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Comment by mathgorges | Hacker News Reader

The fat percentage criticism strikes me as a bit odd.

At least where I am (USA) ground meat is categorized by its fat percentage and 20% fat is the standard I usually see in the supermarket.

I guess what I'm saying is: 20% is indeed a high fat percentage, but it's also the typical fat percentage for conventional meat so it feels disingenuous to use it to criticize plant-based meats.

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The discussion of the fat percentage misses the relevant concern. Mineral oil, unlike vegetable or animal fat, is a petroleum product and carcinogen that bioaccumulates in body fat.

The oekotest.de link also discusses methylcellulose as a cause of indigestion (a symptom mentioned in this thread), and the presence of genetically modified soy. GM crops are a concern because of their tolerance to high pesticide levels.

The 20% fat does not consist of mineral oil. The mineral oil content is separate, and from contamination from machinery etc (presumably much much less than 20%).

80/20 is very typical for ground beef, although some people shop specifically for 85/15 or even 90/10. I find the 90/10 lacks flavor.

I drain the 80/20 meat after cooking it... so it is probably close to 90% meat when I'm done

Yea depends on how you use it. Ground meat cooked for a casserole, probably too much fat, but 20% fat in a burger is good.

Nah, it's all the same. People who need to drain mince don't know how to cook properly.

Burgers are supposed to be made with lean meat but with extra fat added in to make it nice again. That's the whole point of a burger. You take tough, lean meat that is otherwise undesirable, and grind it up and mix it with fat. Essentially creating the perfectly marbled steak. Grinding premium cuts is idiotic.

> People who need to drain ground beef don't know how to cook properly.

lol

https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/nutrition-101/how-...

says that you end up with 2.6oz for 80/20, 2.7oz for 85/15 and 3.1oz of meat for 90/10. Not disagreeing with you on flavor, just thought it was interesting that you end up with less burger.

Totally depends on how you're using it. A burger over flame needs that extra fat to stay moist or you'll get a sad, dry burger. Making tacos on the other hand makes it gush out when eating and grossly congealed when refrigerated.

Are you talking about minced beef? I buy that at 5% fat in the UK, and that’s not anywhere fancy.

That's probably great for bolognese or tartare (to name a couple of random examples), but use that for a burger and it would be horribly dry (unless you cooked it rare/medium rare)

Although I'm sure it's possible to make a plant based burger that doesn't need 20% fat by tweaking other stuff that you can't change with ground beef. (I've had potato/sweet potato patties that were great and basically fat free, but obviously not much like actual meat)

Yes, what you call minced beef is called ground beef in America. Not to be confused with mincemeat, though, fellow Americans! I was very confused the first time I had that in the UK.

For the record, Italians wouldn't use anything less than 20% for their ragu. Not that this has much to do with "spaghetti bolognese" I suppose.

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