About Birds Eye beef burgers…

[Minfilia]

They’ve been a guilty pleasure of mine for YEARS. My perfect comfort food was always burgers with potato waffles and spaghetti hoops - a childhood treat that always makes me feel happy.

Imagine my horror to discover they changed the recipe and they now comprise 20% pea protein and 55% beef.

I don’t want a plant burger. I want my BEEF(ish) burgers.

Yes, I know they’re unhealthy. And ultra processed. And probably about as meaty and nutritious as dog food. But why did they have to go and ruin it.

(PS - has anyone actually tasted them and are they as awful as I’m imagining? I do eat a lot of plant based alternatives but I HATE pea protein based stuff with a passion!)

(Also happy to accept that I may be acting like a highly unreasonable, tantrumming toddler)

I had a vegan 'duck'and plum sauce wrap made with pea protein and it was astonishingly vile. The texture was hideous. Shame, cos I like a lot of vegan alternatives.

I thought even homemade burgers aren't 100% beef? I put onion, egg, breadcrumbs and herbs in my very occasional creations.

To be fair, the dinosaurs are breaded so you'd expect the meat % to be lower. It's not clear what percentage of a Turkey Dinosaur the coating makes up, but assuming it's the same percentage as for a McNugget* that means the filling is 43/66 = 65% turkey meat, so they're better than the burgers looking at it that way.

*McNuggets are apparently 34% coating and 66% filling - see The Nugget Numbers: How Much Chicken is in a Chicken Nugget? | by Kyla Scanlon | The Startup | Medium. I suspect dinosaurs may well have more coating than this, as they're a more complicated shape.

I haven’t tasted them for about, erm, 35 ish years. I still remember the taste and that I kind of liked them. It was familiarity then actually liking the flavour though.

I like both peas and beef. So combining them both in a burger of the gods is a win for me.

This recipe by Mary Berry uses 75g rice to 900ml milk, plus small amounts (<1 tbsp) of butter, sugar and nutmeg. So, just under 8% rice.

Mary Berry Classic Rice Pudding Recipe | BBC2 Mary Berry Everyday (thehappyfoodie.co.uk)

The first time I made rice pudding I was convinced the recipe was wrong.. So much milk and a tiny amount of rice.

Sadly I don't have that recipe any more as it's the best rice pudding I've ever made!

On another subject, it is possible to buy puffed wheat with no sugar at all, but it's not the new version of sugar puffs. They have only reduced the sugar by 7.5% overall. I wonder if the previous poster bought the wrong ones by mistake?

Tesco own brand are cheaper without the pea protein.

When I was growing up we'd think ourselves lucky to get papier mache burgers.

But they don’t taste like beef burgers of childhood!

Somehow other beefburgers just don't taste the same. (And now I'm really showing my age 😂)

I hear you OP, they are a guilty pleasure of mine too (along with turkey dinosaurs!)
The burgers are also now really expensive!

‘new improved recipe’ always means ‘this tastes shit now’

Rice pudding should be 98% golden syrup, if you ask me.

But it is getting increasingly difficult to find drinks without sweeteners of any kind, replacing some or all of the sugar. My daughter's wife can't have any artificial sweetener, and it's really hard to find any kind of cordial or fizz that she can drink.

We've started to make our own all supermarket ready meal food have had recipes changed in order to save money. Every chicken recipe is made from off cuts of chicken that we would usually dump, king prawns are now much smaller. I guess we will eat healthier from now on

So do I, But having the misfortune to actually have tried them, I can confirm that they taste neither of beef or Pea.

The texture is awful, very mushy. And as you said the price is ridiculous. We've switched to Tesco or Asda depending on where I shop.

I think (might be wrong..) the new sugar puffs are made with honey instead of the good old white stuff... So still contain a fair whack of sugar, but they can claim they're "healthier" (but don't taste as good..)

DH was mourning the loss of Sugar Puffs (I think we were watching one of the 70/80's supermarket shows) and I excitedly told him you could buy them.

He was not impressed.

They've replaced some of the sugar with honey. Not all.

Pea protein can just fuck right off

My son has a pea allergy and it ruins so many things; meats, ice creams, breads, bagels... waaaah!

I'm with ya sister. I like my BB BB's to be the kind with eyelids, tails whatever because they're amazing.

@NeverEnoughPants they're still shit though

Hahaha 😂

I am glad I am not alone in this. I may be a teeensy bit hormonal today and have had to accept takeaway pizza instead of my four burgers.

I may try the new mush burgers at some point though just to see if they are truly awful. I think you can buy them in packs of 4 so at least I won’t have to remortgage my house.

I do make my own burgers. They’re tasty enough. But they’re not the same as the cheap nasty ones that tasted sooooo good!

WHAT! Noooooo! They’re my guilty pleasure throw back comfort meal from childhood. Gutting :(

I like these, 95% beef but the best burgers I've ever had was made on site burger at a hotel in Barbados, the kids still talk about it now
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-2-british-native-breed-rump-steak-beef-burgers/680848-691766-691767

I do make my own burgers. They’re tasty enough. But they’re not the same as the cheap nasty ones that tasted sooooo good!

Funny you should say that. My DH feels the same, we like the burgers from Costco but DH sometimes wants a burger that not so 'meaty'.

No. They taste much better.