The Realities of the Butcher Boy Red Hot Beef Burrito, since 1950

Well, I have to say that after seeing the movie, Food, INC., my eating habits have changed forever. For starters I no longer will eat beef hamburgers from fast food restaurants. I will consider eating a burger that was ground up from steak from a fine burger establishment, but for me to come close to touching the meat that is in or similar to a McDonalds Hamburger any longer I will not. That meat is splashed and treated with ammonium hydroxide (household ammonia is dilute ammonium hydroxide, which is also an ingredient of numerous other cleaning agents, as cited from wikipedia) to cleanse the meat of e-coli (the result of feeding the cows on a cheap corn diet) and also with carbon monoxide (carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas, which is highly toxic to humans and animals, as cited from wikipedia) to prolong the red color of "fresh" meat. This is one of the main causes to why the newest generation to come upon the earth in this country and many proceeding generations to come are actually going to live a shorter lifespan than my generation and my parents generation and even my grandparents generation. We live into our 70's on average, now Americans will live only into their 60's due to their diet. American greed and the lack of FDA protection due to conflicts of interest are the principal culprits of this human tragedy.

This being said, I have now began to take more seriously what I ingest into my body. I have always spent more time in the fresh vegetable section at the grocery store than all other sections but now I will live in those areas. I can speak of the evils of fresh vegetables too, they are the lesser of two evils. Most likely the dietary killer of me will be all the high fructose corn syrup I have consumed all my life, mainly from Mountain Dew and most other beverages on the market today. If you go to the website, http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/fcn/fcnNavigation.cfm?rpt=eafusListing&displayAll=true, you will find the Everything Added to Food in the United States (EAFUS) list. It contains 3677 items. Why we need to add anything to our food is beyond me. I like my food fresh, with a spice or two added to it otherwise all of these additives are just to maintain freshness when the product is preserved or unrefridgerated.

So, I went to my local QuikTrip to buy a quick bite to eat for dinner. I no longer eat cheeseburgers or doublestacks. I don't even like the chicken sandwiches anymore after seeing what they do to chickens. Since over 80% of chicken in the United States are raised the Tyson way, most likely those chicken sandwich patties are processed from chicken from that company, which is horrible. The chickens are so fat and overgrown from chemicals fed to them they cannot even stand on their own two legs unaided. I digress, so I bought a Burrito. A Butcher Boy Red Hot Beef Burrito, est. 1950. What a horror to think that they made their burritos the same way with the same ingredients then, as they do today. I want to explain what is in this burrito. I would think that it consisted of a tortilla filled with ground beef and hot sauce. Little did I know the reality of what I consumed. I read the label after I ate it to kill time on my dinner break while I listened to NPR.

1. Water
2. Bleached Enriched Flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, rbioflavin, folic acid)
3. Beef
4. Chili Sauce (tomatoes, corn syrup, vinegar, salt, dehydrated onion, natural flavorings, garlic powder)
5. Tomato paste
6. Onions
The following ingredients are in the amount less than 2% of the whole burrito:
7. Jalapeño Peppers (jalapeño peppers, vinegar, salt)
8. Crushed Red Pepper
9. Flavorings
10. Paprika
11. Flavor Enhancer (hydrolyzed soy protein, salt, corn syrup solids, modified food starch, spice, caramel color, autolyzed yeast, onion, garlic, natural smoke flavor)
12. Textured Vegetable Protein (soy flour, caramel color, zinc oxide, niacinamide, ferrous sulfate, copper gluconate, vitamin A palmitate, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine, hydrochloride, riboflavin, cyanocobalamin)
13. Corn Flour
14. Modified Food Starch
15. Leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum sulfate, corn starch, calcium sulfate, monocalcium phosphate)
16. Dough Conditioner (whey, L-cysteine hydrochloride)
17. Guar Gum
18. Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
19. Soybean Oil
20. Salt
21. Caramel Color

Wow, what the hell did I eat the other night? I thought it was just a burrito. It was refridgerated so the preservatives should have been at a minimum. Did you notice the corn syrup in the chili sauce. The corn syrup solids in the flavor enhancer. The corn flour. The corn starch in the leavening. Four times a corn product was in this burrito. What the hell does my red hot beef burrito, that should consist of a tortilla, ground beef and hot sauce, need four types of corn products in it? Was it a red hot beef burrito with corn? No. There are at least 58 different ingredients, and the "flavorings", and the "natural flavorings" in the chili sauce can consist of innumeral ingredients.

