The true cost of a hamburger

[Camy]

The true cost of a hamburger

One hectare of rainforest supports about 800,000 kg of plants and animals. When the same land has been cleared and used for grazing for cattle, it will produce at most 200kg of meat a year - which is enough flesh to make about 1,600 hamburgers. This makes the true cost of a hambuger to be half a tonne of rainforrest for each burger - something to chew on!

Horrifying, huh? Actually it's worse:

http://appleguardian...t-least-12.html

and then:

http://appleguardian...-revisited.html

[Paul_and_Paco]

Or better yet, how many gallons of water to grow a human being to maturity? Let us cease and desist. There are way too many of them. Hey, we could eat them and save some pink-billed nuthatches, or hot stinging scorpions. People burgers. Two years to raise a cow to make a single burger? I got caught in the statistical trap the other day.

Besides, I hate veggie sausage, tofu turkey, and soybean steaks... heresy!

[Lugnutz]

I wanna burger now.

[Cole Parker]

You can mess with hamburgers all you want. I eat only about five or six a year. But keep your damn hands off my wine!

C

[blue]

Hmm.... Well, most cattle grazing is done on land already set aside.

The destruction of rainforest, though, ostensibly for farming or for living space...is incredibly sad and senseless. That's not just diversity of species, it's also a major source of air recycling on the planet.

I *like* hamburgers, preferably homemade.

Soylent Green would be a little much, even if the planet's overrun with the pesky two-legs. But some of the other major predators might find that quite tasty. Wait, what am I saying? And how come the holodeck is unlocked? Gee, those raptors sound kinda close...they're flocking this way!

(With apologies to at least three scifi authors.)

[The Pecman]

You can mess with hamburgers all you want. I eat only about five or six a year. But keep your damn hands off my wine!

Cole, go try Five Guys. (The burger joint, not the people.) One of the best mass-market burgers around, well worth the money.

[Camy]

You can mess with hamburgers all you want. I eat only about five or six a year. But keep your damn hands off my wine!

C

Cole, as brandy is wine, I concur... hic, lesh whine tageva. ;)

[Merkin]

Eliminate hamburgers?! Jeez! The next thing you know someone will try to tax pasties...

[DesDownunder]

Being a vegetarian, I prefer my meat alive and self-saucing.

[Chris James]

There is little in the meat department of the local market that is truely edible. (I reference the latest scandal about pink slime additives to our hamburger)

But even vegetarians face a terrible choice of food these days. I listened to a long discourse on NPR about tomatoes the other day, and realize we have come to accept the hard, and barely edible fruit produced by the major corporate farms as the only thing available.

I would urge most people to forsake flowers in their gardens and ask them to grow food. The money saved and the positive addition to the diet are well worth the effort. Nothing tastes as good as a homegown Beefsteak tomato...just don't put it on your store bought hamburger.

[Cole Parker]

Cole, go try Five Guys. (The burger joint, not the people.) One of the best mass-market burgers around, well worth the money.

Pec: You don't live anywhere near where I live in LA. I've never seen a Five Guys out East where my humble abode is located. And I'm not driving into town just for that.

I like hamburgers OK. But they're not very good for you, and certainly not for my waistline, and eating one every other month or so works out pretty well.

C

[Gee Whillickers]

We now have both Five Guys and Smashburger up here in my humble city in the Great White North. Yes, they're very, very bad for me. But oh wow are they delicious!

[Lugnutz]

Nobody lives forever. Gimme a good burger.

[Merkin]

This one works for me:

Basic Burgers

1lb/500g ground beef

1 half onion grated or finely chopped

4 pinches ground coriander

4 pinches paprika powder

a little pepper, fresh ground is better

1 handful of fresh bread crumbs

1 egg lightly beaten

1 quarter beef bouillon/stock cube dissolved in 2 to 3 tablespoons water

Mix well, form into patties, wrap in foil, and refrigerate at least an hour so ingredients will meld. Cole may substitute a red table wine for the boullion.

James

[Lugnutz]

I'll be over for dinner.

[Paul_and_Paco]

James...

We add some chopped green pepper to that and call it meatloaf.

We tend to grill outside a lot, and that includes hamburgers... ours start with home ground steak from a butcher.

[Cole Parker]

This one works for me:

Basic Burgers

1lb/500g ground beef

1 half onion grated or finely chopped

4 pinches ground coriander

4 pinches paprika powder

a little pepper, fresh ground is better

1 handful of fresh bread crumbs

1 egg lightly beaten

1 quarter beef bouillon/stock cube dissolved in 2 to 3 tablespoons water

Mix well, form into patties, wrap in foil, and refrigerate at least an hour so ingredients will meld. Cole may substitute a red table wine for the boullion.

