Fly United this month and you can order a smoked beef and pork sausage link smothered in BBQ sauce and served on a pretzel roll. But its journey from kitchen to airplane demonstrates how difficult it is to offer tasty in-flight food.
The Chicago Tribune reports that United tried five different sausage recipes and 36 different pretzel buns before finally selecting the combo that now appears in the economy class buy-on-board menu. In fact, over, 200 hours were spent working with Lillie’s Q in Chicago to come up with something that would be tasty above 30,000 feet and maintain its flavor.
Spices were also removed so as not to offend more sensitive palates, but herbs and salt were added. Smell is also critical in informing overall taste.
Food must be first refrigerated, then heated. It must not only withstand the cold, but it must withstand being in the oven for extended periods. United calls this the “torture test” and in pre-flight testing, items will be left in the oven far longer than recommended to see if they still hold up.
Despite sometimes vocal consumer demands for healthy food, airlines find that “comfort food” sells best. On United, that’s the cheeseburger, the best-seller in economy class. Even so, American, Delta, and United try to offer at least one vegetarian choice on flights.
Might meal service improve? Gary Leff told the Tribune:
There is a model that suggests it is possible to do better than what airlines do today. The question is whether anyone wants to bet it will attract enough business to be worth the cost.
Delta is making that bet as it introduces a la carte dining in economy class this autumn.
> Read More: Delta Invests In Itself By Investing In Customer
CONCLUSION
Later this week, I’ll put United’s new smoked beef and pork sausage link to the test. In the meantime, have you noticed an improvement or degradation in in-flight meals?
I moved more business to AS and have been impressed with their F catering. I don’t think it’s anything special but for plane food it’s decent. I like how they save soup. I wish United would bring that back. United has had the same menus for as long as I remember. Short rib, chicken, pasta.
Oh good, thank you United for adding salt. I expect the dish was already loaded with salt like just about everything in this country.
My Heathrow story:
1999: My connecting flight to Warzszawa was delayed and I got a food voucher. Stupidly, I went to McD’s rather than something with more local flavor. I just put the voucher down and asked for a “big mac meal”.
I went to pickup and the fries were COVERED in salt. And I mean covered as in they sort of looked like pretzels.
The pleasantly accented Brit told me: “Listen mate, if you need more salt it’s over there!”
In short, I have quite possibly noticed some improvements. But I’ll wait to expound upon that until I see your review of the smoked beef and pork sausage. 😉
A lot depends on your time frame. Have coach meals improved since the 1970’s? Subjectively I’d say yes. Since the 1990’s? Not appreciably. Since then has been a big roller coaster. Does the picture look tasty? You bet.
The real problem with that sausage link sandwich isn’t going to be the sausage, it’s going to be the sauce. Without fail, whenever an airplane sandwich comes with sauce, even mayonnaise, the bread is a soggy mess by the time it gets to me. Very curious to see if UA can pull that off, because it looks pretty good otherwise.
I had it last week in lieu of the mac and cheese in F. I try not to eat carbs, so I didn’t eat the bun,and the mustard was a bit smothered (whole thing comes in a foil bag). I thought it was juicy and delicious.
The carnivores should “make hay while the sun shines” because these planet-endangering dishes won’t be around much longer. Beef and Pork will be replaced by fungal protein and other alternatives within 5 years. I, for one, look forward to it.
Found the vegan. Of course the vegan believes that flying doesn’t harm the environment. Even though the facts say otherwise