A question for vegans and vegetarians

[WouldYouKindly]

I'd like to know what the appeal of vegan and vegetarian meat substitutes that are supposed to taste like actual meat is. I've had many of them before and I just don't get it. Why would you want something that tastes like a poor facsimile of meat?

There are plenty of very tasty dishes you can make that suit your dietary habits that are tasty on their own, without trying, and generally failing, to be something they aren't.

Note that this isn't judgement, but I just had this thought and would like to get an answer.

 

[SoranMBane]

As a vegetarian, I do enjoy some "meat substitute" type foods, but not as substitutes for meat. I just enjoy them as their own thing, as a way to add something savory and protein-rich to my diet. As a matter of fact, I'd even occasionally eat things like veggie burgers and Tofurkey dogs before I decided to become vegetarian, just because I enjoyed them on their own merits.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I am a pescetarian, which means a vegetarian that eats seafood. For me that means just the occasional fish and shrimp.

Although I do use things like tempah, tofu and other soyfoods once in awhile, I generally don't use meat substitutes. I prefer to get soy protein from beans and soy milk. The only thing I really eat is a veggie burger maybe once a year when I get together with my family for a barbecue. Since there are two other veggies in the family, they usually offer me one and I eat it, along with the occasional tempah and tofu. I don't really dislike it, but I don't think they taste all that much like meat.

For the most part I agree with you WouldYouKindly, I think people use these substites if they are being a vegetarian for health reasons alone, and miss the taste of meat or perhapes they eat it to fit in and be 'normal'. I for one don't like the taste of meat so I would never have a reason to replicate the taste. I understand why someone might though, the way some people talk about bacon...

So I guess what I am saying is I get the appeal on a more grand scale, but I personally don't like the appeal of meat tasting veggie foods. It is kind of like when someone tries to cut back on sugar, so they try healthier options that are still suppose to "taste like it isn't healthy". You know?

 

[Flutterguy]

Because they like the taste of meat but not the guilt they attach to eating an animal. Not exactly a secret meat production is by vast majority a cruel operation.

That being said I really hate vegans who refuse to pay a restaurant tab because they used butter in the vegetable saute and don't ask every customer their opinion on food before serving them.

 

[Eamar]

I was a vegetarian for about three years in my mid to late teens (now the biggest carnivore you're ever likely to meet, but that's beside the point...) and I never got it either. It seemed like something people would serve or suggest because they lacked the imagination to come up with a proper alternative to meaty dishes. I used to cook a lot of my own food because it wasn't really fair to expect my parents to cook two dinners every night, and there was plenty of delicious stuff I could make without resorting to fake meat. In fact, I still occasionally order the vegetarian option at nice restaurants because they're often as good as a non-vegetarian option.

My boyfriend at the time decided to join me in my vegetarianism after a while, and he was all about the fake meat products - quorn mince, "fakon", veggie sausages etc, and I just thought it was rubbish. It tasted nothing like the real deal (whatever my ex claimed, the "fakon" tasted about as much like actual bacon as smokey bacon flavour crisps do), the texture was all wrong and just a bit weird, and most importantly for me, it all just seemed incredibly processed, which is a huge turn off for me. His reason for using them was because he didn't cook as much as me, and because he didn't want to let go of the meat. He convinced himself that it was as good as the real thing, but I'm afraid there was a lot of self-delusion going on there.

Still, I can see how these products might be useful as a transitioning tool when you first become vegetarian but haven't yet figured out all the alternatives.

 

[OneCatch]

I'd like to know what the appeal of vegan and vegetarian meat substitutes that are supposed to taste like actual meat is. I've had many of them before and I just don't get it. Why would you want something that tastes like a poor facsimile of meat?
There are plenty of very tasty dishes you can make that suit your dietary habits that are tasty on their own, without trying, and generally failing, to be something they aren't.

Note that this isn't judgement, but I just had this thought and would like to get an answer.

I was brought up veggie, so I wouldn't know how that kind of stuff compares to actual meat, but I eat some types because I quite like it. I admit the types I use tend to be relatively basic/unflavoured things like veggie mince rather than the more extravagantly flavoured and shaped things, but still.
And it's also handy for effortlessly adapting non-veggie recipes at home, or even just for having something to bring to a barbecue without being 'that unbearable veggie who refuses to get off his high horse and be sociable'.

Another facet is that meat would probably make me puke because I've never eaten it. To illustrate; the idea of eating bacon, to me, is approximately as appealing as the idea of eating spiders or something. The idea of it makes me feel a little nauseous.
What's weird is that, biologically speaking, it can still cause me to start salivating and so on. So I get this kind of weird thing where my mind is going "nope", my stomach is going "NO!", but even so the smell or whatever can just about make me hungry. Kind of simultaneously appealing and revolting at the same time.
Quorn stuff manages to be somewhat appealing without making my stomach turn.

 

[Auron225]

I can kinda see what you mean OP.

I was once in an all-vegetarian restaurant in Hong Kong and the dishes truly bewildered me. It went beyond "vegetarian chicken" and "vegetarian beef". They actually had "vegetarian veal". I know plenty of meat eaters who wouldn't touch veal cus the cruelty involved (the poor thing didn't even get a chance to live) puts them off. Why would a vegetarian want to simulate that particular experience??

