice pattern on them (visual appeal matters). I thought they were nice—not the nicest I’ve ever had, but better than the Beyond Meat patties Nigel and I tried (to me, they have a funny taste to them).
This is where ingredients come into the story: Both the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burgers are made in the USA—imported from a distance. The Impossible patties have lots of ingredients and are fortified with vitamins. It’s protein comes from soybeans, which may be a concern for some people: I read somewhere that most (or perhaps all) soybeans grown in the USA are generically modified, but the product definitely contains the genetically modified product, the fake blood.
Beyond Burgers, also made in the USA, have a somewhat simpler ingredients list, two points of which caught my eye: They contain “Pea Protein Isolate” (which isn’t further specified), along with rice protein. What concerned me a bit is that it contains potassium chloride, which is used as a low-sodium salt substitute. I’m supposed to avoid that because the blood pressure medication I take is potassium based (not that burgers consumed one night would have enough to affect me, but still). The patties also have “Beet Juice Extract” for colour, rather than genetically engineered fake blood.
The biggest issue with these burger substitutes is cost: They sure ain’t cheap. The Impossible Burger Patties are $12 (today, US$6.96) per 113g 2 pattie pack (a quarter US pound is approximately 113 grams), which works out to $10.62/100g. Obviously, that works out to $6 per pattie/burger, and it would be far cheaper to use real meat—or to buy a burger from a fast food joint.
The Beyond Meat Burger Patties are $12.50 (today, US$7.25) per 226g pack, which works out to $5.53/100g. In other words, the patties are twice as heavy—each one roughly 1/4 US pound—for nearly the same price, and so, arguably better value.
Based on flavour alone, I personally preferred the Impossible Burger—I thought it was really nice and very much like meat. However, I’d only rank it second, with Beyond Burger at third. The one I’d rank best of all is only available in New Zealand from fast food places, and that could mean the cooking methods affect the flavour, and maybe it wouldn’t be as good at home.
At any rate, back in February of 2020, a month after I moved to Hamilton, I tried Burger King NZ’s “Rebel Whooper”, something I forgot to mention here on the blog at the time. The plant-based pattie is made in Australia by a company called V2 Food. It was very, very nice, and—to me—indistinguishable from the regular meat-based Whopper. It is my top choice—so far.
There’s one more alternative, a beef mince product from Sunfed, a New Zealand company that makes vegan meat substitutes. Nigel and I tried their chicken substitute in February of 2019, and that effort was a failure. My brother-in-law, who was staying with me for a bit after Nigel died, took a pack out of the freezer to make a dish with it, and it was much better than mine had been, suggesting that my failure was definitely user error.
The same evening I bought the Impossible Burger patties, I also bought a pack of Sunfed's beef mince substitute, “Bull Free Beef Raw Prime Mince” (photo up top). To back a fair comparison, I should have made it into burger patties, but since I’d had burgers the night before, I wasn’t keen. Instead, I was in the mood for savoury mince on toast (using an online recipe, because it’s been longer than I can remember since I last made it; I used to make it for Nigel and me, but maybe not since). It was an incomplete success.
It started out well enough, but just as with the chicken, it ended up less meat-like than I’d hoped. That was because I actually made the same mistake: I cooked it in the sauce, instead of adding it to the sauce at the end. Even so, the flavour was nice enough, and I thought even as it was it would’ve made a nice sloppy joe, or a BBQ beef sort of sandwich thing, because that’s often shredded beef. Still, I’d experiment with it again (and I still have their bacon substitute to try).
I don’t have specifics on costs because of the post-errand tragedy I mentioned yesterday (the Countdown receipt was ruined by the spilled yoghurt). However, They also make a “Bull Free Beef Diced Beef” (which is chunks, rather than minced). That product is $13 (today, US$7.54) per 300g pack, which works out to $4.33/100g. The “Bull Free Beef Raw Prime Mince” comes in a 350g pack, though, and if the price is roughly the same, it would be around $3.74 per 100g. Either way, it’s the best value—if I can get the cooking method right.
Sunfed products are made in New Zealand from pea protein, and the beef products are coloured with beetroot juice (which means if I did make burgers from their mince, I’d need to wear gloves to avoid staining my hands). All their products are also GMO free, unlike at least one of the American products.
And that’s my latest round of kitchen adventures.
Important Note: The names of brands/products/companies listed in this post are all registered trademarks, and are used here for purposes of description and clarity. No company or entity provided any support or payment for this blog post, and all products were purchased by me at normal consumer prices. So, the opinions I expressed are my own genuinely held opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the manufacturers, any retailer, or any known human being, alive or dead, real or corporate. Just so we’re clear.
All photos are my own.
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