It's a POS ikea convection/microwave combo thing. The convection mode maxes out at 250 °C, which is pathetic, but for pizza I put a sheet pan in the middle and blast the grill mode which uses a heating element in the top of the oven.
This halves the volume of the oven, and the grill mode doesn't take a temperature, just one of three heat settings.
So I set it to MAX and let it preheat for a bit, and the result is pretty good.
Heat water and butter in a medium sized pot till the mixture comes to a boil.
Take the pot of water off the flame and slowly stir in the pancake mix and sugar till you get a smooth batter.
Pour the vegetable oil into a thick bottomed pot, and place on medium high heat. Let the oil become hot enough before you start frying your churros (350-375 F or 175-190 C). An easy way to test if your oil is ready to fry is to drop a tiny bit of batter into it. If the batter turns crispy within seconds and rises to the top, your oil is ready for frying.
Pour the churro batter into the churrera or a piping bag and pipe out 5- to 6-inch-long sections into the hot oil. Let the churros fry till golden brown on the bottom, then turn them over in the pan to fry them evenly all over. Once they're golden brown on both sides, take them out and let them rest on a paper towel lined dish to blot away the excess oil.
Mix the sugar and powdered cinnamon in a flat dish. Roll the churros in the cinnamon sugar mix till they're well coated.
Imo impossible meat is superior to beyond although nutritionally it’s a mixed bag. It introduces a decent amount of carbs (9g per 4oz) and has over 5x the sodium of beef. But it also has a bit of fiber and a either comparable or more vitamin/mineral content than beef. Protein is comparable to 80% ground with 20% less caloric content
Beyond is similar.
They’re both basically vegetable proteins with binders and fats and some flavorings. The big game changer flavoring is leghemoglobin which both use. It’s a protein isolated from soy that is very similar to certain enzymes from bovine muscle. Impossible got the fda to approve it in 2019 and it was challenged; there are some concerns on whether it is safe to eat. I’m not super well read on the issue but from what I’ve perused the issue is one of a lack of long term testing and not of any direct concern.
The textural difference between the two is because beyond uses isolated pea protein, which gives it a texture that’s a bit chunkier and imo more sausage like, and impossible uses soy protein, which imo is more like a cheap burger patty you’d get at McDonald’s.
The fats are typical fats like coconut oil or sunflower oil to recreate the fatty part of beef and this is the current weakness of the products imo. Coconut oil is used because it tends to stay solidified at room temp so when you’re making patties it feels like there are chunks of beef fat. In practice this is weird because they are far too hard and aren’t dispersed enough throughout the product; I believe this is why these fake meats tend to stick to the pan much easier than actual burgers cooked in a skillet.
The binders are big scary words like methylcellulose which is also a source of fiber and can be used as a laxative so people latch onto that and freak out. But it’s only used as a binder to help it hold everything together here so it’s like a tiny amount that just provides a bit of fiber that you probably desperately need if you’re having burgers for dinner. Fun fact: Certain preparations of methylcellulose (a4c) turn into gels when heated so you can use them to make hot ice cream! It’s pretty weird to eat, like a normal ice cream base that solidifies when you put it into boiling water
The other ingredients are stuff like beet juice for coloring
Final fun fact: technically impossible meat is not vegan because animal testing was done during its development.
Thanks for reading my unprompted essay on the composition of modern vegan meat substitutes. This was brought to you by my failed interest in becoming a food scientist. Also you may note I don’t really discuss how they compare to meat and that’s because I don’t eat meat which by law I am required to mention in all posts about food
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