Pan-cooking Beyond Burgers:
- Heat a skillet over medium high heat
- Grease the skillet with a light coat of olive oil or butter
- Season to your liking, I used: Rub Some Burger (salt, chili pepper, dehydrated garlic and onion, brown sugar, sugar, paprika, natural flavors, citric acid). Plus, it was funny too, since it’s specifically made “for dead cow” :)
- Cook Beyond Burgers for 3 minutes on each side or until browned on the outside
Thoughts
First off is how I cooked them. To do this I simply put some burger seasoning on one side of each patty and fried them in a cast iron pan for 3 minutes on each side. The package specifically mentions that they should remain pink and to be careful not to overcook them. I wanted to really taste it without it being interfered with by other flavors, so I ate about a quarter of it without any toppings. It really was shocking at how good it actually tasted. Now I don’t have anything against veggie patties at all; I’ll eat veggie burgers, chicken burgers, turkey burgers, beef burgers, etc. They all have different flavor profiles and I know what I’m getting. However, the primary selling point touted by these new veggie meat companies is specifically as a ground beef replacement.
First positive sign for this selling point was while I was cooking the patties my dog wondered into the kitchen sniffing around. That told me that my dog was at least initially tricked that there was meat cooking in the kitchen :) As for the taste it is close; it is a little bit chewier than beef and to me has a slight aftertaste that is different too. Overall, I could easily eat these patties as a meat substitute. I knew it wasn’t beef and I’m positive you couldn’t trick me in a blind taste test. However, they are getting close and the most important piece to me is that the patty itself tastes good. It in fact is not gross at all! From an environment and health standpoint I truly wish them luck.
