Pink Slime

[Joey McGee]

That's odd, everyone else understood it just fine. And it's completely accurate. If anything, it understates the economic and ecological inefficiency of beef relative to other farmed proteins. National Academy of Sciences journal article saying so.




You are the one who raised the issue, by claiming that being "economically and environmentally healthy" is a point in favor of pink slime. If it's relevant enough for you to make the claim, it's relevant that the claim is absurd. Beef is an environmentally and ecologically extravagant (that is to say, wasteful) luxury product, by a factor more than comparable to using a 10 mpg Hummer H2 to drive to work.

The Hummer uses three to four times more resources than a typical economy car, per mile. Beef uses six times more reactive nitrogen (the environmental raw material for protein synthesis, which in US agriculture is provided mostly via the Haber process using fossil fuels), per calorie, than typical other farmed proteins. Here's that National Academy of Sciences paper again.

Now, use pink slime to make it a few percent more efficient... that's a whole lot like using an aerodynamic cowling to make the Hummer a few percent more efficient. It's putting lipstick on a pig cow.




I'd have to dig a pretty deep one to find enough petroleum to keep beef production anywhere near current levels over the next decade or two. I'm hoping the plans underway to bring back buffalo will provide a sustainable substitute.

So what you are are trying to say is that beef is bad or something. This thread is about lean finely textured beef, not beef. You sure would like to have something to say that makes sense, but you are not addressing the issue.

I understand that you still don't know why the finer beef particles stick together less, that being completely atypical for finer particles.

Like I already said, it's okay that you don't know that. It's probably a deep scientific mystery that only a well-equipped materials science lab could even begin to address. It's not necessary to pretend I asked a different question so you can pretend to have given an answer.

No, you are splitting hairs over the difference between not sticking together at all to sticking together differently. You are manufacturing an argument that has nothing to do with this product because you cant argue against it because i am right. Good day.

 

[Red Baron Farms]

Even if I accept all of this babble, it has nothing to do with lean finely textured beef, or anything we are talking about. Sure is interesting that you cant stay on topic.

Oh but it has everything to do with pink slime. The whole reason for pink slime is to "put lipstick on a pig cow" as Myriad so awesomely noted. You can focus on the lipstick and tell everyone how beautiful that lipstick is from now till the end of time and how the pig(industrial business model) is off topic. But it is still just pink lipstick slime on a pig cow and no matter how you try to make the lipstick slime sound great, it is part of a VERY unsafe and inefficient/wasteful model of food production.

 

[Joey McGee]

Oh but it has everything to do with pink slime. The whole reason for pink slime is to "put lipstick on a pig cow" as Myriad so awesomely noted. You can focus on the lipstick and tell everyone how beautiful that lipstick is from now till the end of time and how the pig(industrial business model) is off topic. But it is still just pink lipstick slime on a pig cow and no matter how you try to make the lipstick slime sound great, it is part of a VERY unsafe and inefficient/wasteful model of food production.

No, the whole reason lftb exists is to get more of the same meat out of the same cow. You are trying to change the subject to the entire idea of beef production.

 

[Joey McGee]

Is there anyone out there that does not have a personal agenda to promote that would actually like to talk about this specific product or is this now merely a sounding board for personal neuroses?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Is there anyone out there that does not have a personal agenda to promote that would actually like to talk about this specific product or is this now merely a sounding board for personal neuroses?

 

[ehcks]

Is there anyone out there that does not have a personal agenda to promote that would actually like to talk about this specific product or is this now merely a sounding board for personal neuroses?

It tastes bad, which means I would like to avoid it. To do so, I will buy from the companies that label their product as not having it. The same way most other food labels work.

 

[casebro]

I dunno from pink slime, but I stay away from those factory packaged plastic tubes of ground beef. The seem to have more gristle than meat. In fact, I suspect if it weren't for the gristle the lftb would preclude any texture at all.

Aside- Several members of my family just went vegan. I suspect that if they ever bought better a quality of meat they wouldn't be so against it. Factory made ground beef and skinlessbonelesstasteless chicken breasts?

I know they were crazy, they gave away shrimp for FSM's sake! At least they gave it to me. And my dog did like the "ground chicken thighs, $3.79/lb". ( I make roast beef cheaper than that.) They have their own dog, but I guess he went vegan too? Or no, factory made food is OK for him?

 

[Red Baron Farms]

No, the whole reason lftb exists is to get more of the same meat out of the same cow.

Myriad said it best:

Heh. Sure, in the same sense that putting an aerodynamic cowling on a 10 mpg hummer is economical

 

[Red Baron Farms]

Or no, factory made food is OK for him?

Not as good for him no. It's OK, but not the best.

Check out about 4:45 on .......

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

By J.M. Hirsch, AP Food Editor: 'Pink slime' in burgers? A taste test.

Despite the odds, I had lucked out. Between the two grocers, I'd managed to identify two packages of 85 percent lean ground beef, one with pink slime and one without. Time to taste....
Outwardly, they seemed the same: They smelled the same, and they looked basically the same, though the pink slime sample was slightly lighter in color. Until you touched them. The all-natural sample was slightly fattier to touch. That seemed odd, since both products should have the same fat content.

...I formed a half-pound (quarter-kilogram) of each ground beef into a thick burger patty, adding nothing to the meat. ... fry these in a skillet because it's easier to control the cooking, ensuring both would be cooked to the same degree and under the same conditions.

I added nothing to the pan. Meat this fatty generally bleeds out a robust amount of grease, so I wasn't concerned with sticking. That was my second surprise. The pink slime patty released very little fat during cooking. The other patty gave off two or three times as much.

