Would You Eat Cultivated Meat?

What the heck is cultivated meat?! The Future Food? Imagine meat that has no pathogens - no salmonella, no e coli. Imagine meat that is grown without animals existing in obscenely cruel conditions. Imagine a meat that has a lower carbon footprint. Imagine a meat with no growth hormones.

Churchill imagined it in 1931...

Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken
in order to eat the breast or wing,
by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.”

Far-sighted man was Churchill. He just had the timing wrong...

Cultivated meat is also known as cultured meat, cell-based meat, artificial meat, and designer meat. It's here. Whether it catches on is the next question. 

Cultivated meat, is meat that is grown in a laboratory... well... actually... more like a brewery. Animal cells (let's say chicken) are taken and grown with amino acids in massive bioreactors (like a brewery vat). When the meat is ready, it comes out looking like minced meat and is then shaped and formed into chunks of "meat". The cells that are used can be from any part of the animal, even feathers.

But... I can hear you now... does it taste and feel like meat? Or is it going to taste like one of those regurgitated McNuggets? Generally... taste testers admit that it does taste and feel like real meat. The meat balls can be a bit "denser" than regular meat balls. But the flavour is bang on - "full and savoury".

There are huge environmental benefits to this form of ethical meat. But there are some caveats. These processing plants... or meat breweries... use a large amount of energy. As long as they are using renewable energy sources - hydroelectric or solar or wind - then the carbon footprint is much lower than your massive chicken factory/barn. But... if they are using fossil-fuel generated electricity... they have a bigger carbon footprint than traditional meat.

And right now... the serum in which the cells are grown is FBS - Fetal Bovine Serum. And yes, a calf fetus gave up its nascent life to contribute its life blood to "slaughter-free" cultivated meat. Bit of an oxymoron there.

Will this actually become a mainstream "thing". And how much does it cost?

The FDA just approved (23 June 2023) the sale of cultivated meat in the USA (CNN article). So it is here. And if you live in the states, you could potentially find "lab grown" meat on your alternative grocery store shelves.

As for the costs... the first lab grown steak cost $300,000 to make. But costs have come down since then. The first of anything is always going to be expensive. After that, economies of scale "should" bring prices down. Remember... the first computer cost $$$$$ and now... few hundred bucks.

But there are some serious questions about how cultivated meat can be scaled to be affordable. Right now... a kilogram of lab grown meat costs about $20,000. That would make for an expensive burger. And trying to get it down to the range of $17/lb or $40/kg... well... there's the kicker.

There would need to be some huge technological advancements and a shift in resources for this to be viable on the large scale. But maybe... as climate change pushes us forwards... we'll make those choices. Or maybe cultivated meat will just be a exclusive experience for the uber-rich.

Remember Thomas Watson, the president of IBM? In 1943, he famously said "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

So... who knows what the future brings. I'd like to remain on the optimistic side. Cultivated meat would solve so many issues... as long as it doesn't create more problems.

And then there is the burning question... would YOU eat cultivated meat? Would consumers actually want this stuff? I know I would eat it. In moderation of course. 

More Reading

The Counter - Article about the huge problems facing cultivated meat - 9 Sept 2021
The Scientist - Removing the Animals from lab-grown Meat - 9 May 2023

The Very Good Bean Butchers

Bean Butchers? Yep, they're a thing. Butchering poor harmless little beans, all so that we can eat something that looks like meat, tastes like meat but... ain't meat. Even though it's butchered. What a cool idea... and apparently a wildly popular and growing trend.

For a while now, I've been aware The Very Good Butchers. They are expert bean butchers and created various meat-free alternatives using beans, organic veggies and vital wheat gluten (a.k.a. seitan). They are a relatively local company (120 km away in Victoria) which is always nice. Go local!

I know that technically this is a variation of processed food but... it also seems like their ingredient lists are fairly clean. There aren't any weird preservatives and... well... I've been wanting to try them for a while. Our local health food store carries some of their items, mostly sausages, but the VGB site has a few other intriguing products: taco stuffers, BBQ Jackfruit (say what??), Ribz, burgers and even Stuffed Beast (also comes unstuffed).

Big Butcher Box
top row - Pepperoni, BBQ Jackfruit, Ribz
middle row - Taco Stuffers, Smokin' Burgers, Burgers
bottom row - Very British Bangers, Smokin' Bangers

I was poking around their website in mid December and many of their items were sold out, including the Stuffed Beast. The Beast gets rave reviews even from meat-eaters sooo... one of these days we may give that a try. But for now... we decided to dip our toe into the water and try one of their Butcher Boxes... For $112 (including courier shipping)... we get:

• 2 packs of Very Good Burgers
• 1 pack of Smokin' Burgers
• 1 pack of Smokin' Bangers
• 1 pack of Very British Bangers
• 2 packs of Taco Stuff'er
• 1 pack of BBQ Jackfruit 
• 2 packs of Ribz
• 2 packs of Pepperoni
  

The burgers and sausages are obvious... but what does one do with the taco stuffers? And the Jackfruit stuff? Fear not... The Very Good Butchers have some recipe ideas on their website as well. Nice.

