From trying a lot of vegan meat alternatives my assumption was they have no fucking idea what they are doing.
The time making fake meat would be better spent promoting vegan dishes that aren’t pretending to be something else, because those are fantastic.
Agreed. Got a huge amount of Indian and Asian cuisine that happens to be vegan, either incidentally or for religious reasons, and it’s all absolutely delicious; but no, ‘vegan food’ means deep-fried highly processed dinosaur shapes and cheese with a distinct aftertaste of sewage.
I feel bad for vegetarians. If pubs and restaurants have one meat-free item on the menu then it’s going to be vegan, and if it’s going to be vegan then it’s going to be some awful faux food where the main plant source is chemical plant. Vegetarian meals that celebrate the quality and freshness of the vegetables are the equal of any meat meal, but you’re not having those.
I love vegetarian goose though. It doesn’t taste like goose at all but it still delicious.
I strongly dislike goose because it is so damn greasy, would probably prefer whatever vegetarian goose is unless they used Olestra in pursuit of authenticity.
I love the Field Roast veggie sausages. I don’t feel like they’re trying and failing to imitate meat, but rather that they’re trying to make something tasty that hits the form factor and general savoriness of meat. And they do that well, imo
Yeah, the sausage format is one of the better approaches because it is a form factor that already has a wide variety of textures and from the packaging it doesn’t look like they are trying to imitate specific meat flavors or textures. Can’t remember if I have tried that brand before, but I have had green plant based sausages and they were good as their own kind of thing. Like how sweet potato fries are the same shape as regular potato fries but you would never confuse the two.
There’s one brand of spicy soy chorizo that straight up tastes like the Goya chorizos I grew up with. They even got the color down, chorizo is supposed to be bright red. Sadly I don’t remember what the brand is
Are Impossible meats vegan? Because Impossible stuff (ground “beef,” “chicken,” whatever) are delicious. They definitely got me into eating far, far less meat.
The ingredients are vegan. Apparently there was animal testing involving rats for an ingredient or something like that.
I think a lot of these kinds of products are for hosting vegans. I don’t find them tasting good enough to acquire over making something that’s actually delicious. But it is nice to eat some burgers with the family.
They’re also great for when you want something you miss. Like I havent eaten chicken in 4 years, the fake shit is close enough for the craving
Yes, but have you tried Beyond? It’s delicious. Now if we can just get get vegan cheese up to par…
I have tried Beyond and found it bland and tasteless. The texture was ok.
Why is trying to pretend to be cheese worth the time when stuff like guacamole, white bean dip, hummus, corn dip, etc. exist?
I almost gave up on the dairy free cheese because Daiya was supposed to be the top-tier one. Tasted like vaguely cheese-flavored plastic strips, and I was not a fan. Also refused to melt until it was just below the temperature of the surface of the sun, and when it did, it was like a pile of glue.
On a whim, I bought the Kroger store brand (Simple Truth I think?) and it’s pretty damn good. Tastes like cheese, doesn’t feel like a mouth full of plastic, melts at a reasonable temperature, the whole works.
I couldn’t stand Daiya. Fully agree.
Just no, hard no. Came off a kayaking trip starving for whatever. My vegan gf got us Beyond burgers. Absolutely revolting. I can’t put my finger on it, but it tasted like “chemicals”. LOL, I know, great description, but I couldn’t choke down half the thing.
It is 100% chemicals. ;)
Vegan cheese done with coconut oil is pretty decent, way better that the wet sponge texture that beyond has.
Most people aren’t born vegan :)
That’s a good point. Are animal products vegan if they’re willingly given by a being with enough sapience to consent? Is breastmilk vegan? I’d assume so, but I feel like it’s worth asking. I’m asking based on the idea that all people are animals, but not all animals are people. I know that’s something not everyone’s on board with, but I thought it would be good to include this disclaimer.
Most people agree that foods given with consent count as vegan, so breast milk would count. A lot of vegans eat honey, for example, because bees aren’t harmed in the harvesting process.
TIL. I didn’t know honey could be vegan. I would have assumed all animal husbandry wasn’t vegan because of the artificial selection process at least.
By any strict definition of the term it’s not considered vegan, that said there are people out there who attempt to debate the matter.
The argument is that bees overproduce naturally and you barely disturb them to take the combs that are done before they rot (the combs not the honey, honey basically never rots), so you are not harming them in any meaningful way.
Bees found in nature still overproduce, so bees in “captivity” are just given free range in a field of flowers. Technically the queen bee and all the colony could fly away but they don’t because why would they.
That sounds like a rational take. I could accept it, for what that’s worth.
I do like to ask if artificial selection is harmful. Is it possible that generations of queens/hives adapt and evolve to conform to human demands while becoming increasingly dependent on human support?
I don’t think so, artificial beehives are barely a protected box with compartments queen bees are put in, but there’s plenty beehives in the widl too. The reason I quoted captivity in that comment is that those bees go out as far as several kilometres to gather and polinize the flora around them. They could very much find some tree to use as a beehive and keep going out as much.
The reason against the veganism of honey is that it’s technically not consensual, and that the smoke they are thrown to calm themselves so that the humans can take the combs is mistreatment. I mean, I guess? But that’s such a low bar that I don’t subscribe to that, you do you.
In any case I’m not expert, you should do your research to get the most accurate info.
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Sometimes they probably have long forgotten how meat tastes and feels like, judging from some of the products.
Honestly they should just make something that tastes good
Alternative: instead of trying to imitate meat with questionable high-processed foods and chemicals, how about cooking a real vegan or vegetarian meal? There are so many delicious, simple, and more healthy alternatives.
There are people who eat both. I’m not a big meat eater and prefer the veggie versions of things, but will eat the occasional meat (mainly chicken and sausage).
I don’t think a lot of meat alternatives are trying to perfectly replicate their meat counterpart but rather work as an alternative in dishes. Tempeh bacon for instance will never match the taste or texture of real bacon, but tempeh is delicious on its own so I will never complain about smoked tempeh. It’s easier to imitate processed meat like sausage or nuggets.
Though I will say I used to get a lemongrass seitan “chicken” from a pho place that was better than any real chicken I’ve ever had
It is possible that they work with what they do not to make vegan meat, but to reduce the amount of horrible lives lived by live cattle.
