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To open, a few weeks ago I went to Fatburger to get another Impossible Burger. It had been a while, but I remembered that it was good. Fatburger must have gotte

To open, a few weeks ago I went to Fatburger to get another Impossible Burger. It had been a while, but I remembered that it was good. Fatburger must have gotten their grillin’ chops down, because the whole time I was eating it I wondered if they didn’t mistakenly give me real meat. I didn’t remember it being that good. Whatever, I’m not not that much of a hard-core vegetarian. But I need a repro, so I went back a week later. That’s when I saw the sign saying, “Meat. Made from plants. <cutesy blurb>”. Vegetarian Me says “yea!”. Truth-in-advertising Me says, “meh, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that”. OTOH, I knew full what they mean. Oh, and Fatburger didn’t make a mistake the first time. Impossible Burger is just that good.

jfengel 7y ago
I think in a side-by-side test of the bare burger, you'd have no trouble telling which is which. But most burger chains serve their burgers with an array of toppings, sauces, condiments, and other things that make it nearly impossible to taste the actual patty. There are so many layers that all the burger itself provides is a bit of chewy texture. The texture of an Impossible Burger doesn't have quite the same mouthfeel as one made out of cow, but if you're not expressly looking for it, you'd easily miss it. If they accidentally substituted it for a meat burger, I'd wager well over 80% of the patrons wouldn't notice.
- tluyben2 7y ago
  > I think in a side-by-side test of the bare burger Our supplier of impossible meat gave us bratwursten last time to try and yeah, I would say you will have a very hard time doing blind test between those and the real thing. They are not only simply very good: they are absolutely convincing next to the real thing. Again, for me they do not need to be but I think our meat consumption is unsustainable and far worse (for me), animal torture, so if this can help others eat /less/ meat, it is good. Disclaimer; I know most people just do not have the financial room to do this; it is all very expensive (at least here). Nice vegetarian cooking (I do not know if this goes for vegan as well or not) can be done very cheap if you have some time to shop and prepare. But all these ‘plant based meats’, at least here in the EU, are very expensive. 12 hamburgers from the freezer which are meat (well, some kind of very cheap waste meat) at E4,- vs 10 impossible meat v2 burgers at E33,- it will make no sense for most. But I guess this will change with volume; I hope so anyway.
  - jfengel 7y ago
    I haven't tried the sausages, but I am looking forward to it. I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian, but I do try to reduce my meat consumption for the same reasons you do. That's easy at home, but harder when I eat out, especially when I'm trying to be expeditious about it. I don't expect to eliminate animals from people's diet, but I have hopes that eventually we'll be able to break the assumption that meat is somehow necessary at every meal. Just breaking that assumption would enable people to consider a wider range of possibilities, and encourage more places to support those who don't want to eat meat.
gamblor956 7y ago
Impossible Burger meat is shipped ground-beef style, so the quality of the patty is highly dependent on the restaurant. Among my vegetarian friends, Fatburger is considered on the high-end of the quality scale for Impossible Burgers since making burgers is all they do. Other burger-centric restaurants also tend to be pretty good at cooking Impossibles, except Umami Burger, which is very bad at it.
tluyben2 7y ago
I buy them now frozen and bbq them, serve them with a sauce recipe we (my wife and myself) perfected over the last months + pickles, onion and tomato. Our friends (mainly somewhat anti vegetarian meat eat eaters) do not believe it is not meat (we live in a small village). I have been making lasagne and spaghetti bolognese with mushrooms based meat replacement and no-one ever noticed it was not ground beef (I use different herbs and fatty tasting oils). For us it does not have to taste like meat at all; we eat different beans, lentils, veggie dishes most of the time, but if we want friends over, we have to serve ‘meat’ so this is a good way of doing that. Or pizza, but after having perfected my woodoven chops over the past 2 years, I need to lay off the pizza for a little bit...
unreal37 7y ago
There's a vegan restaurant in town that has "pulled pork sandwich" listed on it's menu. That's misleading when there is no pork in it. No one needs to be tricked to eat these delicious plant-based proteins.
- ssully 7y ago
  I think the problem is that they are trying to create an alternative to pulled pork, but have no idea what to call it. I have a vegetarian in my family and I have made "vegetarian pulled pork", which is using shredded jack fruit as a meat substitute and cooking it in a pot or pressure cooker. Coming from a family where "pulled pork" means slow cooking a pork shoulder for 8-12 hours, cooking "vegetarian pulled pork" is absolutely nothing like real pulled pork, but what else would you call it? I guess BBQ Shredded Jack Fruit is more accurate, but it doesn't sound nearly as appealing (even though it's actually really tasty!).
- moate 7y ago
  This is an actual problem. You're calling something that isn't pork pork. "Burger" isn't as specific. Culturally, people accept that the term "burger" can be modified by other words like "Pork" or "Black Bean" to imply "a patty of <product> meant to be used in the ways you would use a patty". This isn't about protecting consumers from being tricked. It's about making it harder to communicate what a product is for producers.
xbmcuser 7y ago
Yes it is. Around here few different restaurants have added impossible meat as an option. And I have tried it in different forms as a burger patty or as a burrito filling. I can't say that the taste is the exact same as beef but its close enough and its good enough.

