by Auneek

On Tuesday, February 8, in the Learning Center at Clay-Platte Montessori School, the Montessori Middle School held a taste testing to evaluate the quality of beef and eggs. We had three different kinds of eggs and three different kinds of beef. There were eggs from a grocery store, and eggs from Boone’s Farm from the breeds of Americana and White Rock. There was beef from the grocery store, Kobe beef from a farm near Springfield, Missouri, and beef from Boone’s Farm from the breed of Limousin/Pinzgauer.  

         Parents, teachers and students came to try our beef and eggs, as well as drink coffee donated by Parisi Coffee.  We also told them about our summer vegetable subscription service, and our tomato, egg and beef subscriptions.

by Zach

We compared three types of ground beef --  Kobe/Wagyu from JB Farms located near Springfield, Missouri, grass fed beef from Boone’s Farm and store-bought mystery meat from Hen House.

    First we cooked the beef in the oven after shaping it into meatballs (no spices/oil used). Second we put the beef out for people to taste in three separate pans marked by numbers (we had a key that we kept secret so we would know what beef they ate, but the people wouldn’t). Then it was all ready and everyone tasted it. Mostly everyone preferred the Kobe beef. The results were 61% for Kobe, 30% for Boone’s F\arm, and 7% for store-bought.

by Mohammed

These are the results for our taste test. Thirteen people voted on the beef and ten on the eggs. Here are the results:

                                           Data

Beef                                                        # who preferred
Wagyu American Kobe Beef                             8
Boone’s Farm Limousin/Pinzgauer Beef           4
80% lean store bought beef                              1

Eggs                                                        #who preferred
Best Choice Eggs                                              4
Americauna                                                        4
White Rock                                                         2

                                Evaluation

Sixty-one percent voted for Kobe beef.         
Thirty percent voted for Boone’s Farm beef.
Seven percent voted for store bought beef.

Forty percent voted for Best Choice eggs.
Forty percent voted for Americana eggs.
Twenty percent voted for White Rock eggs.

                                Conclusion

 People can taste the difference in beef, but not so much in eggs.
Since the beef test result was so different, we think people can taste the difference.
We think that with the eggs, people who could taste the difference preferred the farm eggs to the store bought ones. A few people said they liked the store bought because they were used to that taste.

We'd like to express special thanks to all the people who helped make our event a success:   Susan and Parisi Coffee for providing hot coffee on a cold winter morning, Justin at JB Farms for American Kobe hamburger and lots of information, Heather for coffee condiments and help with set-up and clean-up, Jim Pierce of Lincoln University's ISFOP for inspiration and helping Hunter, Taylor & Izaak draft  the SARE Youth Grant proposals that would become this event, BetiWyn for her benevolent guidance, Andrea & Lisa at Clay-Platte Children's House for helping us communicate with the school community, Kitty for being our awesome Middle School Director, and of course, all of the chickens and cows for providing eggs & meat!