Let's examine the ingredients.
1. Water
Was this filtered water? Spring water? I bet it is tap water.
2. Bleached Enriched Flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid)
-Wheat Flour is whole grain wheat ground to a powder.
-Niacin is a B-vitamin.
-Reduced iron. Iron is found naturally in most meat any many vegetables.Thiamine mononitrate.
-Thiamine is Vitamin B1. Thiamine mononitrate is made from extracts from corn and soy as well as petroleum products.
-Riboflavin is a water soluble B-vitamin.
-Folic Acid is vitamin B9.
3. Beef
Well, who knows the quality of this beef. Is it just the byproducts of the good steak? Is it even quality ground beef? Is there such a thing as quailty ground beef in this country?
4. Chili Sauce (tomatoes, corn syrup, vinegar, salt, dehydrated onion, natural flavorings, garlic powder)
-Tomatoes are a fruit.
-Corn syrup is a syrup, which is made from the starch of corn and which is composed mainly of glucose.
-Vinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid (ethanoic acid).
-Salt is a dietary mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride.
-Dehydrated onion is chopped fine onions that have had all the water sucked out of it.
-Natural flavorings is scary. This is the governments way of allowing a company not to disclose all of its ingredients of a food product to retain a form of secrecy to its recipe. It can consist of anything, ANYTHING.
-Garlic powder is dehydrated garlic cloves that have been ground up into a powder.
5. Tomato paste
Tomato paste are tomatoes that have had their skin and seeds removed, then blended into a paste. Usually they add spices to the final product.
6. Onions
-Onions are a vegetable, a yummy one at that. These had to be finely chopped as I did not taste the onions when I ate the burrito.
Now to the scary ingredients. Do you think that since they consist, as a whole, only 2% of the entire burrito that it's any less scary? The entire burrito was 283 grams of food product. This means that these remaining "15" ingredients consist of 5.66 grams of food product.
7. Jalapeño Peppers (jalapeño peppers, vinegar, salt)
-Jalapeño peppers is probably the most common hot pepper around. Almost every major supermarket carries them year-round. Some are hot, some are mild.
8. Crushed Red Pepper
-Crushed Red Pepper is simply red peppers crushed. It seems that they usually come in little circle flakes. What variety of
red pepper is used is unknown but its probably made from the cheapest variety.
9. Flavorings
-Scary, scary, and yet more scary. Who knows but Butcher Boy what these could be. Like I stated earlier, these can be anything.
10. Paprika
-Paprika is a spice made from the grinding of dried fruits of Capsicum annuum, a plant native of mexico.
11. Flavor Enhancer (hydrolyzed soy protein, salt, corn syrup solids, modified food starch, spice, caramel color, autolyzed yeast, onion, garlic, natural smoke flavor)
-Hydrolyzed Soy Protein - The extraction process of hydrolysis involves boiling in a vat of acid (e.g., sulfuric acid) and then neutralizing the solution with a caustic soda. The resultant sludge is scraped off the top and allowed to dry. In addition to soy protein it contains free-form excitotoxic amino acids (e.g., MSG) and other potentially harmful chemicals including cancer-causing chemicals in many cases. A newer method of hydrolysis involves the use of bacteria by itself or in addition to the chemical processes described above. There is a possibility that genetically-manipulated bacteria may be used.
-Corn syrup solids are manufactured from corn syrup liquid through a process that removes 97% of the water from the liquid.
-Modified food starch is a starch that has been treated physically or chemically to modify one or more of its physical or
chemical properties. The 'starch' could be from corn, wheat, potato, rice or tapioca--it depends on the manufacturer. By definition, modified food starch must contain less than .5% protein, but, it's up to the manufacturer to abide by that regulation, and there could be an exception.
-Spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavour, colour, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth.
-Caramel color or caramel coloring is a soluble food coloring. It is made by a carefully controlled heat treatment of carbohydrates, generally in the presence of acids, alkalis, or salts, in a process called caramelization. It is more fully oxidized than caramel candy and has an odor of burnt sugar and a somewhat bitter taste. Its color ranges from pale yellow to amber to dark brown.
