No Wonder Mine Taste Different

Every so often I make tacos at home. No matter what preparation techniques I try, I cannot duplicate the taste of the ground beef used by Taco Belle in its crunchy tacos and taco salads. (Whether that’s a worthy goal is not the issue here.) A lawsuit filed recently against the fast food chain may explain why.

Occasionally I eat lunch at Taco Belle and sometimes I pick up a takeout order for dinner. I’m hooked by the free senior drink, a complimentary soda for anyone 55 or over. I’m not an authority on how Taco Belle prepares its food, but I think I could recognize one of their menu items in a taste test. There, I admitted it. I’m a Taco Belle customer. So on to the lawsuit.

Taco Belle is being sued in federal court in California on a false-advertising claim. The suit, filed by an Alabama law firm, alleges that the taco filling does not meet federal requirements to be labeled beef due to binders and extenders used in the mixture. Although specifics on how the testing was done weren’t released, the lawyer on the case said its results showed a beef content of 35 percent. The suit seeks to make Taco Belle stop calling its taco filling “beef” and to pay the suing firm’s bill. Apparently there are no damages.

Taco Belle has denied the claim and has taken out full-page ads in major newspapers to refute it. The ads start by saying, “Thank you for suing us. Here’s the truth about our seasoned beef.” The company says its taco filling is 88 percent USDA-inspected beef and the rest is made up of spices and common food additives. These include water and a mixture of oats, starch, and other ingredients that contribute to what it calls the “quality of its product.”

The lawsuit has some tough legal hurdles to overcome. For one thing, the plaintiffs will have to prove that most customers believe they are getting something different from what Taco Belle serves. (Ask yourself if you do.) Plus the USDA guidelines for labeling ground beef cited in the lawsuit apply to meat processors not to restaurants. Still there’s a big difference between 35 and 88 percent ground beef, so maybe there’s more than a hill of [refried] beans to the suit.

Whatever the result, the company’s secret is out for home taco chefs. You can’t prepare the filler the way I do and expect Taco Belle-worthy results. I have tried every type of taco seasoning mix (Lawry’s, McCormack’s, Schilling) and every grade of ground beef from ground chuck to ground round. I even bought the official Taco Belle seasoning mix (available at QFC) and followed their instructions to the letter. Doesn’t matter. The resulting taco meat isn’t bad, but no one would mistake it for the taco mixture Taco Belle serves. Clearly I need to add oats, starch, and other ingredients to lower my mixture’s beef content.

I asked my friend R. B., a pretty good cook, for the real secret of making great tacos at home. “It’s all in the shells,” he said. The meat filler, fresh veggies, and grated cheese are important, but it’s the shells that make the dish. You have to buy fresh flour or corn tortillas and heat them in oil. Then serve them hot right away. Keeping the fried shells warm in a tortilla warmer isn’t ideal, but it’s better than my approach—I heat the cold tortillas in the microwave. So I’m a long way from making it to the taco Hall of Fame, even if I do figure out how to spice up the ground beef.