jfengel 7y ago

I think in a side-by-side test of the bare burger, you'd have no trouble telling which is which. But most burger chains serve their burgers with an array of toppings, sauces, condiments, and other things that make it nearly impossible to taste the actual patty. There are so many layers that all the burger itself provides is a bit of chewy texture. The texture of an Impossible Burger doesn't have quite the same mouthfeel as one made out of cow, but if you're not expressly looking for it, you'd easily miss it. If they accidentally substituted it for a meat burger, I'd wager well over 80% of the patrons wouldn't notice.

tluyben2 7y ago
> I think in a side-by-side test of the bare burger Our supplier of impossible meat gave us bratwursten last time to try and yeah, I would say you will have a very hard time doing blind test between those and the real thing. They are not only simply very good: they are absolutely convincing next to the real thing. Again, for me they do not need to be but I think our meat consumption is unsustainable and far worse (for me), animal torture, so if this can help others eat /less/ meat, it is good. Disclaimer; I know most people just do not have the financial room to do this; it is all very expensive (at least here). Nice vegetarian cooking (I do not know if this goes for vegan as well or not) can be done very cheap if you have some time to shop and prepare. But all these ‘plant based meats’, at least here in the EU, are very expensive. 12 hamburgers from the freezer which are meat (well, some kind of very cheap waste meat) at E4,- vs 10 impossible meat v2 burgers at E33,- it will make no sense for most. But I guess this will change with volume; I hope so anyway.
- jfengel 7y ago
  I haven't tried the sausages, but I am looking forward to it. I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian, but I do try to reduce my meat consumption for the same reasons you do. That's easy at home, but harder when I eat out, especially when I'm trying to be expeditious about it. I don't expect to eliminate animals from people's diet, but I have hopes that eventually we'll be able to break the assumption that meat is somehow necessary at every meal. Just breaking that assumption would enable people to consider a wider range of possibilities, and encourage more places to support those who don't want to eat meat.

gamblor956 7y ago

Impossible Burger meat is shipped ground-beef style, so the quality of the patty is highly dependent on the restaurant. Among my vegetarian friends, Fatburger is considered on the high-end of the quality scale for Impossible Burgers since making burgers is all they do. Other burger-centric restaurants also tend to be pretty good at cooking Impossibles, except Umami Burger, which is very bad at it.

tluyben2 7y ago

I buy them now frozen and bbq them, serve them with a sauce recipe we (my wife and myself) perfected over the last months + pickles, onion and tomato. Our friends (mainly somewhat anti vegetarian meat eat eaters) do not believe it is not meat (we live in a small village). I have been making lasagne and spaghetti bolognese with mushrooms based meat replacement and no-one ever noticed it was not ground beef (I use different herbs and fatty tasting oils). For us it does not have to taste like meat at all; we eat different beans, lentils, veggie dishes most of the time, but if we want friends over, we have to serve ‘meat’ so this is a good way of doing that. Or pizza, but after having perfected my woodoven chops over the past 2 years, I need to lay off the pizza for a little bit...

unreal37 7y ago

There's a vegan restaurant in town that has "pulled pork sandwich" listed on it's menu. That's misleading when there is no pork in it. No one needs to be tricked to eat these delicious plant-based proteins.

ssully 7y ago
I think the problem is that they are trying to create an alternative to pulled pork, but have no idea what to call it. I have a vegetarian in my family and I have made "vegetarian pulled pork", which is using shredded jack fruit as a meat substitute and cooking it in a pot or pressure cooker. Coming from a family where "pulled pork" means slow cooking a pork shoulder for 8-12 hours, cooking "vegetarian pulled pork" is absolutely nothing like real pulled pork, but what else would you call it? I guess BBQ Shredded Jack Fruit is more accurate, but it doesn't sound nearly as appealing (even though it's actually really tasty!).
moate 7y ago
This is an actual problem. You're calling something that isn't pork pork. "Burger" isn't as specific. Culturally, people accept that the term "burger" can be modified by other words like "Pork" or "Black Bean" to imply "a patty of <product> meant to be used in the ways you would use a patty". This isn't about protecting consumers from being tricked. It's about making it harder to communicate what a product is for producers.

xbmcuser 7y ago

Yes it is. Around here few different restaurants have added impossible meat as an option. And I have tried it in different forms as a burger patty or as a burrito filling. I can't say that the taste is the exact same as beef but its close enough and its good enough.