Kxmode wrote on Dec 4, 2021, 14:57:

Greentiger wrote on Dec 4, 2021, 14:18:
And now McDonald's is piloting their own "McPlant". I'm curious to see what it tastes like.

If it's anything like the McRib stay away from it.

Just read it a was co-developed by the Beyond folks to taste like meat. So we'll see how good it ends up being.

Is that the kind of McPlant that could be broken most days of the week or the kind of McPlant that will only be available every other Leap Year?

Greentiger wrote on Dec 4, 2021, 14:18:
And now McDonald's is piloting their own "McPlant". I'm curious to see what it tastes like.

If it's anything like the McRib stay away from it.

I love a good hamburger but I also like veggie burgers too, beyond, impossible, even the black bean burger is all right. Red Robin has their own which is decent. And now McDonald's is piloting their own "McPlant". I'm curious to see what it tastes like. They used to sell garden burgers here (used cheese as a binder) and I really liked those as an alternative to meat burgers but sadly they don't seem to be around anymore.

This comment was edited on Dec 5, 2021, 23:18.

National chain fast food is always a dicey maneuver. Burger King is my personal least favorite, although it's basically tied with Mickey D's. If I have a fast food urge I hit Jack in the Box or Taco Bell. That urge just doesn't hit very often.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Dec 3, 2021, 18:34:
You know what I love most, culinarily speaking?

Shoving the carved, dead, and cooked flesh of slaughtered cattle in to my mouth while their warmed blood gushes down my throat. Masticating that once living sinew in to a softened pulp and cannonballing it down my esophagus in to my waiting stomach. All while my brain screams in delight and joy while clapping its synapses in an approximation of thunderous applause.

Tell us how you really feel.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Dec 3, 2021, 18:58:
Yep. I am thinking of calling it "Smashmouth Omnivore" because I will show people exactly how to absolutely dominate and crush a killer pot of lentils, too.

Somebody once told me the rolling pin is gonna roll me
I ain't the sharpest knife on the cutting block

bigspender wrote on Dec 3, 2021, 18:38:
Thinking of starting a cooking channel?

Yep. I am thinking of calling it "Smashmouth Omnivore" because I will show people exactly how to absolutely dominate and crush a killer pot of lentils, too.

HDL does not protect against heart-disease, it's a marker, not a causal factor

No. One of the main functions of HDL is to bind to LDL and soak it up. It's then carried to the liver which then breaks it down and flushes it from the system.

Yeah, they're both also used as markers but that doesn't change the fact that HDL soaks up and removes LDL.

It's worth pointing out that claiming HDL isn't beneficial flies in the face of accepted science.

Anyway, yeah, I'm not claiming that eating meat is good for you.

This comment was edited on Dec 3, 2021, 19:04.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Dec 3, 2021, 18:34:
You know what I love most, culinarily speaking?

Shoving the carved, dead, and cooked flesh of slaughtered cattle in to my mouth while their warmed blood gushes down my throat. Masticating that once living sinew in to a softened pulp and cannonballing it down my esophagus in to my waiting stomach. All while my brain screams in delight and joy while clapping its synapses in an approximation of thunderous applause.

Thinking of starting a cooking channel?

You know what I love most, culinarily speaking?

Shoving the carved, dead, and cooked flesh of slaughtered cattle in to my mouth while their warmed blood gushes down my throat. Masticating that once living sinew in to a softened pulp and cannonballing it down my esophagus in to my waiting stomach. All while my brain screams in delight and joy while clapping its synapses in an approximation of thunderous applause.

Bent wrote on Dec 3, 2021, 18:13:
Actually, taste buds can detect fats. There are a bunch of different receptors attached which can each detect different types of things. The one coded by the CD36 gene is an example of one which can detect fats.

Chocolate doesn't taste different from peanut butter or salt or fruit because of the different numbers of calories.

