According to those who tried it last week, lab-grown beef doesn't really taste like meat. So what exactly gives meat its flavor and makes us beg for more?
We've long known why ice cream and chocolate appeal so much to our taste buds: It's that blissful mixture of sugar and fat. But what's so special about bacon and steak that, for most people, it trumps the growing pile of scientific data on meat's detrimental health effects?
The answer, according to scientists, lies in meat's unique mixture of fat and "umami" —more about this taste later — spiced up in a process called the Maillard reaction, the browning that occurs when we cook a piece of meat.
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