Iām in San Francisco, at an Italian joint just south of Golden Gate Park, enjoying meatballs and bacon not made of meat in the traditional sense but of plants mixed with ācultivatedā pork fat. Dawn, you see, donated a small sample of fat, which a company called Mission Barns got to proliferate in devices called bioreactors by providing nutrients like carbohydrates, amino acids, and vitaminsāessentially replicating the conditions in her body. Because so much of the flavor of pork and other meats comes from the animalās fat, Mission Barns can create products like sausages and salami with plants but make them taste darn near like sausages and salami.
Iāve been struggling to describe the experience, because cultivated meat short-circuits my braināmy mouth thinks Iām eating a real pork meatball, but my brain knows that itās fundamentally different and that Dawn (pictured above) didnāt have to die for it. This is the best Iāve come up with: Itās Diet Meat. Just as Diet Coke is an approximation of the real thing, so too are cultivated meatballs. They simply taste a bit less meaty, at least to my tongue. Which is understandable, as the only animal product in this food is the bioreactor-grown fat.
I hope that wasnāt meant to be a pitch for it. Diet Coke tastes like ass.
See thatās the disconnect - diet Coke doesnāt taste like Coke thatās less Coke-y, it tastes like Coke that had the sugar replaced with a scoop of Grandpaās ashes and a dash of betadine.
If weāve made the meat equivalent to diet Coke, the best course of action is to just skip that nastiness and cook up some tofu or paneer or something.
If weāve made the meat thatās just a little less meaty, okay cool, Iāll give it a shot.
ā¦but those two are NOT the same thing.
Kinda agree, I might try the bacon if itās not prohibitively expensive. But an ethical source of pork fat would be pretty nice for any culinary focused vegetarian. But I actually liked the impossible stuff I hear people talk a lot of shit about, so Iām obviously no super tasting expert.
Tasting expert can only tell you what they taste, not if itās any good because that is entirely up to the individual. Some (arguably quite a lot) people love diet coke, does that make OPs statement wrong? Iād say no because that individual doesnāt like diet coke, but that doesnāt speak for everyone.
Never said they were wrong, but they are essentially saying if we donāt get it perfect, then why try at all? That I disagree with. Iām with them on not liking diet Coke, but I like that it exists for whoever does like it.
Every Diet Coke drinker Iāve ever known has been a fat person who thinks they are addressing their weight problem by drinking Diet Coke, and doing literally nothing else.
In their defense, drinks are some of the worst offenders for excess calories, which is what drives weight gain.
Diet Coke isnāt medicine or anything, but if youāre drinking it when you would normally be drinking a normal Coke, then you just saved yourself a couple hundred calories.
Obviously not going to make up for a 3k calorie per day diet w/ no exercise, but it is a step in the right direction.