That bit about cholesterol is also dependent on which type of cholesterol. There are different forms. LDL is, indeed, bad news. However, HDL actually protects against heart disease and stroke.

Detect yes, taste no :-)

HDL does not protect against heart-disease, it's a marker, not a causal factor. https://nutritionfacts.org/video/coconut-oil-and-the-boost-in-hdl-good-cholesterol/

What is important that total cholesterol is under 140mg/DL. If you lower it to this level or below with food and exercise alone, then everything else will align, so you don't need to worry about the fine details. And you will live heart-disease free, for ever - MEDICARE have now approved this method, because it's so effective, and really really cheap. What's more is that it's empowering. Patients don't feel like they're a victim of a disease, stuck on an ever increasing number of pills until the day they die. Now they call the shots, they are in control of their health outcomes, they have a renewed taste for life :-)

This comment was edited on Dec 3, 2021, 18:47.

Actually, taste buds can detect fats. There are a bunch of different receptors attached which can each detect different types of things. The one coded by the CD36 gene is an example of one which can detect fats.

Chocolate doesn't taste different from peanut butter or salt or fruit because of the different numbers of calories.

That bit about cholesterol is also dependent on which type of cholesterol. There are different forms. LDL is, indeed, bad news. However, HDL actually protects against heart disease and stroke.

In-N-Out Burger and The Habit are my two favorite places to get genuine grill-cooked hamburgers. Of the two, I prefer In-N-Out for animal-style Double-Double. 🍔

I do kinda miss burgers... the few restaurants that offer fake meat burgers (I'm not counting bean burgers, they can suck a dick) charge way too much for them. That and they are just as unhealthy as red meat so what's the point.

Fake meat suffers the same problem as other health (or at least better for the environment) food: it's too fucking expensive. I'm referring to Beyond and Impossible, specifically; stuff like Quorn isn't too expensive.

Steele Johnson wrote on Dec 3, 2021, 10:53:
I don't go to Burger King because it always had like a fake grilled flavor that didn't agree with my taste buds. I've used liquid smoke in my own cooking to give it the grilled flavor, but I think BK uses something else. If I want a decent burger, I need to take it up a few notches. Out of all the chains in my region, I think Five Guys is the best. I also like A&B Burgers, and their truffle fries are delicious! But generally I'd go to a family-owned establishment for a decent burger (or make it myself).

On the other hand, I don't eat much red meat anymore anyway 🐮

There used to be an A&B burger on Bridge St in Salem, which I think moved over to Beverly. Have never tried them as a chain, so maybe I'll give them a shot. Seconded on Five Guys, though, as chains. We also have had a Boston Burger Company open up here which I've heard is overpriced. Local burger joints I like: The Lobster Shanty. Really, that's the top. Awesome owners and staff, too. O'Neill's is decent, and I've heard good things about Major Magleashes.

That all being said, I don't eat much red meat these days, either.

Dan =0)

Bent wrote on Dec 3, 2021, 14:45:
It started right about the time that they all started replacing saturated fats with that flavorless oil. I'm not convinced that's a coincidence. Saturated fats are what gives things most of their flavor.

Humans cannot taste fat, so both saturated fat and flavourless oil would be tasteless to us. The reason fats make things "taste good" is that they are the most calorie dense thing you can eat. Over twice the calories of pure sugar. You take a humble potato, and quadruple the calories by infusing it with fat of any kind, and it will taste a lot better.

Your brain releases dopamine and endorphins when you eat something so calorie rich, since we are programmed for survival, and calories mean you don't starve to death in the wild. It doesn't matter whether it's pure whale blubber, vegetable oil, or motor oil, they all have 9 calories per gram, and we cannot taste the actual lipids.

What is happening is that your brain is telling you something tastes good, because it's calorie rich, not because of the actual flavor. Remember your first sip of beer or wine? It's disgusting. It tastes like poison. And yet, we develop a taste for it and suddenly speak romantically about fermented grape liquid. That's the effect of endorphins being released in your brain, as now this awful flavor is associated with the high we get form our endorphins and dopamine when we consume it.

