Is chicken? This is what the first bite of meat “cultured” from cells tastes like

When I told my friends and family that I was doing a report on the first chicken meat grown from cells animals, his first comments were something like: “Gross”. His second comment was: “What does it taste like?”.

The short answer, and you’ve probably heard this phrase before in other contexts, was: It tastes like chicken.

The long answer, which is close to the answer “Gross”It has more nuances. Yes, it’s strange to think of eating a whole new type of meat: chicken that doesn’t come from a chicken, meat that will be sold commercially as chicken. “grown from cells”after the US Department of Agriculture gave the green light Wednesday to two California firms, Upside Foods and Good Meat.

But it was also interesting (and exciting!) to get a taste of the first hints of a new era in meat production, one of which is to eliminate harm to billions of animals slaughtered for food, and drastically reduce the environmental effects of meat. grazing and forage cultivation for these animals and the management of their waste.

Facing the “flesh paradox”

I’ve been a carnivore all my life. I am also a victim of “paradox of meat”a term scientists use to describe the psychological conflict that occurs in people who like to eat meat, but don’t like to think it was necessary to kill animals to provide it.

As someone who has covered various foodborne illness outbreaks and slaughterhouse safety issues as a reporter, I am well aware that the chicken on my plate probably suffered before it got there. And that fact makes me uneasy if I stop to think about it too much.

So I was open to the idea of ​​trying a different type of meat, and I was also curious to see if it would taste like real meat.

I’ve already tried alternative plant-based foods, like the Beyond Meat sausage and the Impossible Burger, and liked them, although I didn’t think they were perfect substitutes. To be honest, the Beyond Meat sausage tasted good, but a bit mealy.

And the Impossible Burger was dry, although I may have cooked it too long. In both cases, I enjoyed the taste of the products, but was still aware that I wasn’t actually eating pork or beef.

And what about the artificiality of all this? It didn’t bother me that this new cultured meat is made of cells that grow to epic proportions in huge steel vats, before being molded into chunks of familiar shapes, like steaks and nuggets that would look naturally on the table.

However, as with everything related to food, in the end it all comes down to taste. And in this case, to the larger question behind it: Is this new material actually chicken or is it an impostor?

Key test time: to the mouth

I traveled to the Upside Foods factory in Emeryville, California in January. There, chef Jess Weaver sautéed a “poultry breast” cultured chicken in butter and white wine sauce with tomatoes, capers and green onions.

The aroma was enticing, as any steak cooked in butter would be. The taste was light and delicate. Its texture was tender, like any chicken breast I would cook at home, if I were a chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America.

Last week I visited the Good Meat plant in Alameda, California, where the company will begin production of its chicken meat cell-based products.

Chef Zach Tyndall prepared a smoked chicken salad with mayonnaise, golden raisins, and walnuts. He followed with a plate of “thigh” chicken, served on a bed of mashed potatoes with a demi-glace sauce of mushrooms and vegetables, golden beets and small florets of purple cauliflower.

The flavor was more intense than that of a chicken breast and more like the dark meat of a thigh. Its texture was tender and chewy, as a well-cooked chicken thigh should be.

That’s what it’s all about, says Tyndall. “It has to be as realistic as possible so that it sells in large quantities”he added.

Although “realistic” It is an interesting word, from my point of view I think it will succeed. Huge hurdles remain — such as increasing manufacturing volume and reducing costs, experts say, and the lingering question of whether a chicken that isn’t a bird is, in fact, chicken — but if you rely on authentic taste, I’ll leave you with this:Please pass me the ‘chicken’”.

Fountain. AFP