We used to get a butcher box (real meat) from Twin Rivers Meats via the local Hospice Society (a fundraiser for them) soooo... this is not all that different in quantity or variety. And it will give me some more stuff to track in the freezer app! It's not like we are going to be having these things every day... maybe once a week... just to see how it goes. It's all a grand experiment

Although... if they ever get bought out by Big Food... we'll be taking our business elsewhere. There's a difference between supporting a small artisan business where you know you are getting quality vs being at the mercy of Big Food and their tendency to value profits over quality. I read that The Very Good Butchers went public on the Canadian Stock Exchange this past year. This might be explained by The Very Good Butchers making an appearance on the Dragon's Den two years ago! They0 had five Dragons vying for a slice of their business. Fascinating... Time will tell if quality still trumps share-holder profits.

Exploring Tofu, Tempeh and Seitan

 If you're going to go whole-food, plant-based... you are likely going to come across three "meat alternatives": tofu, tempeh and seitan. And... just so you don't freak out... it's pronounced say-tan NOT say-ten or say-tun or sayt-in. Seitan is NOT evil personified. A very small but important phonetic difference!

Tofu

Going into this whole-food, plant-based eating thing... we kind of knew that we would eventually need to incorporate tofu into our diet. But... we had had a bad experience with a recipe that called for frying up a slab of tofu (basically half of a tofu block). It was a gross textural experience. Never to be repeated... or so we thought.

But... if you dice up tofu into 1 cm (or so) cubes, dust them with some corn starch and then fry them up... they are quite palatable... especially if you bury them in a curry or stir fry. You could almost think they were just a chunk of well-cooked, tender chicken. Almost...

We kind of actually like tofu now... but there are a few caveats... get the Extra-Firm Tofu... unless you are planning to make a dessert. Some people say you need to get a tofu press and squeeze out all of the extra moisture but... we just pat ours dry with a paper towel and run with it. Adding the dusting of corn starch also tends to help reduce the moisture. And... you can now buy pre-pressed tofu - the ones I've seen look like four smaller squares of tofu shrink-wrapped in plastic with no liquid bath. Drying out the tofu basically ensures that it will crisp up nicely in the frying pan instead of just turn into a sad, soft disaster.

We eat tofu at least once a week... sometimes twice if we have leftovers.

Tempeh

We discovered tempeh thanks to a FreshPrep (a meal service) recipe - General Tso Style Tempeh. I was a bit skeptical about this recipe once I opened the package of tempeh. What were the black flecks in there? Apparently just a normal part of the aging process of this fermented soy bean cake. Basically... good mold.

Ick.

But... I soldiered on with the recipe and didn't show my partner the uncooked tempeh... or the black flecks. Sometimes too much information can be a bad thing!

The final product was... absolutely amazing. We ate it gingerly at first... with our lips pulled back... nibbling tentatively at the chunks of tempeh. But... oh my god... it was super yummy!! The texture was more substantial than tofu and made for a more interesting eating experience. We gave that recipe 10+ out of 10!

I have since made the recipe again, on my own... FreshPrep helpfully includes all the measurements of the various ingredients in their recipes. The stumbling block was finding the tempeh. I had seen some nestled next to the tofu in our local grocery store's produce section. But when I wanted to buy it... there was none. What was there was flavoured tempeh in various processed forms... bacon tempeh, etc. Not what I was looking for. Another grocery chain also had none... nor did Superstore. But... I struck pay dirt when I visited the local health food store. They had four different varieties of tempeh cakes! Some in the cooler and some in the freezer. Yay!

I made the General Tso Style Tempeh recipe and... it was as scrumptious as the original. I delved into the internet and dug up several other tempeh recipes for us to try. I can see this being another one of our weekly staples... now that I know where to buy it... and that it can be frozen!

Seitan

We now come to the great unknown... seitan. What the heck is this stuff? It is made from vital wheat gluten... so if you suffer from celiac disease or are gluten intolerant... this is not for you. But... for those of us who can eat wheat gluten, it could be a serious game changer. Vital wheat gluten is 75-80% protein... so you can see why seitan would make a great meat-alternative.

Buying seitan in the store (if you can find it... and I haven't found it yet...) means you are paying a premium price. It is, apparently, not cheap. You'll also find things like Tofurky sausages which have vital wheat gluten as one of their primary ingredients... also not what I am looking for. We don't want to trade one type of processed food for another... if we can help it.

While seitan might be ridiculously expensive to buy... it turns out that it is quite easy to make... or so the internet says (here's one recipe). You just buy some powdered vital wheat gluten... mix it up with some water.... knead the resulting dough... simmer it in some sort of broth (for flavour)... and.. voila... seitan fit for a queen.

Seitan is the thing that is apparently most meat-like in texture and flavour (depending on your seasoning) and mouth-feel. I seriously want to try this stuff and just need to hunt down some vital wheat gluten. We could make beef style seitan... or chicken style seitan... mmm... shish-kabobs!

The thing I like about home-made seitan is... you know exactly what goes into the flavouring... be it soy sauce or miso or mushrooms or whatever. And, if you make too much... the remainder can be frozen. What's not to like?

Sooo... on my next foray to the health food store... I am going to have a look and see if pre-made seitan exists and... if I can find some vital wheat gluten... Down the baking aisle I think...

Stay tuned for our experiment with seitan! (Ya just really gotta watch how you pronounce that...)