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Comment by p1necone | Hacker News Reader

Maybe a vegan sausage patty could be more easily convincing - they usually have lots of binders and spices anyway. Beyond Meat/Impossible Burger were disgusting to me (compared to regular beef), and they were dyed bright red and stayed bright red when they were cooked which is weird and not like meat.

My favourite (chain fast food) non meat burger option so far has been the one that McDonalds recently released in New Zealand - it's a deep fried, crumbed mashed potato patty with other vegetables in it too. Doesn't pretend to be meat but is delicious.

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Beyond Meat/Impossible Burger were disgusting to me (compared to regular beef), and they were dyed bright red and stayed bright red when they were cooked which is weird and not like meat.

Where did you have this burger? My experience with Impossible Burgers (at The Counter) is not at all like this. They were a pretty good facsimile of meat. I’d go so far as to say they changed my opinion on meat substitutes.

Previously, I was in the same camp as all those here saying they prefer delicious food that doesn’t pretend to be meat - but I think I’d choose an Impossible Burger over that now if I was in the mood for a burger.

Hmm, based on some of the other comments it is possible I've only tried Beyond Meat and not the Impossible Burger - I'll have to seek it out and see.

I've cooked the Beyond Meat beef substitute a few times, and it has never stayed red for me either. (That would be a deal-killer for me.)

Perhaps you got a beta version, or some of a bad batch, of the Beyond Meat?

I cooked up some beyond patties from the grocery store and they stayed red for me. I did attempt to cook them the same as I would a meat patty though. Seems like there's a technique to cooking them well

I’ve only ever cooked the store bought beyond burgers and prefer grilling them. minor adjustments in cooking technique can produce both red-in-the-middle and well done versions. I don’t care for the pan fryed version as it crusts and sometimes burns a little if left on one side too long.

The way they're cooked matters a lot, at least for the Impossible Burger.

A well prepared veggie burger is a very different experience from one that's just been thrown on a grill and taken off when it's hot. I've noticed some huge gaps in quality at different restaurants.

Also will add my vote that Impossible is doing a way better job imitating meat than Beyond is, just in general.

As a life long meat eater, beyond meat tastes weird, but enjoyable. Impossible tastes so close to beef that I cannot tell the difference. It absolutely does not stay bright red, it cooks just the sames.

> Impossible tastes so close to beef that I cannot tell the difference.

The White Castle Impossible Slider is much better than the Burger King Impossible Whopper, IMHO, especially if you want a real demonstration of the similarity to beef.

I'm curious how custom-tailored the {non-meat brand} meat formulations are.

I assume if you're White Castle or Burger King, you're not buying the same product that lands in grocery stores.

Or maybe you are?

I'd guess it's mostly the same formula, just different shapes. Maybe varying quantities of fats.

Impossible Burger doesn't have any dyes. The redness is from the soy leghemoglobin, which also gives it the meaty taste.

https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600189374...

Maybe they weren't cooked correctly? I've had impossible burger many times, and it always looks light brown like a McDonald's burger when cooked. Tastes like one, too (which I enjoy).

> McDonalds recently released in New Zealand - it's a deep fried, crumbed mashed potato patty with other vegetables in it too

Has the McAloo Tikki made its way to New Zealand?

My bias is obvious, but I really feel the world needs to get more into Indian food. No other cuisine does vegetarian food as well.

> My bias is obvious, but I really feel the world needs to get more into Indian food. No other cuisine does vegetarian food as well.

Agreed, when cooking myself (which I do a lot) it's usually Indian recipes. I really came to enjoy the food after I turned (mostly) vegetarian and went to visit friends in Rajasthan many years ago. I used to eat Indian meat dishes (especially curries) but found that I like actually like the vegetarian ones better. It is very easy (and cheap) to cook really good (and healthy; I don't use ghee etc as in the original recipes) and tasteful vegetarian food.

Dunkin Donuts recently debut'd a plant based sausage sandwich (at least in the Great Lakes region, USA), it was ok. Tasted a bit heavy on the salt for me.

That was Beyond meat

Thanks, I couldn't remember which brand it was and just left it kinda vague.

I tried one of those. Despite having been a Beyond fan for ages, I thought the Dunkin Donuts version tasted terrible. AFAICT preparation makes a big difference, and whoever made that one at DD simply did it wrong.

> Doesn't pretend to be meat but is delicious.

This is absolutely my favorite kind of vegan food.

Sounds like Beyond burger and not impossible.

The beyond burger tastes like paint and actually gets more red when you cook it. The impossible burger is red when raw, but turns brown and firm like beef when cooked.

Paint! That's a very accurate description of the flavour, I'll have to remember that. As mentioned in another reply it's possible I'm misremembering and have only had Beyond Meat.

I had a Beyond Meat burger recently and visually it was almost identical to a beef patty. The taste was a bit less intense but seemed to be in the right direction. I can't see anyone actually mistaking it for beef but it seemed like a reasonable facsimile thereof.

I also tried a Hungry Planet burger which was chewier and tasted stronger and was probably more beef-like overall. Again I don't think it'll deceive anyone but it was pretty good.

Haven't yet managed to get hold of an Impossible Burger but it's on the list.

They've had that patty in India since pretty much the beginning (1996). Weird that they're only rolling it out elsewhere now.

> My favourite (chain fast food) non meat burger option so far has been the one that McDonalds recently released in New Zealand - it's a deep fried, crumbed mashed potato patty with other vegetables in it too. Doesn't pretend to be meat but is delicious.

man, they used to have this in Singapore as well but it's no longer on the menu here.

Its probably based on the McAloo Tikki from India. I think it was even tested in a few locations in the US.

This reflects my experience with Beyond, but not at all Impossible, which I actually find difficult to casually distinguish from meat.

I had a vegetarian Big Mac in India years ago. It was gross. Impossible/Beyond burgers are 10x better.

Somebody undercooked your Impossible Burger.

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