Grass-fed Blended Burger Pilot:
Blending Local, Sustainable and Delicious in North Carolina
More than two decades of work to promote local, sustainable and real food on campuses have transformed what it means to succeed in foodservice. There is raised awareness of the carbon footprint of meat and also how colleges can contribute to local food economies. But one thing has remained unchanged: burgers still are the most popular sandwich for students. Getting local and sustainable values between the buns remains one of the biggest opportunities in foodservice.
That’s the challenge we took on in North Carolina, where the Harvest Table Culinary Group worked with leading college foodservice programs to make a dramatic change in what it means to cook, serve and eat a burger. We switched ALL of the ground beef used in every burger and many other recipes to local grass-fed beef while also blended it with chopped mushrooms and other vegetables.
In doing so, we used a proven culinary strategy to achieve a big local and sustainable food change. The “blend” has been used before with conventional meat and lowered the carbon footprint of a burger, with mushrooms also adding umami (instead of salt), texture and moisture to make a tastier and healthier burger. Grassfed meat has been used in college dining, but only occasionally and alongside conventional beef because of cost. Also, grass-fed beef is healthier but has less fat, so some foodservice operations blended in more beef fat. Our approach brought the two together for some remarkable and delicious outcomes.
We also measured everything in our trial: nutrition, environmental impact, local economic benefit, student satisfaction, and kitchen operations. So, we can know what works and share it with other colleges who might want to make the switch but wonder how or if it’s worth doing.
Our presentation showed:
How we made the switch to local grass-fed beef…affordably!
The recipes and culinary techniques we used to get there.
All the indicators of performance we used.
Here is the transcript of our presentation:
A fill version of the white paper is available HERE.