Sept 30, 2010: Mystery Meat

Ahh mystery meat, the magical ingredient staple in school cafeterias and cheap diners.
What's it taste like?
The cafeteria ladies, and greasy spoon chefs, reply, "Anything you want, kid, name it".
But what is it, what's it made from?
This batch, chicken.

Oh God, no more chicken nuggets for me...ever. That's disgusting.

Bubble gum python.

No wonder I prefer to buy whole chicken for cooking...
...and I almost never buy processed meat.

Just like Mom used to process.

So glad I bought tofu today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheldonrs Just like Mom used to process.

That's more mechanically joined than mechanically separated, though......

I'm starting to conjour up images of Sweeney Todd. Uuuuggghhh.

My parents swore there was a euphemism/codename for the human flesh in the pies, but I can't remember it -I'm thinking "Albanian Lamb"? But when i google Sweeney Todd, I can't find anything and googling albanian lamb leads to recipes. Anyway, whenever we asked what sort of meat was in something, that's what they'd say. Perhaps it really was Albanian lamb?

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce What's it taste like? The cafeteria ladies, and greasy spoon chefs, reply, "Anything you want, kid, name it".

Q: What cuts of the animal are in that meat?
A: Whatever could squeeze through the little holes of the sieve.

Quote:

Originally Posted by monster My parents swore there was a euphemism/codename for the human flesh in the pies, but I can't remember it -I'm thinking "Albanian Lamb"? But when i google Sweeney Todd, I can't find anything and googling albanian lamb leads to recipes. Anyway, whenever we asked what sort of meat was in something, that's what they'd say. Perhaps it really was Albanian lamb?

Ugh! Nuggets has eyes...

Great -a new business op for you! Nuggets can have spex!

Still not as gross as hot dogs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtimer Still not as gross as hot dogs.

SOYLENT PINK IS...CHICKENS!

LOL

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawnee123 SOYLENT PINK IS...CHICKENS!

I wondered how long it would be before Sheldon was grinning about mystery meat....

Quote:

Originally Posted by monster I wondered how long it would be before Sheldon was grinning about mystery meat....

You lie! That's a picture of whale penis!

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevecrm Strawberry ice cream flavour meat please

One name for human flesh is long pig. I guess this is long chicken.
What a great way to suppress recipe posts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by monster Great -a new business op for you! Nuggets can have sex!

They're just dumping this sh!t into a cardboard box! lol

Nobody would dump "food" into a plain cardboard box.

I think I'd rather eat the cardboard box, plain.

Hmmmmmmm.....

I don't know nothin' about nothin' but this seems fishy.
A quick inspection of the re-bloggers turned up this (from Nik Matt at The Earth Giant (DISCLAIMER: I have no idea if HIS facts are straight but it it seems more plausible to me)
Nik says:
"There is a lot of misinformation in this bullshit. The picture isn’t even mechanically separated chicken, it’s slurry, which exists because Americans think dark meat is nasty (yet love this shit). Basically they emulsify dark meat and separate it from the excess fat and water then flash-freeze the slurry to be transported to plants all over the country that will shape it into lovely patties and nuggets. At no point in time is this treated with ammonia (that happened to hamburger meat in response to e-coli outbreaks and doesn’t happen anymore) and no processing plant would ever put an entire fucking chicken into a sieve to be separated. There are no non-muscular parts, except for maybe a very small amount of tough tissue, in any mechanically separated meat or slurry."

I Googled "Chicken Slurry" and it doesn't look anything like the bubblegum in this picture. Wikipedia wasn't a whole lot more helpful.

I'd really really like to know the source of this picture. Fooducate.com says this about the picture:

"Folks, this is mechanically separated chicken, an invention of the late 20th century. Someone figured out in the 1960’s that meat processors can eek out a few more percent of profit from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows by scraping the bones 100% clean of meat. This is done by machines, not humans, by passing bones leftover after the initial cutting through a high pressure sieve. The paste you see in the picture above is the result.

This paste goes on to become the main ingredient in many a hot dog, bologna, chicken nuggets, pepperoni, salami, jerky etc…"

And a contributer on Snopes says:
"The article isn't wholly accurate, because MRM (Mechanically Reclaimed Meat) comes from what is left on the carcass after other processing. It's not a case of mincing the whole carcass (only a certain proportion of bones are allowed - depends on your local food laws). What tends to squick people is the idea of non-muscle meat, skin and cartilage in the mix. The description sounds more like steam reclaimed meat from a rendering plant - the whole carcass goes into the process, is pressure cooked and the resulting "highly pigmented slurry" is dried to varying degrees depending on whether you want to make it into slices for sandwiches, into pet food or dried completely for fertiliser.

References:
Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal Is Doing to the World by Eric Schlosser
The Food Scandal: What's Wrong with the British Diet and How to Set It Right by Caroline Walker and Geoffrey Cannon
Meat Machine by Jan W"

I think if that picture is really MRM, it is POST-pigmenting. It is made from cleaned carcasses.
Facts may be gross, but I like to get 'em straight.
Or, straighter.

