I’m in San Francisco, at an Italian joint just south of Golden Gate Park, enjoying meatballs and bacon not made of meat in the traditional sense but of plants mixed with “cultivated” pork fat. Dawn, you see, donated a small sample of fat, which a company called Mission Barns got to proliferate in devices called bioreactors by providing nutrients like carbohydrates, amino acids, and vitamins—essentially replicating the conditions in her body. Because so much of the flavor of pork and other meats comes from the animal’s fat, Mission Barns can create products like sausages and salami with plants but make them taste darn near like sausages and salami.
I’ve been struggling to describe the experience, because cultivated meat short-circuits my brain—my mouth thinks I’m eating a real pork meatball, but my brain knows that it’s fundamentally different and that Dawn (pictured above) didn’t have to die for it. This is the best I’ve come up with: It’s Diet Meat. Just as Diet Coke is an approximation of the real thing, so too are cultivated meatballs. They simply taste a bit less meaty, at least to my tongue. Which is understandable, as the only animal product in this food is the bioreactor-grown fat.
I can’t tell from the article or Mission Barn’s page whether they need a new sample for every batch, or just needed one sample to seed their bioreactors. I’m not sure (as someone who avoids meat for ethical and environmental reasons) if there’s a big difference.
I’m actually happy with Beyond burgers/sausages when I do want meat taste, but nice to have more options. (Mozzarella and Parmesan are what I’d look for next, though Rebel Cheese is doing a good job with some more cheese-platter varieties.)
It may not be an every batch thing but you would need more samples at least eventually. Cells have division limits. While these are somewhat bypassed in these types of setups you do run into issues for longer term.