9 people cooking this tonight Count me in! This speedy chicken stir fry is a delicious, low fat option for weeknight cooking.
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I wanted to work on veggie burgers because I have never had a commercial one that I liked. They all taste overprocessed to me, with no fresh flavors. I’ve had much better luck making burgers from Lukas Volger’s excellent cookbook “Veggie Burgers Every Which Way.” I especially like his bean and vegetable combos.
Puréed beans make a great binder for grain and vegetable burgers, and an egg added to the mixture will help to hold it together. (If you want to keep them vegan you can, though you have to be careful when you flip the burgers over because they tend to fall apart.) I found that all of these burgers somehow tasted better a day after they were assembled ? the flavors had gelled, the burgers held together better, and a burger that seemed a bit dry to me right after cooking did not seem so dry the next day when reheated. I can’t tell you why. Like Mr. Volger, I found the best way to cook these vegetarian burgers was to brown them on one side in an ovenproof frying pan, then turn them and stick the pan in a 375-degree oven for 10 minutes. Turning can be tricky, but if the burgers do crumble, just patch them back together with your spatula, apply a little pressure and put the pan into the oven. I find that the burgers stand alone just fine, but a little ketchup or relish can be nice, especially if you are used to the juiciness of a meat burger. Buns, of course, will add a significant number of calories and carbs, but that’s how my son enjoyed his, with the works. Quinoa and Greens Burger I used rainbow quinoa and beet greens for this. I like the rainbow quinoa because it’s pretty and because the red, black and golden quinoa grains all have slightly different textures. 1 bunch beet greens, stemmed and washed (1/2 to 3/4 pound) 2 cups cooked quinoa, preferably rainbow quinoa 2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, as needed 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger 2/3 cup finely chopped carrot 2/3 cup finely chopped onion Salt to taste 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly toasted and crushed in a mortar and pestle or spice mill 2 garlic cloves 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (to taste) 1 egg (optional) Freshly ground pepper 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Either steam the beet greens for 2 minutes above 1 inch boiling water, or blanch in salted boiling water for 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl of cold water, drain, squeeze out excess water, and chop medium-fine. Place in a large bowl with the cooked quinoa. 2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat in a heavy skillet and add the onion and carrot. Cook, stirring often, until vegetables are just about tender, about 3 minutes, and add the ginger and a pinch of salt. Cook for another 3 minutes or so, until the vegetables are tender and fragrant, and add the cumin and the garlic. Cook, stirring, for another minute, and remove from the heat. Stir into the quinoa mixture. 3. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, or in a bowl using a fork or a potato masher, purée the chickpeas with the lemon juice and, if using, the egg. Add to the quinoa mixture and stir everything together. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 4. Begin heating a heavy ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Seasoned cast iron is good, and so is a heavy nonstick pan that can go into the oven. Moisten your hands lightly and shape 4 large or 6 smaller patties. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan and, working in batches if necessary, cook the patties for 1 to 2 minutes on one side, until nicely browned. Carefully turn the patties over and place the pan in the oven. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until the patties are lightly browned; if they fall apart you can patch them together with some pressure from the spatula. Remove from the heat and serve, with or without buns, ketchup and the works. Yield: 4 to 6 burgers. Advance preparation: These can be put together and shaped up to 3 days before browning. They can also be cooked ahead and reheated in a low oven or in a pan on the stove. Keep them well wrapped in the refrigerator. Nutritional information per serving (4 servings): 273 calories; 10 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 38 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams dietary fiber; 548 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 10 grams proteinThis article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 2, 2012
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of the author of “Veggie Burgers Every Which Way.” He is Lukas Volger, not Luke.
View the original article here
2 cups cooked brown or white rice
1 cup finely diced or grated roasted beets 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs, like a mixture of parsley and dill 1 15-ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 egg 2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled Salt and freshly ground pepper 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or canola oil, as needed 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the rice, beets and herbs in a large bowl. 2. Purée the beans with the lemon juice and egg in a food processor fitted with the steel blade or with a fork. Scrape into the bowl with the rice and beets. Add the goat cheese, salt and pepper, and mix the ingredients together. 3. Moisten your hands and form 6 patties. 4. Working in batches, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil at a time in a heavy ovenproof skillet and brown the patties on one side for 2 minutes. Turn over onto the other side and place in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve with or without buns, ketchup and the works. Yield: 6 burgers. Advance preparation: You can make these up to 3 days ahead, either through Step 3 or 4, and keep in the refrigerator. They can also be cooked ahead and reheated in a low oven or in a pan on top of the stove. Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 227 calories; 10 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 41 milligrams cholesterol; 29 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 238 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 10 grams protein Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”View the original article here
There are good reasons ground meat shows up in traditional recipes the world over — in meatballs and tortellini, dumplings and samosas, meat pies and stir-fries — and it deserves a respected place at our collective table.
