UPDATE!!! Well folks, guess what????

The pot roast was another disaster. Slow cooked for 4 hours and STILL the meat is tough and dry. Even with the added lard. Seems the meat was meant for ground beef only. Was sold as a roast. I bet it was the hind leg muscle - just one fibrous netting of skeletal muscle tough as elephant hide. The football became just smaller clumps of one large clump.

Now for the good news! Instead of throwing it at the butcher who sold it to my wife, I decided one last ditch effort to make it consumable for humans. I took out my miniature food processor and put the stringy clumps into it. Along with some mayonnaise and in one batch BBQ sauce/mayo. I made three containers of the best roast beef spread ever! Ever have Underwood spreads? Well this was an all natural substitute of better quality. At least I knew what is in it.
It turned out delicious. Now I can make beef pate' sandwiches all week long! MMMMM!
"Sammich" heaven!!!!

I see I have another friend : )

Well, it's too late to start over..... So I am taking the rest of this leather football and making pot roast. I will simmer this disaster for about 2 or 3 hours with the gravy, veggies, potato and a spoonful of pork fat (LARD to restore the flavor). Never again will my wife buy any meat void of fat and expect a tender sumptuous tasty meal. Fat is good and is naturally around meat because God loves us. Meat and potatoes - the meal that built America!

No way!!! You're kidding right? Because if you are not, well then you do not know meat my friend.

Top and bottom round are used for ground beef. These are some of the toughest cuts. Skeletal muscle has no fat. FAT is what you want for a tender and flavorful steak or roast. You must be feeding a dog or cat if you use "round" to make roasts. Unless you love dry, tough, leather soles.

My wife just got bamboozeled by a local uneducated OR lying sneaky butcher and wasted $25. I will take care of him later. He gave her a top round for a roast and our company could not even eat the meal at Easter dinner. It was cooked early medium rare with a pink middle and yet tough as nails and dry as chalk. Now I have to add lard to it and slow cook for 10 hours to make it consumable for human consumption and not garbage refuse.

People like fatty beef. This lean BS is for Fiddo!

Sure it does.... Taco Bell under control of YUM knows full well their mission is to get the most amount of meat with fillers at the cheapest cost. They don't care what kind of meat it is, as long as it was once alive. The fillers of soy and food products fill the gaps.

How do you like the stale produce (what is left) and lowest grades of sour cream, tortillas, and frying oils with the shipped in pre- packaged preservative drenched ingredients? Tasty?

mmmmmm....where have you been?

***UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE***

Taco Bell YUM brands caught!

Horse meat in Taco Bell beef!

"London: Taco Bell is the latest restaurant chain to acknowledge that its food has been adulterated with horse meat, yanking a variety of ground beef products from its three British outlets and issuing an apology to its patrons on Friday. Meanwhile, in Iceland, a food official said his team had found a beef product from a local producer that contained no meat at all."

http://beta.fool.com/analyse360degree...

I knew the beef was not 100%! It may not have beef in it at all....

It is not a myth. There are different grades of beef. How do you think McDonald's and Burger King are able to maintain a cheeseburger or double cheeseburger at $1.00 prices? While White Castle continues to raise their prices even though there is just a sliver of beef on White Castle burgers?.... Because of the grades used by each, that is how.

Sounds good to me. I remember the Beef Burrito. It was delicious. Solid taco ground beef throughout. This item really presented the taco bell ground beef the way IT USED TO BE made.

You could clearly see it was 100% beef without fillers. Consistency of hail (tiny granules). Dark brown in color. This burrito also had small chopped white onion mixed in the beef.

Can't be made today with the current recipe of part meat/part soy filler and some dreadful orange paste. Bleech!!!!

Could be old taco bell. I never seen one on the menu. But I heard it was called a bell burger.

That works, yes manteca is lard. Just trying to figure out how one burger outlet has been using the same lard for 100 years, and only strains it and seasons it???? I'm sure they add to it, but it is still used over and over without going rancid....

