Comment by iinnPP

6 days ago

You don't need salt and spices to make a burger, it can be 100% beef with no additives. A pinch of salt can be like 0.3g/burger and you're fine as well.

I don't eat that these days, my burgers are actually 25% beef and 75% lentil/seasoning. Still under 0.5g/100g

16 comments

iinnPP

Reply
gravatron  6 days ago

I remember working in a restaurant many years ago, where it was part of new hire training to demonstrate the importance of salt and pepper to a burger's taste. We would make 3 burgers, one no seasoning, one poorly seasoned, and one properly seasoned to the spec, and then we would taste test them all. The difference in taste was so night and day I was shocked the first time I participated in the test. Yeah I guess you don't technically need salt and spices, but not adding them or using just a pinch is not the same thing at all.

  • carlmr  5 days ago

    I think the problem is lot's of people here don't have much kitchen experience and underestimate the effect.

    But anyway, I think a pre-seasoned vegan ready made burger patty should only be compared to a pre-seasoned meat burger patty. It's an Apples and Oranges comparison with little meaning.

    If you compare the high sodium of a vegan ground beef replacement with ground beef, that's fair game. The one from Beyond here is actually a good example of too high sodium. I won't judge. I only care about the comparison, not the company.

kleiba  6 days ago

Let me assure you that you're in the vast minority if you add little or no salt at all to your home-made burger patties.

  • iinnPP  6 days ago

    I was going to edit the comment with this but in Canada we have a company called Metro(grocer) and they often sell 4x fresh beef patties for ~$4 which is 1lb(454g) of ground beef and exactly nothing else.

    It's good to eat sans salt on bbq with your desired (typically salty) toppings.

    I know people salt the patty while cooking, but the topic at hand is Beyond and their patties.

    • Arainach  6 days ago

      ....which should be compared against other premade patties and how people make and serve beef patties, not against the theoretical option that people could choose to omit salt.

      The whole "salt" angle is bikeshedding - no one advocated Beyond for salt, they pick it for all of the other health benefits (fats, cholesterol)

      3 replies →

  • Jensson  6 days ago

    Still meat is very low sodium, it is weird to say plant based alternatives have less sodium since both have as much salt as you add since there is almost none naturally.

    • kleiba  6 days ago

      But then you're comparing apples an oranges: meat is low in sodium in its unprocessed form, but so are all the ingredients of the plant-based alternative before adding salt.

      What matters is not so much the natural form, it is how the product is typically consumed.

      But of course I see your point that with home made meat-based patties, you are in control of how much salt you want to add, while with factory made patties, you have to take what you get, it's typically not possible to "take away" salt. Mind you, though, the latter argument holds for both plant-based and meat-based factory-made patties.

      5 replies →