Ground meat is often derided as low-quality, and its image hasn’t been helped by a spate of pink slime exposés. And it’s true that most meat recalls in the United States involve ground meat. But not all ground meat is created equal. Hamburger made at a large, industrial processing plant is cobbled together from hundreds or thousands of animals, typically raised in feedlots on a corn diet and fed antibiotics. By contrast, small grass-fed beef farmers across the country have an enormous amount of good ground meat to sell. Yes, it’s a little more expensive, but still well within most Americans’ budgets. It’s typically from a single animal, one raised right, on green grass. A large chunk of any carcass ultimately ends up as ground meat. After the popular cuts like steaks, chops and roasts are taken out, the rest of the meat is ground — 26 percent of a hog, 38 percent of a beef cow, 41 percent of dairy cows and 46 percent of lambs. (We don’t think of dairy cows as meat, but once their milking days are over, they become burgers.) Of the 84 billion pounds of meat America produces each year, fully one third, 28 billion pounds, goes through the grinder. Partly because of this, ground meat from grass-fed animals is relatively inexpensive. While a tenderloin of grass-fed beef might sell for $34 per pound or more, ground meat from the same animal might cost $8.50 per pound. Family restaurants, supermarkets and especially hamburger joints, even the new generation of fancy ones, all know this well, and pass on that savings to diners. In the same way that nose-to-tail butchery can save a household money, buying ground meat can encourage small-scale, diversified livestock farming, since it helps supplement income from the pricier cuts. At your local farmers’ market, ground meat is a great value and a far more ecologically wise choice than strip steak. Ground round is a flexible ingredient. In New York, companies like DeBragga and Pat LaFrieda specialize in custom-made ground meat blends that balance fat, muscle and other components for the perfect bite. National brands like Niman Ranch and Organic Prairie offer burgers, hot dogs and sausage made from animals raised on pasture, rather than hormones or antibiotics. And what if your only local option is a supermarket? No question, much of the meat there will be the factory-farmed variety, but that’s all the more reason to request grass-fed or organic options, preferably raised nearby. National chains like Whole Foods Market and regional chains like Wegmans in the Northeast or New Seasons Market in the Northwest have their own in-house meat-buying rules, based on ecological and humane standards, that ensure you can trust their ground meat, whatever you are buying. THOUGH Walmart, the nation’s largest food seller, has unfortunately eliminated butchers, we’ve encountered butchers in chains like Kroger and Safeway who were happy to grind a whole grass-fed cut into hamburger. That won’t save you money at the supermarket, but it will often stretch further during a party than a steak. Either way, always opt for ground-on-site instead of pre-made frozen patties, which contain all sorts of fillers and additives. If your supermarket butcher can’t or won’t grind on-site, consider getting your own meat grinder and experimenting. Ground turkey and chicken meatballs are a healthy twist on traditional beef meatballs — and an important market for poultry growers who can’t sell every bird whole — while ground lamb makes a distinctive burger, especially when adorned with mayo and mint. Meat remains the most energy- and resource-intensive ingredient in our collective diets. All the more reason not to squander any bit that is flavorful, nutritious and eminently edible. This is also why diners increasingly see ground meat on the menus of the most conscientious chefs in the nation — from the duck rillettes at Higgins Restaurant in Portland, Ore., to the Iowa lamb albondigas at Devotay in Iowa City, from the beef and pork picadillo-stuffed plantains at Palo Santo in Brooklyn to the Bolognese, kielbasa and fontina-stuffed meatballs at Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan. If you follow their lead and make grass-fed burgers on the Fourth of July, you will be helping farmers and the local economy. And if you weren’t eating them, the meat might have gone to waste.Brian Halweil is the editor of Edible East End and publisher of Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn. Danielle Nierenberg is the director of Nourishing the Planet.
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Evan Sung for The New York TimesA plain burger at Shake Shack.
This week, I’m reviewing the Shake Shack chain in New York City. Since the food there is, admittedly, pretty simple, and since I had a few issues with the core of the Shake menu, I’m going to take a week off from my usual Five Dishes post. Instead, let’s talk burgers for a minute.