-Autolyzed yeast - When salt is deliberately added to live yeast, however, it becomes an entirely new food ingredient known as autolyzed yeast.
-Natural smoke flavor - It is made by condensing smoke from a wood fire, I.E. rapidly cooling it so it turns to liquid.
12. Textured Vegetable Protein (soy flour, caramel color, zinc oxide, niacinamide, ferrous sulfate, copper gluconate, vitamin A palmitate, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine, hydrochloride, riboflavin, cyanocobalamin)
-Soy flour, derived from ground soybeans, boosts protein, brings moisture to baked goods, and provides the basis for some soymilks and textured vegetable protein. This versatile ingredient improves taste and texture of many common foods and often reduces the fat absorbed in fried foods. The taste of soy flour varies from a “beany” flavor to a sweet and mild flavor, depending on how it is processed.
-Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula ZnO. It usually appears as a white powder, nearly insoluble in water. The powder is widely used as an additive into numerous materials and products including plastics, ceramics, glass, cement, rubber (e.g., car tires), lubricants,[2] paints, ointments, adhesives, sealants, pigments, foods (source of Zn nutrient),
batteries, ferrites, fire retardants, first aid tapes, etc. ZnO is present in the Earth's crust as the mineral zincite; however, most ZnO used commercially is produced synthetically.
-Niacinamide - Vitamin B3 is made up of niacin (nicotinic acid) and its amide, niacinamide, and can be found in many foods, including yeast, meat, fish, milk, eggs, green vegetables, and cereal grains. Dietary tryptophan is also converted to niacin
in the body. Vitamin B3 is often found in combination with other B vitamins including thiamine, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, cyanocobalamin, and folic acid.
-Ferrous sulfate is a type of iron. You normally get iron from the foods you eat. In your body, iron becomes a part of your hemoglobin and myoglobin. Hemoglobin carries oxygen through your blood to tissues and organs. Myoglobin helps your muscle cells store oxygen. Ferrous Sulfate is an essential body mineral. Ferrous sulfate is used to treat iron deficiency anemia (a lack of red blood cells caused by having too little iron in the body).
-Copper gluconate is the copper salt of D-gluconic acid. Gluconic acid is an organic compound with molecular formula C6H12O7 and condensed structural formula HOCH2(CHOH)4COOH. It is one of the 16 stereoisomers of 2,3,4,5,6-pentahydroxyhexanoic acid.
-Vitamin A palmitate - Vitamin A is derived from Vitamin A acetate, a synthetic organic chemical. The Vitamin A molecule is very unstable by itself. To create a more stable configuration, it is reacted with methyl palmitate. This is called Vitamin A Palmitate, which is considered a synthetic product. It is the only form of Vitamin A used to fortify dairy products.
-Calcium pantothenate - Pantothenic acid, also called vitamin B5, is an antioxidant water-soluble vitamin needed to break down carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Pantothenic acid comes in three forms, and it is alternately known as vitamin B5, panthenol and calcium pantothenate.
-Pyridoxine is vitamin B6. Vitamins are naturally occurring substances necessary for many processes in the body. Pyridoxine is important for the breakdown of protein, fats, and carbohydrates (sugars) in the foods we eat. Pyridoxine is used to prevent and to treat deficiencies of pyridoxine that may be caused by an inadequate diet, medications,
or genetic problems with metabolism.
-Hydrochloride - In chemistry, hydrochlorides are salts resulting, or regarded as resulting, from the reaction of hydrochloric acid with an organic base (mostly amines). Hydrochloric acid is the solution of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in water. It is a highly corrosive, strong mineral acid and has major industrial uses. It is found naturally in gastric acid.
-Cyanocobalamin is an especially common vitamer of the vitamin B12 family.
13. Corn Flour
-Cornflour may be:
Cornmeal, flour ground from dried corn
Cornstarch, the white, powdered starch of the maize grain
