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Blending around 70% ground beef with 30% chopped mushrooms could reduce the environmental impact of beef:
The idea is that mixing chopped mushrooms into our burgers boosts the umami taste, adds more moisture and reduces the amount of beef required for a burger. And reducing the need for beef has a big impact on the environment. According to the World Resources Institute [WRI], if 30 percent of the beef in every burger in America were replaced by mushrooms, it would reduce greenhouse emissions by the same amount as taking 2.3 million vehicles off of our roads.
[...] Richard Waite, from the World Resources Institute, is thrilled. "I think it's great!" he says. WRI has been pushing the blended beef-mushroom burger as a candidate to become one of America's most-served menu items, which WRI calls "power meals." According to Waite, the list of the top 20 meals served by food service companies currently contains only one plant-based item, a veggie wrap. The rest are meat-centric, including four versions of the classic hamburger.
Many niche burger makers and school cafeterias have joined the blended burger bandwagon. In the dining rooms of Stanford University, Waite says, it's the only kind of burger you'll find. But Sonic's 3,500 drive-in restaurants represent a huge boost to the concept.
Here's a recipe for a roasted mushroom base and beef-mushroom burgers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:35AM (5 children)
Man, the mushroom and swiss burger has been around for like ever. It's good too. I will whoop an ass if anyone tries to tell me I can't have a burger made entirely out of cow bits though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by leftover on Tuesday March 06 2018, @03:22AM
Right with you on both points. With really great mushrooms (fresh morels) beef is the extender. Lesser fresh mushrooms are modifiers for beef and they do make an improvement. Dried mushrooms are a sad and wasteful end for what was once good stuff. Now I am really hungry and it is a ridiculous time to fire up the grill.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday March 06 2018, @03:59AM (1 child)
Poor folks have probably been doing this for many millennia. Growing up, we tried all kinds of different mixers to make the ground beef go further, and some of them really improved the burgers too! Chopped mushrooms, onions, garlic, peppers or whatever is handy, if the mix is too dry add egg, if it's too moist add bread crumbs. Best results require you not add too much, but 70% meat doesn't sound out of line.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday March 06 2018, @03:15PM
Just to be clear -- once you're adding a bunch of stuff plus egg and breadcrumbs, you're making something more like meatballs or meatloaf... And forming it into a patty. Which can be delicious too. But at some point if you served that in a restaurant as a "hamburger" it would confuse a lot of customers, who (unless they order a "veggie burger" or something) are expecting mostly meat and maybe a few spices.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 06 2018, @04:25PM (1 child)
Found a restaurant recently with a mushroom and bacon burger. It was late in the evening, and there were three young people working. The cook, probably still in high school, or maybe last year's grad, gave me a burger to remember. MAN it was GOOD!.
Went back a few weeks later, earlier in the day. The same burger was disappointing. Thought about that while I was eating, decided the kid must have cooked the 'shrooms in butter. That's the only thing I could come up with. I suppose they normally cook them in some vegetable oil or other. Blehhhhh . . . they would have a better product if they cooked it all in the bacon fat. Some health conscious dietitian probably decided that the vegetable oil was healthier.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 06 2018, @09:53PM
I thought the new line of thought was that butter isn't bad for you as long as you don't go overboard, and vegetable oil is absolutely terrible for you unless it's olive oil.