When I first saw this in Leisureguy’s blog today, I thought it was a joke…we were being punked. Sadly, this is no joke. Meat glue (Transglutaminase) is widely used for the production of everything from hot dogs and simulated crab meat to restaurant Filet-Mignon ; it’s a legal and highly effective way to turn cheaper cuts of meat into more appealing cuts.

If you go to YouTube you will find dozens of videos on the topic, including a top restaurant chef talking about how he uses meat glue to produce lovely high-end steaks. But he isn’t apologetic. And in fact, the video below, from a Harvard lecture series, shows how food scientists view the use of enzymes and other chemicals as perfectly legitimate tools of the trade. For them, food is chemistry and chemistry is food. It’s good to have both points of view, although personally, I’m against any food that isn’t clearly marked as having been manipulated to resemble something else.