14. Modified Food Starch15. Leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum sulfate, corn starch, calcium sulfate, monocalcium phosphate)-Sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate is the chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. Sodium bicarbonate is a
white solid that is crystalline but often appears as a fine powder. It has a slightly salty, alkaline taste resembling that of washing soda (sodium carbonate). It is a component of the mineral natron and is found dissolved in many mineral springs. The natural mineral form is known as nahcolite. It is found in its dissolved form in bile, where it serves to neutralize the
acidity of the hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach, and is excreted into the duodenum of the small intestine via the bile duct. It is also produced artificially.Since it has long been known and is widely used, the salt has many related names such as baking soda, bread soda, cooking
soda, bicarbonate of soda. Colloquially, its name is shortened to sodium bicarb, bicarb soda, or simply bicarb. The word saleratus, from Latin sal æratus meaning "aerated salt", was widely used in the 19th century for both sodium bicarbonate and potassium bicarbonate. The term has now fallen out of common usage.
-Sodium aluminum sulfate - (inorganic chemistry) AlNa(SO4)2· 12H2O Colorless crystals with an astringent taste and a melting point of 61°C; soluble in water; used as a mordant and for waterproofing textiles, as a food additive, and for matches, tanning, ceramics, engraving, and water purification. Abbreviated SAS. Also known as porous alum; soda alum; sodium aluminum sulfate.
-Corn starch
-Calcium sulfate is a common laboratory and industrial chemical. In the form of γ-anhydrite (the nearly anhydrous form), it is used as a desiccant. It is also used as a coagulant in products like tofu.[1] In the natural state, unrefined calcium sulfate is a translucent, crystalline white rock. When sold as a color-indicating variant under the name Drierite, it appears blue or pink due to impregnation with cobalt chloride, which functions as a moisture indicator. The hemihydrate (CaSO4.~0.5H2O) is better known as plaster of Paris, while the dihydrate (CaSO4.2H2O) occurs naturally as gypsum. The anhydrous form occurs naturally as β-anhydrite. Depending on the method of calcination of calcium sulfate dihydrate, specific hemihydrates are sometimes distinguished: alpha-hemihydrate and beta-hemihydrate.[2] They appear to differ only in crystal size. Alpha-hemihydrate crystals are more prismatic than beta-hemihydrate crystals and, when mixed with water, form a much stronger and harder superstructure[3].
-Monocalcium phosphate is a chemical compound with the formula Ca(H2PO4)2. It is commonly found as the monohydrate, Ca(H2PO4)2·H2O. Common uses are fertilizers and as a leavening agent in baked goods.
16. Dough Conditioner (whey, L-cysteine hydrochloride)
-Whey or milk plasma is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses
-L-cysteine hydrochloride - Cysteine is a sulfur-containing amino acid produced by enzymatic or acid hydrolysis of proteins, readily oxidized to cystine; sometimes found in urine. A kind of meat tenderizer.
17. Guar gum
-Guar mum can best be described as a natural food thickener, similar to locust bean gum, cornstarch or tapioca flour. Guar gum is said to have significantly more thickening ability than cornstarch, at a fraction of the cost. This has made guar gum a popular additive in products such as puddings and ice creams. Until recently, guar gum was also an ingredient in non-prescription diet pills designed to create a sense of fullness
18. Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
-Sodium stearoyl lactate (and the similar calcium stearoyl lactate) is an organic compound used as a food additive (E-481) in the List of food additives, Codex Alimentarius. It is produced by first esterifying lactic acid to produce a lactic acid ester, performing a second esterification with stearic acid, and then reacting the result with sodium hydroxide or calcium hydroxide to make the sodium or calcium salt. It is used as an emulsifier in processed foods.
19. Soybean Oil
-To produce soybean oil, the soybeans are cracked, adjusted for moisture content, rolled into flakes and solvent-extracted with commercial hexane. The oil is then refined, blended for different applications, and sometimes hydrogenated. Soybean oils, both liquid and partially hydrogenated, are exported abroad, sold as "vegetable oil," or end up in a wide variety of
processed foods.
20. Salt
21. Caramel Color