One basic measure of Shake Shack’s influence is the spread of places selling good, cheap burgers. In the past few weeks I’ve tried as many of them as I could, following suggestions from knowledgeable burgerologists like Ed Levine and Josh Ozersky.
I confined myself to burgers costing less than $10, which rules out some paragons of the form like the lamb burger at the Breslin. I also stuck to places that have opened since 2004, when the first Shake Shack appeared. One memorable night, I ate half a dozen burgers in Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan, traveling with a half-eaten Shake Shack burger in my pocket for reference purposes. (If you want to try it yourself, get a single burger, no cheese or other condiments. You’d be surprised how well it holds up to this kind of treatment.)
My results are below, in roughly descending order of preference. At the moment I feel like an anaconda after a big meal, so I’m going to lay off the burgers for a while now, but if you think I missed a particularly great one, let me know in the comments. Sooner or later my digestive system will recover and I’ll be slithering around town again, on the prowl for burgers.
Steak ‘n Shake Signature
1695 Broadway (West 53rd Street)
The Steak ‘n Shake burger is smashed, and is said to have been one of the inspirations for the Shake Shack burger. The first New York location of the Indianapolis-based chain offers an organic “Signature Steakburger,” and it’s fantastic, with a reliably browned surface and a fully rounded flavor. (Off topic but still important: The fries, fresh cut from russet potatoes, beat the pants off the ones at Shake Shack.)
FoodParc at Eventi
839 Sixth Avenue (West 29th Street)
Another Shake Shack clone, and a successful one. The meat is full of beefy flavor, the bun sweet and soft. Shake Shack at its best might put a little more sear on the patty, but Shake Shack wasn’t always at its best in my experience.
Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen
23 East 23rd Street (Madison Avenue)
620 Eighth Avenue (West 41st Street)
My side-by-side comparison pitted the Eighth Avenue locations of Schnipper’s and Shake Shack, and Schnipper’s came out ahead: its burger was saltier, juicier and more flavorful, while the one from Shake Shack was simply bland, dry and not well seared. (However, Shake Shack’s is sweeter and softer.)
Bill’s Bar & Burger
22 Ninth Avenue (West 13th Street)
The Shake Shack burger, despite having literal rough edges, is well behaved. It doesn’t stain the front of your shirt, or even dribble down your chin. The Classic at Bill’s does. It is greasy, juicy,and a little bit wrong side of the tracks. I didn’t think it had quite as much flavor as Shake Shack’s burger, but sometimes you just want a burger that makes you feel dirty.
Whitmans
406 East 9th Street (First Avenue)
Whitmans isn’t really a burger joint per se, but it does have a very good $8 burger made from grass-fed beef grown in upstate New York. The meat really has that grass-fed depth and resonance, which makes up for a slight dryness. However, the bun is nowhere near as good as Shake Shack’s, so I’d rate the overall ensemble slightly lower than Shake Shack.
Smashburger
80 DeKalb Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Smashburger sells, duh, a smashed burger, which puts it in the same genre as Shake Shack and the new Steak ‘n Shake. Unfortunately, a side-by-side comparison revealed the Smashburger patty to be woefully short on flavor, despite the surface similarities.
Blue 9 Burger
92 Third Avenue (East 12st Street)
This dark-horse candidate was a dark horse for good reason. I took two bites of the dry, tough, underseasoned patty and walked out.
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If you’re a fan of Prime Burger at 5 East 51st Street — and that would put you in the company of approximately half of New York, to judge from Friday’s lunchtime crowd — you should come Saturday for a burger and curly fries in your booth for one. You may never again have the chance.
How the city looks and feels — and why it got that way.Prime Burger, the 74-year-old coffee shop and restaurant, run for 36 years by the DiMiceli family, is closing. And though Michael DiMiceli spoke hopefully on Friday of finding a new space in which to reinstall Prime Burger’s futuristic “Jetsons”-era décor, the family has scarcely had time yet to look or to strike a deal. The small building in which Prime Burger is a tenant was sold recently, and the new owners sent the restaurant packing.
Though the family plans to salvage as many fixtures as it can, Mr. DiMiceli said he despaired of being able to rescue and reconstruct the built-in, one-person booths. In this highly unusual — if not downright eccentric — serving arrangement, customers sit in small U-shaped bays behind individual table tops that pivot shut to enclose them, almost as if they were buckled into an old amusement park ride. (The thrill lies in the calorie count.)
