Soup tonight

Knockwurst to go with soup. The supermarket has Hebrew National and Boar's Head, both with a salty beefy flavor, or Stahl Meyer Jumbo Beef Knockwurst, nice fat pale cylinders of processed meat, spices, and corn syrup solids for added viscosity and improved texture. Now how is that any different than the idea of growing slabs of meat in labs using animal cells. Differentiated cells, cells that know what they want to be when they grow up, like a nice piece of loin.

I can see it in markets now. A neat plastic pack of hygienically sealed chicken slab, or even fish! Manufacturers can fine-tune the chemicals they feed the cells and market the latest craze for bear haunch with a tantalizing hint of blueberries. Don't know why that upsets some people. We'll grow meat without having to kill all those animals and reduce the pollution they cause to boot. We could even have some artificial bones for the cells to grow on, doubling as a nutrient distribution system to reach all the juicy muscle tissue; I wouldn't want to give up on stewed meaty bones.

Growing small nuggets of meat looks to be the easier than growing slaps of meat which requires surmounting the difficulty of supplying blood to distant parts. "Cells become necrotic if separated for long periods by more than 0.5 mm from a nutrient supply." Now doesn't that sound ominous? Processing meat nuggets is the way to go, forming them into patties for hamburger or stuffed into sausages. And not to forget, producing cultured meat this way lets you fine tune what's in it. precisely control fats, vitamins etc..

Well, in the meantime I go for the Stahl Meyer Jumbo Beef Knockwurst which has a very satisfying mouth filling white taste and goes well with one can of Progresso minestrone and one can of lentil soup, mixed, good as I discovered one day when I wasn't looking. We slather the wurst with dijon, tear at some Portuguese bread and try not to slurp while we watch the world go by on the news tonight.

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