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Comment by somehnacct3757 | Hacker News Reader

I like Impossible meat quite a lot, but best in ground beef scenarios. If you're putting it into sloppy joes, hamburger helpers, and the like, it's really hard to even notice the difference. The texture is right and most of the flavor is coming from the other ingredients.

It's less flavorful than cow meat as a burger patty, and it's enough of the flavor profile to notice.

I'm bullish on these products becoming the default restaurant vegetarian option, topping the last generation of plant-based burger brands. And for them to find success in less meat-forward recipes. I'm bearish on there being some sort of cultural or ethical revolution. That won't happen until it's cheaper than meat.

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I agree 100%. I remember joking with a friend that the less meat is in your meat, the cheaper it is until 0 where it's suddenly the most expensive options.

Do you think you'd prefer something that's half meat half cheap filler over impossible/beyond?

Me personally? I don't think so... If I'm taking the hit in taste/texture quality I might as well go all the way. Like drinking water over Coke Zero

Definitely (though not half and half). We usually put breadcrumbs and eggs in our meatballs, for example.

> Definitely (though not half and half).

That doesn't count, then. I specifically mean half or even larger amounts.

The point is, the place you go as filler takes over is very different from these products. I'm not saying anything at all about small amounts of additive.

For heavily seasoned stuff like tacos, I find ground turkey to be much closer to ground beef (and easier to prepare) than impossible meat.

Impossible doesn't audit or disclose their carbon footprint, but it has been estimated to be a 90% reduction from beef. It turns out switching to turkey also produces a 90% reduction, and is much cheaper:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220429-the-climate-bene...

The article I just linked is excellent. It also has data on climate emissions from transportation and refrigeration for different food types (transportation is a tiny factor for most foods; refrigeration is a larger factor than I realized) and data on emissions from food waste.

Tl;Dr: buy rapidly perishable goods locally; don't bother with things that have a long shelf life. Avoid beef and other ruminants. Don't waste food.

That last point is a big deal for us, as we feed scraps to the chickens, and doing so reduces our emissions way more than I realized (rotting food has very high emissions).

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