Thanks!

Like Taelyn said, we should use dehydrated bean powder for our refried beans. And finely shred the mild cheddar and montery jack fresh each time.

You see with all of our efforts, we can triumph over YUM brands and Pepsico who turned our beloved Bell into bland airport slop.

Yes, I agree with all you have to say. Cheeses ideally need to be finely shredded from a block at time of using. I like Calavo's guacamole - it is refrigerated and tastes the same as old TB.
The dehydrated bean powder is also a plus. No taste of can metal.
YES, the meat should be worked so that the meat pieces become like littles BB's in size. Tastes much better.
Even homemade, we can make old Bell that trumps anything current in the taco bell stores these days.
Don't forget the lard!

At least White Castle and Nathans never changed their ingredients. That is why the food still tastes as great as when they first opened. Sure the prices went up, but I will pay for taste. Notice you only see older people at these places? Because if they pulled a YUM? Only the ignorant brainless teens would cater their establishments. Because these children love to feed with the hogs at the trough. They do not have the smarts to know any better.

White Castle - ONLY grade "A" beef is used.

Taco Bell barely uses grade "D". And grade "D" is what McDonald's and Burger King use. Never will see me spend $4.00 for a Big Mac!

You got it! No wonder I can't get Kentucky nuggets any longer. Those chicken nuggets were the best!

Why o why did Glenn Bell sell????

Doesn't anybody care about quality any longer over one extra dollar?

Wow, maybe the Taco Bell's by me never added that item. If it was old days, then I'm sure it was GOOD!

No problem : )

I think the screen shifts sometimes when loading and the replies can go to the wrong recipient.

Anyway - I'm still making my delicious bean burritos at home. One open end, big, heavy, oozing with mild cheddar, red sauce and some steamed white onion!

You're right. However, the bean burrito tortilla itself is the same size - at least last time I had one years ago. It is just folded differently. It now has layers of folds and closed on both ends. 1 little scoop of beans instead of the two large ones back when.

Might as well just roll up a flour tortilla and dip it in bean paste. Tastes just as terrible.

Yep!

Fresh, Lard, Natural, etc. - All key terms of OLD Taco Bell!

As for the bean burrito, the open end is proper. They close it on both ends now to hide the small amount of filling. Nothing but a "dough burrito" now.

BINGO!!!!

Absolutely not. I was sober as rain everytime I enjoyed my Taco Bell dinner. I would get it on the weekends and eat it before going out.

We know Taco Bell removed ingredients from items, changed to the K-minus kitchen instead of FRESH vegetables, beans, meats, cheese and tortillas, uses low fat sour cream, vegetable oils for chips, etc.

You don't think these changes affected the quality and taste of the food?

Don't remember that item???

Sounds great! But what I am doing currently is adding lard to my refried beans from a can. It's not perfect but I still like it better than TB.

"One of these days I'm going to make their menu the way it was done before."

That is what I like to hear!!! Everyone should be doing this. I try to pass the recipes out after I duplicate them. We all should do the same.

Hmmm, Last time I checked it was no longer on the menu. I asked and they said they do not have that item anymore.

Enchiritos are still on the menu. Nothing tatses the same as in the 80's, because the tortillas and tortilla chips including the salad shell are not made the same.

These items are gone:

Bacon Cheeseburger Burrito - (special item)
Taco Salad - (staple)
Cinnamon crispers - (staple)
Tostada - (staple)
Black Olives - (staple)
Green Onions - (staple)

I don't expect Taco Bell seasoning in a packet to be the same as years past. You can add dried chopped onions to it.
You can also add fresh chopped onion to the ground beef halfway through the browning and simmering with water for the filling.

Taelyn, I assume you are female. I would like to see more women chime in too on here. I'm certain many patronized TB years ago and would also know today that there is a BIG difference in taste and quality. Thank you for your valid experiences and please do not leave or let this go.