Thanks for the research, Adam.

Lord knows what that stuff is, but still, much of the time we don't know what we're really eating, (refer to post #25). It would probably be healthier to catch and eat fresh rats or insects.

I never thought I could be turned off by pink meat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by casimendocina So glad I bought tofu today.

I told y'all it was mechanically separated chicken!

If there is anything that I have learned from Classic Science Fiction Films of the 1950s and 1960s, it is that there are some things man was not meant to know.

This would be one of those things.

Einstein's dead, I'm not.

Word.

Mystery meat at a WalMart in China

Yay, Adam!
I was about to go and do the same research, you saved me the trip.
I was certainly going to opine that it would not make good financial sense to pulp a whole chicken like that, when the breast - to name but one part - can be sold at a much higher value on its own.

Jamie Oliver has done a lot of work here, trying to educate people into understanding what they are eating. Personally I've known since 1985, when we had a class in Food & Nutrition in what goes into various pies, pastes and sausages. It didn't put me off, but at least it meant I had a well-informed choice. My vegetarian friends used to try to "convert" me by telling me what was in my food - nothing like a 16 year old to labour a point. They soon learned that I was at least as clued up as they were and could definitely out-gross them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl I was certainly going to opine that it would not make good financial sense to pulp a whole chicken like that, when the breast - to name but one part - can be sold at a much higher value on its own.

Thanks Bruce. That was cool

Now (with a good blender) we can make our own meat patties at home from scratch.

It was an odd "experiment". He kept talking up the grossness, but the only problem with the meat he used was that it is hard to get off the bone using just a knife. It was all from one chicken, the guts and head were removed, and the additives weren't particularly alarming. I certainly wouldn't have any problem eating one of those nuggets. It seems he was relying solely on the idea that meat ground finer than one usually sees (ie hamburger) looks wierd. Plus repeatedly saying how gross it was.

You have to remember he's a chef. They feel white wine with red meat is gross.

I'm pretty sure the kids thought the meat was plenty gross. It's just that American children are attention whores who will deliberately eat gross things for fun.

But the French eat frog legs and snails.

Without breading, too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus frog legs and snails.

Quote:

Originally Posted by monster My parents swore there was a euphemism/codename for the human flesh in the pies, but I can't remember it -I'm thinking "Albanian Lamb"? But when i google Sweeney Todd, I can't find anything and googling albanian lamb leads to recipes. Anyway, whenever we asked what sort of meat was in something, that's what they'd say. Perhaps it really was Albanian lamb?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beest I remembered mutton and found several references to it being a Mutton Pie Shop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spudcon Mystery meat at a WalMart in China

Every time I see this thread title, the commercial jingle for the game Mystery Date gets in my head, but of course it's changed to:

Open the door
For your
Mystery Meat.

Does this game still exist in the states or is it in the same category as the Edsall?

Edsall?

Oh wait, you mean Edsel... yes, tucked away in attics, and at yard sales.

Chicken Deboner

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce Edsall? Oh wait, you mean Edsel... yes, tucked away in attics, and at yard sales.

That deboner is enough to give any guy a deboner. Besides the one part looking like a pile of poop, the part with the bristles and claws could probably only satisfy a chupacabra.

Quote:

Originally Posted by casimendocina Thank god it's not still on the market.

Are there some pieces of meat that are too disgusting even to feed to vultures? Yucky is the correct adjective.

1/2 LOL Actually, I was talking about Mystery Date (but probably another case of me shifting the focus and it being clear to me, but not anyone else, because I didn't tell them or didn't realise myself until afterwards).

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce It wasn't that bad. The styling was adventurous, but that's a personal thing. It was ahead of the pack as far as gadgets/novel features, and way too expensive in a down market, but mechanically sound.

[Tailpost] ...

even Bear Grylls wouldn't eat that.

Bleuch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spudcon Are there some pieces of meat that are too disgusting even to feed to vultures? Yucky is the correct adjective.

Isn't that our national bird?

No, I think that's an Eagle.

There was one soaring over my brother's house (in the country) and it got down real close. Then it hit another current of air and went really high. Didn't flap once that I saw.

My brother said it was probably a dead snake that I saw (he knows a little about ornithology) 'cause they eat dead stuff mostly, but I thought the ones at my other brother's house was after the baby kittehs. Nah...he soared way up high.

Nice shot of the ol buzzard.

Great shot Shawnee. I've come upon those birds several times, but as soon as I reach for my camera, they get far away.

Turkey vultures.

Turkey Vultures pee on their feet to keep them warm in winter, cool in summer and to kill bacteria.

I should try that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spudcon Great shot Shawnee. I've come upon those birds several times, but as soon as I reach for my camera, they get far away.

Congratulations on getting your shot published on that site Shawnee.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glatt I should try that.

I thought Glatt had the funniest comment here until UT made me laugh just as hard.