The idea of the blended beef-mushroom burger came from New York's Menus of Change initiative of the Culinary Institute of America and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The pair came together "to realize a long-term, practical vision integrating optimal nutrition and public health, environmental stewardship and restoration, and social responsibility concerns within the foodservice industry and the culinary profession." This week SONIC, the largest chain of drive-in restaurants in America, is bringing items from the Menus of Change to the American public.
According to the Culinary Institute, the two burgers SONIC is adding to its menu are the kind of menu change that's "a powerful, and previously underappreciated, way to drive improvements in our health and our planet."
NPR reports:
The idea is that mixing chopped mushrooms into our burgers boosts the umami taste, adds more moisture and reduces the amount of beef required for a burger. And reducing the need for beef has a big impact on the environment. According to the World Resources Institute, if 30 percent of the beef in every burger in America were replaced by mushrooms, it would reduce greenhouse emissions by the same amount as taking 2.3 million vehicles off of our roads.
Sonic, though, isn't stressing the saving-the-planet angle. In a press release, the company's vice president of product innovation and development, Scott Uehlein, said that its new blended cheeseburgers, which contain 25 percent mushrooms, will "deliver the juicy savory deliciousness you expect from a burger in a way that makes you feel like you're getting away with something."
The company promises that people eating the burger will get all this flavor but "none of the guilt" but does not reveal whether the guilt reduction will come from cutting calories or greenhouse gas emissions.
