Is 'Vegetarian Meat' A Misnomer?

[melthebell]

23 minutes ago, Halibut said:

I get it Mel. I still eat meat occasionally but most of the time I eat vegetarian. If there was a meat substitute that was genuinely as good as the real thing, I'd probably never eat real meat again. 

 

Closest I've yet found is Cauldron brand vegetarian sausages, which are really quite good. Not impressed with any of the vege mince I've come across yet though.

yeah there's so many out there now, all of varying meatlike consistencies and ones that aren't meatlike, i've always loved Linda McCartney ones, just had one of the mozzarella burgers for dinner actually, burgers we had last week were nice, not exceptional, but nice, beetroot based ones.

Back in the mid 80's when i turned veggie you had about 3 choices, sos mix that you made up your self, sos rolls from Holland and Barrett (still love those now) were two that i loved. even Greggs etc do vegan sos rolls etc (i do like those)

Edited May 13, 2020 by melthebell

[Halibut]

18 minutes ago, melthebell said:

yeah there's so many out there now, all of varying meatlike consistencies and ones that aren't meatlike, i've always loved Linda McCartney ones, just had one of the mozzarella burgers for dinner actually, burgers we had last week were nice, not exceptional, but nice, beetroot based ones.

Back in the mid 80's when i turned veggie you had about 3 choices, sos mix that you made up your self, sos rolls from Holland and Barrett (still love those now) were two that i loved. even Greggs etc do vegan sos rolls etc (i do like those)

Sosmix! Yeah, we have that as a Sunday dinner kind of thing with roast potatoes, broccoli, leeks and gravy. If it's spiced up a bit, it's pretty decent.

(I always find the texture a bit weird though, kind of squeaky against the teeth.)

[willman]

17 hours ago, enntee said:

Not sure if you are serious or not ….. but I'll bite for now.

 

Just buy a cauliflower and google.

Part of it was tongue in cheek - with the panic buying of rice - it wouldn't surprise me that some bought it thinking it was rice.

My OH likes it mixed in with basmati rice to help on the old slimming world and to try an make me eat more veg.

It was readily available frozen or fresh in little tubs at Tesco,but i can only find microwave steam bags at the moment. ( don't mind slicing butternut to make lasagne sheets but i seriously don't have the inclination to grate a cauli.)

[melthebell]

7 hours ago, CaptainSwing said:

Funny you should say that!  I thought their old tofu-based sausages were really good, and non-vegetarian members of the family liked them too, even though they weren't anything like meat sausages.  But I went off them completely when they changed to a TVP-based recipe.

 

I used to like their pates too, until they changed the recipes for those as well.

 

There are indeed some quite unpleasant veggie minces out there.  Quorn mince I find OK, but I guess you'll have tried that.  I don't even mind the old-fashioned TVP mince, though I haven't had it for ages - I'd use a bit of Marmite to give it some flavour.

I like quorn mince, it's about the closest to meat, we use it for shepherds pies and chillies. Never really liked the old tvp stuff.

[Tomm06]

I think mat substitute would be the  better name for it. A lot of none vegetarian people I've spoken to seem to expect vegetarian meat to taste pretty much the same - which let's be honest, it really doesn't. 

 

That being said I do like them, besides the Quorn 'pieces' I just can't get on with them. 

 

 

[the_bloke]

17 hours ago, Tomm06 said:

I think mat substitute would be the  better name for it. A lot of none vegetarian people I've spoken to seem to expect vegetarian meat to taste pretty much the same - which let's be honest, it really doesn't. 

 

That being said I do like them, besides the Quorn 'pieces' I just can't get on with them. 

 

 

I did three months non meat this year, so enjoyed myself trying out a lot of veggie recipies and some of the meat substitute products.

 

However, they really do need to stop marketing things as 'tasting just like meat' as it plainly isn't. This is why people think it's going to be like meat; they are told it is like meat from the marketing machine, plus vegetarians of 20 years eating these new veggie and vegan foods and thinking it's what meat tastes like because it's been so long since they had any they've forgotten so just believe what they are told.

 

Quorn pieces work well as substitute for chicken in mild creamy curries by the way. Plus they don't really need marinating unlike meat.

Edited May 15, 2020 by the_bloke

[melthebell]

2 hours ago, CaptainSwing said:

 

Yes, I quite like the Quorn pieces too, and yes they do work in curries, hot or mild.  In fact one of the very first Quorn products back in the 1980s was a "Quorn Malay" ready meal from Sainsburys, which was a mild curry that also contained fruit, including lychees I seem to remember.  The 'pieces' also work well in stir fries (IMO).

 

I don't think many vegetarians of 20 years could care less about whether a product tastes like meat or not - that's not at all the market for these new allegedly more realistic 'substitutes'.  As @max hinted earlier in the thread, the main attraction of things like Quorn or veggie burgers is convenience.  I think of them as a source of protein, but certainly not as a substitute for meat.  A more convenient substitute for lentils, maybe ...

speaking of which, finally got red lentils, YAY so can cook 1 of my specialities, cheese and lentil loaf, i love it, both hot and cold, for tea, then dinner the day after

[feargal]

11 hours ago, melthebell said:

speaking of which, finally got red lentils, YAY so can cook 1 of my specialities, cheese and lentil loaf, i love it, both hot and cold, for tea, then dinner the day after

Ooh, that's my lunch sorted Mel, thanks for the reminder! I remember making this in the 80s from the Cranks veggie cookbook.  I always love it, but then instantly forget it for about 3 years 😊

[melthebell]

1 hour ago, feargal said:

Ooh, that's my lunch sorted Mel, thanks for the reminder! I remember making this in the 80s from the Cranks veggie cookbook.  I always love it, but then instantly forget it for about 3 years 😊

Yeah its in the oldest cookbook we own, the covers fell off and everything, but i know the recipe off by heart anyway lol

 

[Norbert]

I found some Chicken Of The Woods mushrooms today and had a sandwich of it, avocado, beetroot and hummus for tea, I enjoyed the texture and savoury taste. By chance my neighbour asked me what I’d had for tea, which led to me giving him a piece, and he was amazed. The veggie food industry should really try and use it.

 

With food in general it’s what you get used to:
To me soya milk tastes neutral, while cows milk is cloying.
Dairy cheese tastes rancid, while vegan cheese is just strange.
Veggiburgers and sausages range from succulent to cardboardy (Linda Mc, if overcooked), and fit nicely into the different shapes bread comes in.