Now you know what is in the Butcher Boy Red Hot Beef Burrito. Most of the ingredients in the Butcher Boy burrito I haven't the faintest idea where to buy or how to make from scratch. The hydrochloric acid was particularly yummy. The cysteine that is found in urine. The zinc oxide that is used in batteries. The calcium sulfate found in plaster of Paris. I took definitions of these ingredients from many different internet sources, including wikipedia. I am happy to know that many of these ingredients were just technical terms of vitamins. Wouldn't it be helpful if they put next to theword the name of the vitamin it was? After delving into what was in this $1.29 burrito, I still don't understand why it needed all of these ingredients.

When I make burritos at home, I like my extra large flour tortilla heated on the burner and buttered, filled with fresh tomatoes, seasoned ground beef or shredded chicken or diced pork, cheese, avocado, green onions, and lettuce. All topped with sour cream and hot salsa.

Shrimp and Spinach

Well, my friend and I made a trip to the great Chinatown Food Market in the Rivermarket shopping district. The biggest and best in KC. It reminds me of a miniature Uwajimaya from my days in Seattle. The fresh and frozen seafood and meat department will blow the average Americans mind. They will cringe in horror when they see all that, to me, yummy edibles common to Asian society.
We decided on fresh shrimp for dinner. The kind that need shelling. Oh yeah, I shelled and deveined them all before cooking. They were a nice morbid gray color, it amazed myself to see them curl up pink and delicious before my eyes in that pan when cooked.
The side course was to be fried spinach with garlic. We purchased a huge bag of fresh spinach from the market. It seemed to be some variety of Asian spinach? Maybe I just haven't seen enough spinach on the stalk enough times to see that it was the standard variety.
I prepared the spinach first. Cut them off the stalks. Rinsed them very well to clean off the dirt. Spinach is notoriously tainted with dirt. Chopped up some cloves of peeled garlic. Chopped up even finer some Thai hot chiles we also purchased that day. They had the thickness of half my pinky finger and just as long, some being orange, some being jalepeno green in color. The spinach takes only a few minutes in the pan to wilt so they were put aside until after the shrimp got deshelled and deveined. Originally I was going to cook the shrimp in shell, but to make it easier for my friend to chow down on them, I deshelled them before cooking. We bought a few pounds so there were maybe 30 or so to clean. It seemed to take forever to do, but I persisted. My hands seemed to be burning. My friend came into the kitchen, I mentioned about my hand burning and she stated that was probably why people don't like to deshell shrimp because of the little cuts you get on your hands and the discomfort it causes. My hands were on fire. On fire! She finished the shrimp so I could start the spinach. Fried nicely with the garlic and chiles, it looked very good, restaurant quality. She tasted a little of the finished product. Her eyes literally "bugged out" as she stated that they were too hot. I tried them, they were definitely too hot. She couldn'y believe how many chopped chiles I put in the dish.
My hands continued to burn.
I finished most of the spinach dish, but it was just too hot. I made the shrimp. I intended to steam them. I looked up how to steam them, it stated to put them in a large boiling pan, add a little water to the bottom and poor in the shrimp and a few minutes later your shrimp would be done. Well, they finished within seconds and I ended up overcooking those poor shrimp. I had labored over 30 minutes deshelling them.
Failed on the shrimp, failed on the spinach.
She thought we were gonna top some pasta with the shrimp. I said dinner had originally intended to be just steamed shrimp and fried spinach, light & healthy. She made some pasta and "garnished" it with my overcooked shrimp. The shrimp was just a little chewy, similar to squid. She then made another batch of spinach, sigh.
My hands continued to burn.
Her pasta and shrimp, mixed with butter and some concoction of spices we had purchased from the middle eastern grocery we had visited recently, turned out very well. I enjoyed a hearty plateful. She ate the spinach alone, my mouth was still on fire from the spinach dish I had prepared over 25 minutes earlier.
She later found out that those Thai chiles were not meant to be cut up. They got fried in whatever dish you were preparing and removed before eating, like bay leaves.
My hands continued to burn.