That's why something like a tomato or lettuce can taste so bland and awful - there's no morphin like compound being released in your brain. After a few weeks, you can ween yourself off this affect, and begin to enjoy the actual taste of foods. (Of course many vegetables taste awful these days because they store them all year and spray gas on them to prevent ripening etc, so it's worth going somewhere to get the freshly grown produce, with smells and colors and real flavors)

Interesting that the health advice about saturated fats is now saying that they aren't necessarily unhealthy.

That's industry marketing - they don't even tout it as healthy anymore, the best they can do is fudge the numbers to make it look "not bad". If you eat saturated fat, our total cholesterol goes over 150 mg/DL, and plaques form in our arteries. It's easy to demonstrate. And easy to reverse by lowering cholesterol back down to 140mg/DL by removing most sources of saturated fat.

Saturated fat is illegal to pour into a sewer due to creating 'fat bergs' . That's the same fate your arteries will have, sure the mechanism is a little different, but you get fatty plaques depositing in your arteries - it kills an American every 7 seconds. And it's entirely preventable. crazy world we live in!


Granted, huge amounts of mono or poly oils aren't great either. Ideally you want to eat these fats in their whole forms, such as actual olives themselves, or from nuts and seeds. The requirements are very very small, it's like 3 walnuts worth, plus about a tablespoon of flax seed meal.

And I think this is where the notion that saturated fats aren't bad for you anymore comes form. They compare them non-saturated fats in certain ways, and in the end they both end up being bad - so they publish the result as "saturated fat is fine" but they don't tell you the whole story, that they are both bad.

The combination of too much oil, too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt - you'll notice something like ben & jerry's has 3 types of sugars, and 4 types of fats/oils in it to get those endorphins and dopamins flowing, and hook us, because we get addicted our own internal morphines.

Everything is a scam and we can't get enough of it :-)

This comment was edited on Dec 3, 2021, 17:24.

Californian firm touts ‘mushroom leather’ as sustainability gamechanger.

So you look like the Fonz, and smell like shiitake. Win-win.

The Whopper is an underrated burger and has had some meaningful changes over the last many years now from taste to bun. I remember when the bun would just always blow up on you and it becomes this terrible mess, that's long been solved.

Best burger is still buy a 1lb of ground meat, cut it in half, keep thiccness, put it on George Foreman like grill for 4-7 mins depending if you like raw center through fully cooked, 5 mins for me and really it can then only be tied by a restaurant burger (however I don't know of a restaurant today that does) because fast food does the patty completely differently.

I haven't noticed fast foods going away in my area.

The fast food burger places have all been rapidly disappearing in recent years.

It started right about the time that they all started replacing saturated fats with that flavorless oil. I'm not convinced that's a coincidence. Saturated fats are what gives things most of their flavor. Most people say that they're now about as flavorful as the styrofoam or cardboard containers that they're packaged in now days. The fries especially. The replacement oils don't hold up under higher temperatures at all and what little flavor that they do have is lost.

Interesting that the health advice about saturated fats is now saying that they aren't necessarily unhealthy.

The one exception to the rapid disappearance is Jack In The Box. Although that's mainly due to them being adopted by drug buyers and sellers as a place to find each other. Dubbed Crack In The Box by many people. I think they also probably replaced the saturated fats. though.

This comment was edited on Dec 3, 2021, 15:16.

Steele Johnson wrote on Dec 3, 2021, 10:53:
I don't go to Burger King because it always had like a fake grilled flavor that didn't agree with my taste buds. I've used liquid smoke in my own cooking to give it the grilled flavor, but I think BK uses something else.

They use an actual flame broiler. I worked for BK for 3 months, 32 years ago, when I was 16. I put the patties on a conveyer that slowly moved the meat over actual flames. I actually like the taste, but to each their own.