The Reviews Are In For The First Lab Grown Hamburger
Since 2008, Dr. Mark Post has been working on growing edible meat in a laboratory. Today, at an event in London, the first in-vitro hamburger has been served.
Muscle stem cells were taken from a cow's shoulder in a gentle biopsy and grown in serum, with micro-exercise so they wouldn't be flabby. 20,000 cells were then assembled into a burger, bound with bread crumbs and egg (but curiously no salt), colored with beet juice and saffron, and presented to the public. The event was also broadcast on Culturedbeef.net.
Dr. Post, a cardiovascular biologist from Maastricht University, brought his raw burger out, in a petri dish under a cloche. On a television set, chef Richard McGeown, opining that it looked a little paler than normal, cooked it in butter and oil before a hungry audience, then served it to two lucky volunteers: Austrian food futurist Hanni Rützler, and Josh Schonwald, author of The Taste of Tomorrow.
Hanni: "There is quite some intense taste. It is close to meat; it is not that juicy. I missed salt and pepper. More than I expected of the the structure, it's not falling apart."
Josh: "The texture, the mouthfeel, has a feel like meat. The absence is the fat. It's a leanness. But the bite feels like a conventional hamburger."
The technology to grow fat cells is still lacking -- Schonfeld characterized the texture as like "an animal protein cake" -- but that is the next step for the team. "I think it's a very good start," said Dr. Post. "This was mostly to prove that we can make it."
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http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-08/first-lab-grown-hamburger-served
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