The Greatest Phở outside of Vietnam

I love phở. I can eat it everyday. I wish I could make it, but the broth takes over 4 hours to prepare. The rest of the ingredients are simple but need to be fresh. My mouth just waters thinking about it. In fact, only when I have finished a super-large bowl of phở am I satisfied and not craving it. You drink water everyday, I can eat phở everyday. I will master the recipe someday. Go find me the best boneless beef sirloin steak, the absolute freshest flat rice noodles. Thai basil that was picked that day. No more than a day old bean sprouts. White onions, oh so thinly sliced. I love tripe, so in my soup I would add a hearty amount of it, the texture is amazing! Jalepeno peppers. Scallions and cilantro. Those meatballs!! What is in those meatballs? Okay, enough about the ingredients. I haven't had Phở today so I can't stand listing the ingredients any longer. When I lived down south, I used to drive for nearly an hour to come to the restaurant, located in downtown Kansas City.
The friendly staff, speaking mostly in Vietnamese, are wonderfully friendly. I have been there so many times they don't even bring me a menu. I just take a seat, and he brings out my large combo phở. By the time I take off my jacket and get a white gourd drink from the fridge, he is on his way out with my soup. Did I mention I love phở? Additionally, they have all the other traditional Vietnamese soups on the menu, perhaps up to 50 of 'em. Fried rice, and appetizers too. And that dessert I cannot describe because I have had it only one time, that one time I ordered a normal-sized soup so i could try their dessert. It looks multi-colored and is blended when ordered. Its maybe a fruit and jello mixture? It was delicious, but overstuffed my poor little belly.
The place is Phở KC, located on Cherry street.

Chicago Dog, pt.1

So, coming back from a wonderful restaurant, the Jerusalem Cafe, my friend I was with happened to see a Chicago Hot Dog restaurant. We both "oooohh'd and aahhh'd" over the thought even though we were stuffed to the max over the great meal we had just eaten. We promised ourselves to come back and try that place next time. So, the following week we set out to have one. My friend, being from Chicago, was experienced with Chicago style hot dogs and myself, having never tasted one but had seen them on the food channel, was excited that we had found a rare place in our town that serves them. But alas, we got to the restaurant and it was closed. Damn. Continuing in sullen despair we found a place two blocks away that had a neon sign stating they had Chicago style hot dogs. Miami Ice, known mostly for their ice cream and fruit flavored frozen ice desserts also carried hot dogs. The guy behind the counter did indeed try his best to recreate that most famous hot dog. It has a couple sliced tomatoes, a long slice of pickle, a huge hot dog and spicy mustard. It was a decent backyard hot dog, but was not worthy of being labeled, Chicago styled hot dog. My friend clearly had disappointment in her eyes as well as her description of what the hot dog should be. The all-beef dog, covered with bright green relish, yellow mustard, big dill pickle wedge, tomato slices, hot sport peppers and nestled in a big poppy seed bun with a hearty topping of celery salt is yet to find its way onto my taste buds. So, I continue to await the time when I find a local haunt which carries the masterpiece perfected by that mighty city called Chicago.

In the beginning...

Helloooooo out there. As I quaff good drink or eat good cuisine I am here to share my experiences, whether it be good or bad. I intend to share the contemporary dishes I try, either in recipe or out-'n-about, or some of the many "venerable" recipes I intend to make from some of the many 19th and 20th century cookbooks collecting dust on my bookshelves. Also, I intend to share with you some of my most memorable dishes of the past and share the stories behind them. Come with me on my culinary adventures. Enjoy!