....First, the unadulterated burger. The aroma was luscious. The meat was juicy, tender and nicely seared. Where I'd cut, juices slowly dribbled out onto the plate, collecting in a pool. The taste was savory and meaty, with big beefy flavor. The chew had just the right texture, substantial but giving. Basically, everything you would want in a burger.

The pink slime burger also was perfectly seared and drew me in with an equally alluring aroma. But no juices collected on the plate. Or dribbled out. Or were apparent in the meat in really any way. ....

The taste was — OK. I took another taste of the first burger, then back to the pink slime burger.

It was not bad. But nor was it good. It was flat. I added more salt. No. It was simply one-dimensional.

And then there was the texture. Unpleasantly chewy bits of what I can only describe as gristle, though they were not visible, seemed to stud the meat of the pink slime burger. The result was a mealy chew that, while not overtly unpleasant, didn't leave me wanting another bite.

Exactly how I described the unpleasant texture.

 

[phiwum]

By J.M. Hirsch, AP Food Editor: 'Pink slime' in burgers? A taste test.
Exactly how I described the unpleasant texture.

Thanks for the cited taste test.

It would have been nice if it had been a blind test, but it's better than nothing.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Thanks for the cited taste test.

It would have been nice if it had been a blind test, but it's better than nothing.

But coincidentally it's exactly how I described the texture long before I ever knew what the problem was and in this thread before I read that guy's test.

 

[GlennB]

No, the whole reason lftb exists is to get more of the same meat out of the same cow. You are trying to change the subject to the entire idea of beef production.

For once, in this thread, I'll heartily agree with JoeMac. RBF always tries to turn the discussion to the evils of modern beef production methods in general, and in this case misses the point entirely.

RBF - folks get weary of that schtick of yours. Really.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

For once, in this thread, I'll heartily agree with JoeMac. RBF always tries to turn the discussion to the evils of modern beef production methods in general, and in this case misses the point entirely.

RBF - folks get weary of that schtick of yours. Really.

Maybe, but what about Joey's insistence I'm a liar and really didn't have a problem with the texture of burger with this stuff in it?

And what about his insistence that everything put out by the main producer is honest science?

What about his insistence the stuff is just trim, when it isn't just "trim" but it is trim further from the muscle? And his denial the stuff is any different from the rest of the burger?

 

[Red Baron Farms]

For once, in this thread, I'll heartily agree with JoeMac. RBF always tries to turn the discussion to the evils of modern beef production methods in general, and in this case misses the point entirely.

RBF - folks get weary of that schtick of yours. Really.

It's not really a schtick. I simply don't comment usually unless it is related. You think you are weary? You don't even know what weary is till you try to explain how unhealthy and dangerous CAFOs and EVERYTHING associated around them are to people, the environment, the economy, AGW, the animals..it is ridiculous. But I generally get the equivalent of blank stares, or some crazy that agrees, but because they are some hippy that went VEGAN and thinks humans are herbivores.....which doesn't help much at all.

Now the fact of the matter is I seriously doubt pink slime, nasty as it is, has any worse effect on health or the environment as any other industrial meat product. However, there is an important logic fallacy taking place when someone claims that being "just as safe as" means safe.

Jumping off a building without a parachute is "just as safe" as jumping off a building with an umbrella. But neither is safe, they are equally unsafe.

The consumers that understand for whatever reason they don't want pink slime in their food, shouldn't be forced into guessing. It needs to be clearly labeled. That's the bottom line.

 

[angrysoba]

Is there anyone out there that does not have a personal agenda to promote that would actually like to talk about this specific product or is this now merely a sounding board for personal neuroses?

Yes!

 

[casebro]

My own suspicion is that any meat producer that adds lftb to his product is also using the lowest grade cuts for the balance. Hence the gristly texture.

So I suspect the pink slime producers are telling the truth- it is good, healthy food that has minimal differences when mixed into traditional ground beef. But the skinflint meat companies then ruin lftb's reputation by mixing it with the scraps swept off the floor.

IF we could buy some pink slime and add it to our own traditionally ground beef, I bet the producers of the slime would be proven correct.

It's locally ground beef tacos for me tonight, with pico de gallo from my garden. Flossing will be a breeze.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Any evidence for that fantasy, Casebro?

 

[angrysoba]

It's not really a schtick. I simply don't comment usually unless it is related. You think you are weary? You don't even know what weary is till you try to explain how unhealthy and dangerous CAFOs and EVERYTHING associated around them are to people, the environment, the economy, AGW, the animals..it is ridiculous. But I generally get the equivalent of blank stares, or some crazy that agrees, but because they are some hippy that went VEGAN and thinks humans are herbivores.....which doesn't help much at all.

Now the fact of the matter is I seriously doubt pink slime, nasty as it is, has any worse effect on health or the environment as any other industrial meat product. However, there is an important logic fallacy taking place when someone claims that being "just as safe as" means safe.

Jumping off a building without a parachute is "just as safe" as jumping off a building with an umbrella. But neither is safe, they are equally unsafe.

The consumers that understand for whatever reason they don't want pink slime in their food, shouldn't be forced into guessing. It needs to be clearly labeled. That's the bottom line.

Only Communists do this!

In a Libertarian world, anybody can label their products and therefore "Good, Wholesome, Healthy" food can be labelled as such if the producers want to label it. Consumers can make up their own mind.

 

[casebro]

Any evidence for that fantasy, Casebro?

Which part, the flossing or the tacos?