Just for fun, if you had absolute confidence in its species attribution, and had no issues with cost, energy efficiency, ethics, environmental impact etc what species of cultured meat would you like to try? How would you cook it (unless you want it raw…).
For the purposes of the thought experiment, it would be completely muscle tissue with no bones, skin, shell, organs or blood.
Personally, I would try things like quail and small birds - while there are people that consider them a delicacy, I’m put off by overhunting as well as tiny bones and feather-surface-area-to-meat ratio. A hunk of bird songbird flesh that is larger than the original animal would be nicer.
(I’m vegetarian) We were on holiday in Malta. Unfortunately in hunting season - when the migrating birds were picked off for humans to eat, after they had flown so far. At the hotel another tourist ordered songbirds - so disappointing, not much meat on them. I still grieve for all those birds. Also an issue on Cyprus and …
At our supermarket the vegetarian shelf has Beyond Meat - oozing red - they say beetroot. And gobbets of ‘liver’
Full disclosure - I actually enjoy plant-based meats, if they resemble meat. In Asia, mock meat made of gluten and flavored accordingly has been around for decades, able to coast along due to consistent demand from customers who are vegetarian for religious reasons, but must still prepare ‘meat’ dishes out of tradition. I’ve had mock roast pork, and mock duck even has ‘skin’ with dimples to simulate plucked feathers. The most extreme - carefully moulded mock prawns with paired legs and black eyes. But not everyone in the Western world can eat gluten.
If lab-grown fish and seafood meat becomes cost competitive, overfishing is over - so much of the hungry, developing world relies heavily on overfished stocks.
I’ll never order actual songbirds for the reason you mention - it takes too many of them to make a meal. Now, a quarter pound burger made of lab-grown cardinal however…
I’d probably go for a herbivorous dinosaur, a Ceratopsian maybe. I’ve heard it theorized dinosaur would taste like a mix of fish and chicken. otherwise, probably elephant or sea turtle.
but I’ll stick to my venison tenderloin.
We all know there’s only one correct answer here, and it’s the Galapagos Tortoise.
I’d also like to try my hand at shark fin soup from a hammerhead or great white, but without cartilage or skin, I don’t know how different it will taste from proper shark fin
Unfortunately, shark fin in soup is largely made of cartilage, so it won’t be ‘meat’ in the lab-clonable sense of the word. Shark flesh would be no problem though.
Maybe I shouldn’t admit it, but I have eaten songbirds, or at least they were small birds, exactly what I couldn’t say. It was a case of “needs must.” I was in a small indigenous village in a remote place and that’s what was on the menu at the communal meal. They were stewed after pulverizing them, bones, beaks, guts and all. I did my duty, ate what was served to me, and didn’t complain. I didn’t ask for seconds.
I don’t think I could bring myself to eat anything “guts and all” unless I was starving, not because I have a problem with organ meats but because I have a problem with eating poop. I also religiously remove the “vein” (actually intestine) from crawfish when I eat them for the same reason
Honestly not sure I’d trust lab grown meat. Would probably just stick to the real thing unless I had no alternative. Still would probably take it over plant based “meat” though
I had fake shark fin soup in Malaysia earlier. This year. Mung bean vermicelli replaces the shark fin. My Asian friends tell me it is very similar to the real thing.
Pretein is protein. If it’s chemically identical, then it’s literally the same thing. It might even be better because they could have more control of fat, nutrients, and eliminate sources of contamination like pesticide laden water.
I love my plant meat, but this isn’t true. Even proteins with the exact same amino acids can be folded differently, which affects their bioavailability (meaning you may keep eating them and literally never digest a single nutrient from them) and even how carcinogenic they are.
