I’ve reviewed a lot of these frozen patties, and to date, I’ve liked Ball Park brand the most, even though they are a ‘heat and eat’ product, not a raw patty.
Extra Value is an economy brand, manufactured by the Holten Meat Company, outside of St. Louis.
I bought a package of a dozen quarter pounders, and out of the box, they look like the pictures on the left.
They require a medium heat cook, for a few minutes on each side. Usually the instructions for frozen patties say to cook on one side, until ‘blood’ runs from the top of the patty, and then flip for a couple minutes.
I followed a similar regimen with this product.
The ingredient list reads: beef, beef hearts, water, textured vegetable protein, seasoning, MSG, sugar, salt.
I wasn’t put off by the hearts, but I was curious about the vegetable protein. Vegetable protein is a “meat analogue”, which according to Wikipedia, is also called a meat substitute, mock meat, faux meat or imitation meat, approximates certain aesthetic qualities (primarily texture, flavor and appearance) and/or chemical characteristics of specific types of meat. Many analogues are soy-based.
And it’s that textured vegetable protein where the Extra Value patties fall apart, both literally and figuratively.
While the general “flavor” of a beef patty is present, the expected texture of cooked ground meat is completely lacking.
The texture while cutting, chewing, is more akin to the vegetarian patties I’ve had. It doesn’t really ‘cut’, it crumbles.
And for me, that’s a deal killer. Here’s what the end product looks like:
Extra Value Frozen Beef Patties