David W. Dunlap/The New York TimesThe problem is that these booths may have been too well installed to allow removal. “We’d like to take the seats,” Mr. DiMiceli said, “but the guys I talked to said that taking them apart would probably destroy them.”
There is also a long traditional lunch counter in the front, and tables and chairs in the back. Waiters still wear white jackets. Some count their service in the decades. Mr. DiMiceli, 57, runs the business with his 53-year-old brother, John. Their father, Anthony, now 84, bought Prime Burger in 1976, when Michael was graduating from college. “I had a little talk with my father and jumped right in,” he recalled.
All that experience was on display Friday as Mr. DiMiceli worked the check-out counter. From his left came a steady stream of diners to pay their bills, drop off business cards and buy souvenir T-shirts. On his right, longtime customers dropped by to confirm with him that the sad news was true. In between stood this reporter, lobbing questions that Mr. DiMiceli answered as kindly as if he’d never been asked before.
David W. Dunlap/The New York TimesFounded in 1938 as Hamburg Heaven, Prime Burger earned praise in 2003 for its “superlative beef patty” from Ed Levine of The New York Times. It was named an “American Classic” by the James Beard Foundation in 2004. More recently, it was the subject of a seven-minute video, “This Must Be the Place,” by Lost and Found Films.
Prime Burger crossed generations in its appeal. Molly Woodward has been coming since she and her sister, Tessa, were infants. Their father, Douglas, introduced them to the restaurant, to which he was first brought by his father, Charles. “I’ve enjoyed their hand-painted signs, camouflaged faux bois clock, nice people, and bacon-related foods since 1986,” Ms. Woodward wrote on her blog, Vernacular Typography. She was having a Cheddar cheeseburger on Friday with her family.
The importance of the décor is more than nostalgic, said Theodore Grunewald, a preservationist whose interest lies in mid-century Modernism. “It’s the Four Seasons of the everyman,” he said, “and we have few examples of that intact.”
Brenda Mauro, who used to patronize Prime Burger regularly when she worked in mid-Manhattan, stopped by for her last lunch on Friday, pausing to say farewell to Mr. DiMiceli. As she settled her bill, she paid him what may be the ultimate New York compliment: “I came all the way from downtown.”
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Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesMushroom and Grain Cheeseburgers
For burger lovers who want to cut back on meat, vegetarian burgers can be a tasty and healthful way to recreate the burger experience. In this week’s Recipes for Health, Martha Rose Shulman offers five ways to create vegetarian burgers at home. She writes:
I wanted to work on veggie burgers because I have never had a commercial one that I liked. They all taste overprocessed to me, with no fresh flavors. I’ve had much better luck making burgers from Lukas Volger’s excellent cookbook “Veggie Burgers Every Which Way.” I especially like his bean and vegetable combos.
Puréed beans make a great binder for grain and vegetable burgers, and an egg added to the mixture will help to hold it together. (If you want to keep them vegan you can, though you have to be careful when you flip the burgers over because they tend to fall apart.) I found that all of these burgers somehow tasted better a day after they were assembled ? the flavors had gelled, the burgers held together better, and a burger that seemed a bit dry to me right after cooking did not seem so dry the next day when reheated. I can’t tell you why.
Like Mr. Volger, I found the best way to cook these vegetarian burgers was to brown them on one side in an ovenproof frying pan, then turn them and stick the pan in a 375-degree oven for 10 minutes. Turning can be tricky, but if the burgers do crumble, just patch them back together with your spatula, apply a little pressure and put the pan into the oven.
Here are five new recipes for homemade veggie burgers.
Beet, Rice and Goat Cheese Burgers: Make these ahead for quick meals through the week and reheat in a medium oven or a frying pan.
Curried Lentil, Rice and Carrot Burgers: Indian spices liven up these burgers. The turmeric offers bonus antioxidant health benefits, but even without it, they’re in abundance in this recipe, with all the carrots and ginger.
Quinoa and Greens Burger: Rainbow quinoa is a great choice for this recipe — because it’s pretty, and because the red, black and golden quinoa grains all have slightly different textures.
Quinoa and Vegetable Burgers With Asian Flavors: This vibrant burger is made with both cooked and uncooked vegetables.
Mushroom and Grain Cheeseburgers: Barley is a traditional hearty partner for mushrooms, but brown rice is just as tasty in this burger.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 3, 2012
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of the author of “Veggie Burgers Every Which Way.” He is Lukas Volger, not Luke.