James

I'd substitute cilantro for the coriander. I love cilantro.

I don't see any salt mentioned, and I'm not sure you'd get enough to season an entire pound of ground beef from a quarter of a bullion cube. Maby you're on a reduced-salt diet.

Sounds delicious, James.

C

[DesDownunder]

Basics:

180 pounds of prime beefcake

(Try to get the beefcake that comes with its own rounded buns.)

Oil for marinating and basting.

Candle light.

Shower well, then wash and clean the beefcake.

Trim any remaining hair and check for lice.

Coat beefcake in a fine layer of oil until skin is glistening in the candle light.

Place in a fresh bed and turn up the heat.

Knead the beefcake until it screams for mercy at which time you should use more oil.

Savour the moment as the flavour is released

Set the alarm for one hour for repeat servings.

[colinian]

Cole, go try Five Guys. (The burger joint, not the people.) One of the best mass-market burgers around, well worth the money.

Pec: You don't live anywhere near where I live in LA. I've never seen a Five Guys out East where my humble abode is located. And I'm not driving into town just for that.

I like hamburgers OK. But they're not very good for you, and certainly not for my waistline, and eating one every other month or so works out pretty well.

C

There's a Five Guys in Pleasant Hill near where I grew up. It's good, but not as good as The Counter in Walnut Creek which everyone refers to as Counter Burger. (Cole, there are Counter Burger plaes in SoCal.) At Counter Burger you can pick from about 50 alternatives: type of meat, type of bun, tomatoes, lettuce, sauces, cheeses, bacon, salami, fried egg (yes, fried egg which I've never tried nor will I). Check them out at www.thecounterburger.com/.

BTW, there are a lot of Five Guys in SoCal. Check their website at www.fiveguys.com/.

Colin

[Merkin]

Cole, the bun will have salt content, the ketchup will have salt, the mustard will have salt, and the relish will have salt. If you put cheese on your burger it too will contain sodium. Bacon, ditto. If you still need more salt the salt shaker on the table stands ready to assist you.

J

[Cole Parker]

Basics:

180 pounds of prime beefcake

(Try to get the beefcake that comes with its own rounded buns.)

Oil for marinating and basting.

Candle light.

Shower well, then wash and clean the beefcake.

Trim any remaining hair and check for lice.

Coat beefcake in a fine layer of oil until skin is glistening in the candle light.

Place in a fresh bed and turn up the heat.

Knead the beefcake until it screams for mercy at which time you should use more oil.

Savour the moment as the flavour is released

Set the alarm for one hour for repeat servings.

You lost me when you mentioned lice.

C

[Cole Parker]

Cole, the bun will have salt content, the ketchup will have salt, the mustard will have salt, and the relish will have salt. If you put cheese on your burger it too will contain sodium. Bacon, ditto. If you still need more salt the salt shaker on the table stands ready to assist you.

J

Well! You don't need to get all salty about it!

C

[Cole Parker]

There's a Five Guys in Pleasant Hill near where I grew up. It's good, but not as good as The Counter in Walnut Creek which everyone refers to as Counter Burger. (Cole, there are Counter Burger plaes in SoCal.) At Counter Burger you can pick from about 50 alternatives: type of meat, type of bun, tomatoes, lettuce, sauces, cheeses, bacon, salami, fried egg (yes, fried egg which I've never tried nor will I). Check them out at www.thecounterburger.com/.

BTW, there are a lot of Five Guys in SoCal. Check their website at www.fiveguys.com/.

Colin

That Counter Burger sounds somewhat like a Fudruckers. Same sort of deal.

OK, I checked. The closest Five Guys is 13 miles away. Too far for a hamburger. I have an In 'N Out just down the street, but I never have understood the allure of those.

C

[DesDownunder]

You lost me when you mentioned lice.

C

You don't check your beefcake for lice? Must be an Australian thing. We don't rely on our meat inspectors here

[blue]

You guys are going to corrupt my poor, innocent mind, I just know it.

I would try to say that I've never seen a Five Guys (and I haven't) but somehow it sounds as scandalous as Fudruckers, even though it's not.

I'll just be over here, bleaching my dirty mind and eager for a hamburger. Now if that isn't two oddly juxtaposed images, I don't know what is. ... Yes, the fact I'd even say, "juxtaposed" probably says a lot.