Sliced chocolate for a sweet new burger

A delicious cashew burger with sliced chocolate and a piece of ketchup. Does it sound weird? This is already a reality.

Looks like cheese, but it’s sliced chocolate. Looks like meat, but it’s cashew fruit (pictured below). Starting with the burger whose main ingredient is the cashew fiber. It was developed in Brazil by Embrapa Institute. The fiber is a residue usually disposed in the juice factories. That`s a pity, fiber is abundant and cheap, and could be used in other products such as cookies and cereal bars, for example.

Two different formulations were made. The first, with soy protein, is suitable for industrial scale production. And the second with black-eyed pea, more suited to domestic production. It is healthy, vegan, high protein and it has half the calories of a beef burger. In addition, the cost of this raw material is 97% cheaper than the cost of meat. The technology is ready and available for companies interested in manufacturing the product.

The chocolate sliced that comes already packaged like processed cheese, is a creation of Bourbon, a Japanese company. Despite being reported as something very innovative, in fact the only innovation has been its industrial scale production and a strong marketing campaign.

For at least five years molecular gastronomy chefs produce this chocolate, that is pliable without being rubbery (pictured below is a strip of this chocolate). This is possible thanks to the agar, an ingredient derived from Red seaweed, which has similar characteristics to the gelatin and is used in Asian cooking.

As for the ketchup, well, it’s still ketchup. Only difference is the solid aspect. It is dehydrated in the oven to avoid drainage to your fingers. And it softens with heat, but without the “mess” effect that normally comes in with the sandwiches. The creation is from Plan Check, Los Angeles restaurant.

Burger is ready. Hummmmm

References: Magazine Globo Rural, Rocket News 24, Tech Insider, Windowsmb, Embrapa, Geekologie