View the original article here
ReutersMark Post’s genetically engineered burger array.
Four months ago, Mark Post, a professor of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, drew broad attention when he announced that he was close to producing a hamburger without a cow at his laboratory at a cost of about $330,000.
Dr. Post is literally growing meat from a single stem cell. (The cell for the meat is from the muscle of a special breed of Belgium cow that grows especially large and strong.)
While it is a complicated process, Dr. Post, whose research specialty is tissue engineering, said the science has already been developed by the medical community and the challenge now is honing the manufacturing process. He calls his innovation “no-kill meat,” but I think it might more accurately, albeit less appetizingly, be called petri dish meat.
This afternoon I attended a conference on technological innovation, organized by the Rockefeller Foundation, where Dr. Post was a featured speaker. Because his invention has the theoretical potential to relieve some pressures on the environment, I wanted to see how viable his idea was, business-wise.
Livestock graze on 70 percent of the world’s arable land, Dr. Post said. They consume vast quantities of declining fresh-water supplies. On another front, ruminant livestock produce a whopping 28 percent of global methane, which is a less common but far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon.
In his presentation, Dr. Post said his invention had the potential to vastly reduce the amount of land, water and energy used. In fact, he could reduce energy use by 90 percent, he said.
While it was not clear how the calculation was made, a lot of problems would have to be solved first. For starters, making the lab meat currently requires a lot of electricity to stimulate the muscle cells to contract. And most electricity is currently made by burning fossil fuels.
Dr. Post says his lab is working on various ways to cut down on energy use. Reproducing cells produce their own heat, for example, and if that heat could be caught and channeled back into the manufacturing process, it would be a great savings, he said.
“The important thing is we know all the variables” of the manufacturing process so they can be made more efficient, he said in a brief interview later. Still, I don’t think I’ll be buying anything labeled laboratory hamburger in the near future.
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His Cambodian name is Chenda Im, but after more than 30 years as a refugee in the United States, he goes by Mike, and he is the founder, owner, manager, cook and pitchman of Mike’s Burger House, which he opened on the lot of a gas station here after his return four years ago.
“I’m American, and I already know how to handle burgers,” he said, as a salsa tune played in his restaurant. “The Cambodians, they eat the bun and then a little bit here and a little bit there. I say, ‘No, you just press down on the bun and eat it.’ And sometimes they say, ‘Don’t tell me how to eat. I’ll eat it my way.”’
Mike’s experience pitching hamburgers in Phnom Penh offers a look at the particular kind of culture shock experienced by people returning to their own culture.
He is a truly hybrid Cambodian-American — a survivor of the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge period, when 1.7 million people died by execution, forced labor and starvation from 1975 to 1979; then a mail carrier for 22 years near Long Beach, California; and now one of a trickle of refugees who continue to return to restart life in the land they once fled.
It is not a large number. Over the years some have returned to enter politics and some to try their hands at businesses. Many leave after a while. One group that does not have the option of returning to the United States is made up of Cambodian-born U.S. citizens who were convicted of felonies in their adopted country and sent back here under a special deportation law.
Mike, who left at the age of 19 and is now 51, said he planned to stay. Among others who have returned and stayed are Ou Virak and Theary Seng, prominent advocates of a U.S. brand of human rights and civil society, which at this point fits a little awkwardly with Cambodia’s strong-arm form of government.
Mike is a champion of the juicy all-beef hamburger, another import that is struggling to graft itself onto the local culture. There are no international hamburger chains in Cambodia, and Americans who live here say Mike makes the only truly American burgers in Phnom Penh.
“Let me show them the way Americans eat,” Mike said, describing the training of his staff. “Show them it’s clean, safe, how to wash, really clean, from the bathroom to the kitchen. That’s the way Americans handle food. The more you keep clean, the healthier you are.”
Mike’s Burger House has been open for about six months, and with its sign advertising “I’m a Crazy Burger!” it is an almost perfect replica of any hamburger hangout attached to a gas station in the United States.
Its front counter displays packets of Americana: Pringles potato chips, Slim Jim meat snacks, Rip Rolls and Reese’s candy, Red Vine licorice, Ritz Crackers, Oreo cookies and Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies.
Americans who live here say Mike’s offers a little taste of home. But for many Cambodians, hamburgers remain a challenge.
“Sometimes the Cambodian people think I look down on them — ‘They don’t know how to eat’ — so I’ve got to step back and say, ‘O.K., you do it your way,”’ he said.
