McDonald's Secret Hamburger Ingredient

[glenn kangiser]

I have wondered for years how McDonald's (and several others - Burger King and Jack in the Box as well as the school lunch programs all use it)  ....how they could call that brown sawdust like substance in their burgers 100% beef.

This article tells how the secret ingredient, "Pink Slime" is made from trimmings that used to have to be thrown out for grease and dog food.


Yum.....



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&sq=beef&st=cse&scp=1



Will I stop eating there?  I dunno --- the end product looks like something resembling a cardboard hamburger.

[rwanders]

    I can't vouch for it but, I was told by a wholesale food distributor that McD's was a very large buyer of beef eyeballs which were ground up to provide more "juiciness" to their burgers----not that there is anything wrong with cows eyeballs I guess.

[Whitlock]

Yummy

[Pox Eclipse]

It's true; mechanically separated meat can be produced from bones and other trimmings at one tenth the cost of finer cuts of meat, and "Pink slime" is not an innaccurate description:

http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2009/01/mechanically-separated-meat.html

[Whitlock]

O.K. that's it I'm know a Venisontarian

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, Pox.  That's disgusting.

I have always thought that some of the cardboard-like fibrous material in McD's hamburgers was ground up bones. [idea]

[glenn kangiser]

Crimoney.  I have had to come back and look at that pink slime picture about 4 times already.....

[Pox Eclipse]

A mechanical separator is really pretty cool to watch.  It is much more complex than just grinding up bones.  When I worked in a salmon processing plant in Alaska, we had one that we used on all the fish carcasses after the fillets were removed.  All the carcasses went in a hopper at the top, and a worm fed them into a drum that is spinning at very high speed.  The drum is perforated with tiny holes, so the soft tissue is pressed out through the holes by centrifugal force, while the clean bones are pushed out of the end.  The result was pure red salmon paste that was used to make sausage and other processed salmon products.  It was pure profit, as the carcasses would otherwise be ground up and flushed out into the river.

[NM_Shooter]

I'm much more concerned by the ammonia in the food than I am with centrifuge seperated protein additives.  Growing up "hillbilly" I have no issues consuming less-than-prime portions of an animal.

[glenn kangiser]

Now you went and blew my impression of you, Frank.  

I have always thought of you as sophisticated....

The ammonia bothers me too.  That can't be good for us.

According to this 15 PPM is the safe level.      http://www.marlerclark.com/case_news/view/gateway-cold-storage-ammonia-poisoning-illinois

Seems in the above Pink Slime paste it was in the hundreds.  Likely an explanation for why we often get the, "I don't think I should have eaten that" feeling after eating at or local fast "food" joint.


Looks like this is the key...

Savini said the commodities program is "a multimillion-dollar industry for food processors, farmers, and cold storage warehouses."

http://www.marlerclark.com/case_news/detail/unit-5-investigation-the-school-lunch-secret

[Whitlock]

If you think about it 3rd world countrys eat everyting its all calories.

I have a friend that shot his frist deer and invited me over for liver and onions. I was late getting there and when I showed up he told me something was wrong with the liver. It tasted funny?
As near as I could tell he had cooked one of the lungs and left the liver for the coyotes

[StinkerBell]

I can not bring myself to eat any internal organs. I just can't.

[Pox Eclipse]

Once when I lived in Oregon, a friend presented me with a fresh deer liver and asked me to cook it for him.  I soaked it in milk like I do cow's liver, then sauteed it with bacon and onions.

It was the best liver I ever ate, very mild and not gamey at all.  Are any other venison organs good eats?

[Whitlock]

The heart is my favorite I have friends that eat the kidneys I won't even try that

Then there is bear gallbladdar. Worth big money on the Asian market. you dry it and eat it in a powder forum
It makes things work down south If you have that problem

Hey we are hyjacking Glenn's topic

[glenn kangiser]

Ahhhh....grasshopper, the student surpasses the teacher...

[Whitlock]

Ahhhh....grasshopper, the student surpasses the teacher...

Ya someday when I grow up I want to be as smart as you think you are teacher

[glenn kangiser]

Ahhhh, Grasshopper, you should live that long....

 I can't vouch for it but, I was told by a wholesale food distributor that McD's was a very large buyer of beef eyeballs which were ground up to provide more "juiciness" to their burgers----not that there is anything wrong with cows eyeballs I guess.

RW, I checked this out a bit --- Snopes reports on it and says false, but their report is a very poor argument based solely on their opinion and reasoning as to why McD's wouldn't do this.  Snopes has been caught up with before and I tend to agree with you.  

I think it is likely that they do get the eyeballs and Whitlock mentioned that either the Mexicans or Portuguese he knew would fight to eat the eyeballs out of the cooked animal heads at the barbecue.

[NM_Shooter]

Heck ya I'm serfisticated.  Dang near epicurean even. 

Anybody here ever try squirrel brains?  Fish cheeks? BBQ racoon? 

If you eat it quick and keep everything clean, you don't need ammonia!

-f-

[glenn kangiser]

Where is Epicurea located, Shooter? -I couldn't find it on the map...

[Sassy]

No wonder I've only eaten 1 Big Mac in my life & one regular hamburger...  they looked suspicious & tasted even worse...   

[NM_Shooter]

Where is Epicurea located, Shooter? -I couldn't find it on the map...

It's between Old Joe and Calico Rock.  Not much left of the place since the revenuers found out.

[considerations]

"Fish cheeks?"

Yes, from big halibut....and really good!

[Pox Eclipse]

Anybody here ever try squirrel brains?  Fish cheeks?

Halibut cheeks are a delicacy. 

[MountainDon]

http://www.fishex.com/fish-market/halibut/halibut-cheeks.html

[Don_P]

Food Inc and The Future of Food are both good flicks.

If it's slower than us, it probably calls for deep frying.