Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
They use real ground beef. It's brought in as chubs to a central kitchen somewhere, around 70% lean (30% fat and gristle). It's loaded into an industrial mixing vat and several sugars, corn starch, some spices, coloring agents, and emulsifiers are mixed in. Then it's cooked some how (No idea how, steamed maybe? Convection oven? Who knows), and loaded into measured plastic bags. The bags are then sent to the stores, and they rip the bags open and toss the contents into a steamer tray as needed.
The total contents of actual meat in the meat is 88%.
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The process doesn’t sound appetizing to me at all. Times sure have changed. I worked at Taco Bell as a high school student in the late 70s. My job was to cook the beef every afternoon. Back then, the meat was sourced from a local meat market. It would come into the store already ground (fresh not frozen). I would cook it in a large tub over a gas burner, adding several scoops of Taco Bell seasoning and water. Once cooked, I would transfer to smaller metal bins, that could fit in the steam table. The cooked beef would be kept in the walk-in no more than two days before being used. The taco meat had a way different taste back then than it does now.