Taelyn you gave a wonderful accurate description of what occurred to our beloved 80's TB food.

Stick around, and also spread what you know and have learned about this problem. Try to make the foods you liked at home. I and others together want to let everyone know how to duplicate the original TB foods. I posted my recipes here prior. Together we can overcome this taste deprivation we suffer. And maybe Glen Bell will buy back Taco Bell or someone who will hold true to its founding...

If you were drunk all those times, then you missed the great tasting food of the very early 90's.

All I can say is no matter what Taco Bell thinks of with new names, sizes, etc. It will never be good anymore. Ever since YUM brands took over, the days of Glen Bell quality are over. If you are old enough to remember the glory days of fresh, full, real ingredients of the 80's? Then you know what I'm talking about.

The days when full fat regular sour cream, black olives, green onions, refrigerated tortillas (NOT shelf stable), refried beans mixed with water and cooked w/lard on site each day, vegetables chopped on site each day, monterey jack and mild cheddar shredded on site each day, and 100% ground beef ground and cooked with spices/water on site each day.

All that is gone, everything is shipped in stale to each location pre-made and the beef is no longer 100%, now it has fillers. That is why it is an orangey paste as opposed to years past of brown meat granules only. This new idea to save YUM money is called the "K minus kitchen" or K-minus program. Stands for minus quality. Should have been named Q-minus.

Anyway you are better off staying away from Taco Bell, and making the entrees at HOME yourself. It will cost less, and you will taste a big difference. Old school Taco Bell was orgasmic in taste. Today all you get is pig slop. Not very healthy at all like years ago. Recipes for original Taco Bell can be found here and on the internet. Your mouth and body will thank you.

Hounddogz, I was not referring to you. Maybe I replied to the wrong post in error. My apologies if that happened.

I know all along you and I agree.

Now lets get back to our mission. And that is to figure out and disseminate ALL old Taco Bell recipes for free to the public. So that those who have real taste can enjoy old school Taco Bell. I enjoyed my beautiful bean burritos with warm filling oozing with real cheese and soft onion and red sauce. MMMMM!

Well people, I just made delicious Bean Burritos again last night at home. Came out just like it used to be from Taco Bell pre early 90's.

I'll tell you exactly how I made them. So you too can taste and feel the orgasmic qualities that we used to enjoy:

Follow this exactly, trust me. If you don't it will not come out correctly.

OK first thing is to get refrigerated burrito size tortillas - not shelf stable!

Take out as many as you think you will fill from the package. Then set them aside.

Next get a can or two of refried beans (does not matter what brand). Dump the contents into a pot. Heat on stove and add water to the consistency that YOU like. I like mine a little runny.

Next while bean is heating, chop a white sweet onion. If it is too hot raw, then nuke the chopped onion on a flat dish in the microwave until you see steam and the tips of the pieces just start to shrink.

Next get a finely shredded mild cheddar ready at room temperature. A blend of monterey jack/mild cheddar will do too.

Open you bottle or can of red enchilada sauce.

Once your bean paste is heated and to the proper consistency, take a tortilla and place on a large plate. Fill one side of circle with a nice helping of warmed refried bean paste (not to ends). Next, add about a tablespoon or so (to taste) of the chopped sweet or heated onion on the bean.
Next add a nice helping of the finely shredded cheese along the bean. Then drizzle a ribbon of some red enchilada sauce down the pile.

Next fold one end (I do right side) over to touch the filling about a 1/4 length up from one side. Again, I fold right side on mine. Next roll the filling and tortilla into a roll leaving one end OPEN. This is how Taco Bell used to fold them until they cut down filling amount.
OK place the completed burrito on another plate. Then repeat for the rest. After all is done. Place the plate of burritos into the microwave until the cheese melts slightly. You can VIEW the cheese through the one OPEN end.

Then remove and ENJOY the PAST. MMMMMM!!!!

You may even enjoy this as much as sex, trust me. It is a taste sensation climax.