14 DAY TRIAL // Bacon tastes positively heavenly, there's no denying it. Still, the fact of the matter is, our love affair with this treat isn't all that fabulous. For starters, bacon is known to plump up waistlines. Besides, pig farms have a devastating impact on the environment. Oh, yeah, and let's not forget vegetarians can't have any.
Hoping to get around these hurdles, researchers at Oregon State University in the US turned to genetic engineering to create a new food that might one day replace bacon. Believe it or not, they succeeded.
Not to prolong the suspense, here's what they came up with: a new strain of red marine algae that look like red lettuce when harvested but that, when cooked, taste just like bacon. Pretty neat, right?
The scientists merely upgraded a nature-made alga
In a paper describing their work, the specialists explain that their experiments centered around a marine alga species dubbed dulse. This species grows in the waters of the Pacific and the Atlantic close to the shoreline, and is already used as a nutritional supplement or cooking ingredient.
In an attempt to make it more appealing for human consumption, the scientists toyed with its genetic makeup and ultimately obtained a strain with a higher protein content, which, when cooked, tastes like regular bacon.
According to researcher Chris Langdon at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center and his colleagues, the genetically altered dulse strain that they created in the lab has a protein content of 16%. Besides, exposure to heat makes it assume the distinctive taste of bacon.
“This stuff is pretty amazing. When you fry it, which I have done, it tastes like bacon, not seaweed. And it’s a pretty strong bacon flavor,” specialist Chris Langdon explained in an interview.
The team is now trying to convince people to eat it
Having patented their bacon-like seaweed, the scientists behind this endeavor are now looking to figure out a way to convince people and especially vegetarians to at least give it a try. Their arguments: it packs a whole lot of minerals, vitamins and antioxidants, and it tastes delish.
The specialists say that, seeing how it looks like red lettuce when uncooked and the taste isn't all that bad either, their dulse strain can be consumed raw. When in the mood to unleash the bacon aroma trapped inside it, frying it for a minute or two is more than enough to get the flavors going.