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Vegetarian here.
Now let's see, the appeal of meat substitutes...
For me, it's because it's the closest thing to meat I can eat without being sick. For some reason, better part of a year ago, all meat started to make me sick. So, Quorn meat substitutes.
Fake steak bakes are kinda nice.

 

[Silvanus]

Well, I don't call myself a vegetarian any more, but I don't have any bought for me. I eat it only when it would otherwise go to waste. So, I eat meat substitutes very often.

I really enjoy the taste of many meats. Certain meat substitutes aren't poor facsimiles at all; some of them are damn good (certain sausages, & this turkey roast thing, for example). Others can be bollocks or bland.

Meat substitutes, I think, are generally eaten by people who miss specific meats. That category contains me.

 

[DEAD34345]

Because being vegetarian doesn't mean you don't like the taste of meat? Why wouldn't vegetarians want to eat a "poor facsimile" of meat?

I'm not a vegetarian myself, but my mother is so I've ended up eating a lot of vegetarian food throughout my life. I usually prefer actual meat, but meat substitutes can be perfectly nice even if they almost never taste like the meat they're supposed to be imitating. What would be the point in specifically avoiding them?

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

That's an extraordinarily odd line of thought, I mean the answer is very obviously that not everybody shares your specific taste in food. Similarly I think filter coffee tastes awful in comparison to its instant counterpart, but it does not surprise me that others' tastes happen to be different from mine.

 

[Marik2]

Does anyone know good recipes and ways to be a full vegan? Wanted to try out being a vegan to get on a diet and I was getting tired of eating meat all day.

 

[Callate]

I'm not currently a vegetarian, though I did spend six months giving it a try. And frankly, I tend to agree- the "meats" and "cheeses" that attempt to emulate the flavor of meat (especially the ones that basically just add soy sauce and/or smoke flavor to soy protein) tend to be pretty "meh".

There are some odd exceptions, though. Morningstar Farms breakfast sausages weren't bad. And products that don't try so much to be meat as their own thing, like Gardenburgers, I generally find pretty enjoyable.

Mostly, though, I agree; I'd much rather have something like felafel than pressed smoked seitan "steak" with all the texture of gristle and none of the flavor.

 

[Simonism451]

Mostly because most of the stuff you mentioned doesn't really taste like a cheap meat substitute but rather like their own thing. The similarity is mostly in the situation the 'original' and the 'fake' are eaten, i.e. veggie-steak tastes still good with steak sauce.

 

[Amaror]

Because it tastes good?
Maybe not if you see it as a substitute for meat, which is kinda silly. But rather as their own thing.
I have to agree however that most saussage substitutes are pretty discusting in taste. But, for example, vegetarian burger taste better in my opinion than actual burger.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

i like the taste of things like burgers and Chicken patties, but chicken and meat is incredibly unhealthy, so i eat soy products like soy chickn patties that taste like them but are made with healthy soy instead,..works for me and i think some of them taste better then the real thing

 

[Mersadeon]

I'd like to know what the appeal of vegan and vegetarian meat substitutes that are supposed to taste like actual meat is. I've had many of them before and I just don't get it. Why would you want something that tastes like a poor facsimile of meat?

There are plenty of very tasty dishes you can make that suit your dietary habits that are tasty on their own, without trying, and generally failing, to be something they aren't.

Note that this isn't judgement, but I just had this thought and would like to get an answer.

You see, most of the time vegetarians and vegans don't abstain from meat because they don't like the taste, but because they cannot endure the knowledge of what it IS. You know, the whole "it was a living being that had to die for this meal" thing.
So a few of them would enjoy the taste of meat, even if it just kinda tastes like meat. (Although I also know a lot of v's that don't enjoy the taste, and even some that are only vegetarians BECAUSE they don't like the taste, not because of the morality of meat-eating)

Also, meat-subsitutes normally have a bit of their own taste - you don't necessarily have to eat them as a subsitute, you might just enjoy the taste in itself.

Now, I personally don't like Tofu and others much - I'm okay with it being in my food, but I probably wouldn't cook it for myself.

Captcha: Spelling Bee. Actually, why are they called spelling bees? I mean... what do bees have to do with it?

 

[Nimzabaat]

I've had tofu but I also can't see the appeal of a meat flavoured food substitute I would agree with the others here that it would be like the patch or nicorette for smokers. Ease the transition away from eating meat rather than quitting abruptly.

Off-Topic: A different question for vegans; what are your thoughts on the hamburgers made from stem cells? Especially since there's been a new development making stem cells easier to harvest? It's still meat, but no cows get harmed. I'm just curious.

 

[Filiecs]

I'm a vegetarian because I simply don'y like the taste and texture of meat. I was never fed meat as a child and so I never really developed a taste for it. To me, almost all of it tastes flavorless, tough, or disgusting.

However, I LOVE the taste of tofu and fake meat. Tofu can be made to taste like almost anything when prepared right.

I've also never been given a good enough reason to not be a vegetarian and, to me, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.