Mike himself seems a little uncertain about his place between the two worlds. “I have a warm feeling here, just a warm feeling,” he said. “Everywhere I go, I feel like I’m at home.”
But he also said, “My heart is still American,” and he speaks of his fellow Cambodians with some of the bafflement of an outsider.
“On the street I don’t feel it’s hard to fit in,” he said. “The only difference is the way we talk in the United States. You say something straight, and they think you’re saying something bad.”
But like Mike, all those of a certain age are children of the killing fields, when most lost relatives, and many continue to live with trauma.
“I’ve seen a lot of murdering,” Mike said.
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The irony and the absurdity are that consumer experts say L.F.T.B. is safe, nutritious and relatively inexpensive. When mixed into ground beef, it lowers the average fat content of a hamburger. And Beef Products Inc., after early production problems, is considered an industry leader in promoting safety — including for its process that uses a small amount of ammonia to kill off pathogens.
In March, at the controversy’s peak, the Consumer Federation of America, a coalition of nonprofit groups, and the National Consumers League, a nonprofit group that advocates for safe food, both issued statements defending the company and its product. So what brought down Beef Products Inc. and pink slime? Partly it was the power of negative branding. Partly it was the power of the media. Beneath it all, this episode reflects a deepening anxiety among Americans about the food they eat and how well the government and the food industries are protecting them. The downward spiral started a year ago, when Jamie Oliver, the British celebrity chef and host of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” on ABC, did a segment on L.F.T.B. He poured copious amounts of ammonia and water on beef trimmings and asked appalled mothers and children if they really wanted to eat it. None did. A clip of the show attracted some 1.5 million views on YouTube, and some fast-food chains stopped using the product last year. This March Bettina Siegel, a Houston blogger who writes about the school lunch program, posted an online petition demanding that the Agriculture Department stop using the ingredient in schools. It quickly gathered 250,000 signatures and the department said it would allow schools to choose next fall whether or not to use burgers containing L.F.T.B. Also in March, ABC’s evening news program ran what the anchor, Diane Sawyer, called “a startling ABC News investigation” revealing that much of the ground beef sold in supermarkets contains what a former Agriculture Department scientist called “pink slime.” ABC correctly reported that ground beef with the product carried no label because the Agriculture Department considered it meat like the rest of a hamburger. The network followed up with reports identifying some of the supermarket chains that were selling hamburger with the component and then reported the growing numbers that had decided to stop doing so. At first consideration, lean finely textured beef is admittedly not all that appetizing. It is derived from the fatty scraps that remain after steaks and roasts are carved out of a beef carcass. The fat is spun off and any pathogens in the remnant are killed off with that small amount of ammonia. But the truth is this product does not differ greatly from the rest of ground beef, which is also mostly scraps and remnants. As for how it tastes, we conducted a test at the Times cafeteria and in my home kitchen of ground beef patties, some in which pink slime made up 15 percent and others without it. Four of our testers, including me, preferred the burgers with pink slime. I found it more tender. Three others preferred the burgers without. No one found any of the burgers slimy. As for that term “pink slime,” it was coined in 2002 in an internal e-mail by the scientist at the Agriculture Department who felt it was not really ground beef. The term was first publicly reported in The Times in late 2009, in one of the Pulitzer-prize-winning articles by Michael Moss about safety problems across the beef industry. Mr. Moss described how B.P.I. struggled to find the right amount of ammonia — enough to kill pathogens without leaving a strong odor. In some cases, the process failed to kill salmonella or E. coli, but the contaminated product was caught before it reached consumers. In recent years, the company has had an exemplary safety record. The Agriculture Department’s school lunch program has used private laboratories to test almost 7,000 samples of the pink slime component since Jan. 1, 2010, and none have tested positive for either E. coli or salmonella. B.P.I. says its lean beef has never been associated with a food-borne illness; the Agriculture Department has never tracked a food-poisoning outbreak back to the company. B.P.I. will continue producing its lean beef on a reduced basis and says it hopes to restore public confidence. Some meat processors have requested regulatory permission to label products containing the ingredient. We believe consumers should be fully informed, although B.P.I. will have to do a lot better at public relations to get consumers to stop thinking of the ingredient as anything but pink slime. As unfair as this episode has been, industry and government should take it as a warning. Americans need to know more about the food they eat, and the efforts being taken to ensure that it is safe.View the original article here
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