October 31, 2021

Beyond Burger vs. Ground Beef Patties

I am impressed with the taste of both the impossible burger and beyond burger. They achieved the texture and taste of a ground beef burger perfectly.

I decided to try out the Beyond Burger patties. They are made primarily from peas, vegetable oil, rice and mung beans.

We almost never eat hamburgers. However, the other day we bought some beef patties. I was curious about the Beyond Burger patties and decided to buy both and compare the two.

Cost:

Per patty, Beyond Burger patties cost three times more than ground beef patties, (this was in April 2021). I suspect that costs will go down over time as the cost of new technology often does. The beef industry also receives government subsidies that make the consumer price of beef artificially low.

I bought a 6-pack of 85% lean ground beef patties from WinCo for about $5.50. A 2-pack of Beyond Burger patties cost about the same.

Packaging:

The six ground beef patties come in a Styrofoam tray, wrapped in plastic wrap. The patties are separated by some wax paper squares.

The two Beyond Burgers came in an even larger package, even though there were only two patties. The base was made of thick white plastic, sealed with a thin layer of clear plastic and the entire assembly was covered with a sleeve of cardboard.

The excessive packaging of the Beyond Burger patties is a disappointment. While you could argue that the package has the potential to be 100% recyclable, it's stupid they chose to use so much packaging in the first place.

Handling - First Impressions:

Handling a pristine, artisan, Beyond Burger patty is a completely different experience to the messy, masticated beef patty and the gory, menstruating, Styrofoam tray and plastic wrap that contains them. If I cooked hamburgers a lot, (which I don’t), cleanliness alone would warrant the switch to Beyond Beef.

Cooking:

Ground beef patties are easier to cook but make a huge mess. Even a very lean 85% beef patty splashed a ton of grease all over the stove top, adjacent countertops and floor.

Beyond Burger patties would stick to the pan more and left a lot of residue that was difficult to clean off of the pan afterward. There was little to no mess created on the cooktop or countertops.

While grill cooking would reduce both of these messes, it is still much easier to cook up a Beyond Burger patty.

Beef patties are greasy and continually weep murderous looking juice from the time they are blood rare until they are well-done hockey pucks. Beyond Burger patties have a much wider window of perfection and thus are much easier to cook.

The Taste:

I was super impressed with how well the Beyond Burger patties match the texture and taste of beef patties.

Health Benefits:

There is almost no health benefit to a Beyond Burger patty. They are essentially as healthy (high protein) and unhealthy (saturated fat) as an 85% lean ground beef patty.