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Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

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Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#101

Post by Pfhreak »

pmoriarty wrote: post #78

Is there a good vegan substitute for hard, sharp cheddar cheese, or for blue cheese or gorgonzola? I've never seen anything that comes even remotely close.

No, not yet. Most of the vegan cheeses target shreds/singles. I would bet someone is working on it, but that it's probably a niche product at best.

I think there are other food items that have that funky, umami tang that those cheeses have though. Plenty of cultures have built up some interesting flavors in vegan food stuffs with lactobacillus.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#102

Post by sarsway »

jjcon wrote: post #2

> Vegan Cheese Is Ready to Compete With Dairy. Is the World Ready to Eat It? I’m vegetarian and my partner is vegan - I’ve tried every vegan cheese on the shelf. The answer is no because it’s not even close to ready. It might pass an initial taste test where you say, that’s not so bad, but then you pick up on all the things it’s missing. Sometimes the aftertaste is terrible, sometimes the texture or versatility. Mayb…

Not a fan of the substitutes either. Vegan meat is okay-ish, but it's obviously not meat and it doesn't have animal fats so it's never gonna be meat really. Also your just fooling your sense of taste, it will adjust eventually, and it seems the more fake meat you eat, the less tasty it becomes.

I wish instead of pushing all these fake meat/dairy, we'd get a real vegetarian/vegan cuisine, like Indian/Oriental cooking, complex meals with lots of natural ingredients and spices, and have that become prevalent, as fast food, at the gas station and so on.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#103

Post by chme »

derbOac wrote: post #55
jjcon wrote: post #2

> Vegan Cheese Is Ready to Compete With Dairy. Is the World Ready to Eat It? I’m vegetarian and my partner is vegan - I’ve tried every vegan cheese on the shelf. The answer is no because it’s not even close to ready. It might pass an initial taste test where you say, that’s not so bad, but then you pick up on all the things it’s missing. Sometimes the aftertaste is terrible, sometimes the texture or versatility. Mayb…

So my wife and I are vegetarian and I love certain vegan cheese, the naturally cultured ones where you essentially have a plant product that is cultured with cheese bacteria. My experience with this stuff is similar to a lot of things in vegetarian diet, which is that the problems come about when you start trying to create imitations of animal products. I do not want to suggest that people "just don't like vegan chee…

There is a difference between imitating and replacing.

Personally I would love a list of animal product ingredients and their suitable vegan replacements when trying to cook after some recipe.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#105

Post by etrautmann »

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #72
derbOac wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So my wife and I are vegetarian and I love certain vegan cheese, the naturally cultured ones where you essentially have a plant product that is cultured with cheese bacteria. My experience with this stuff is similar to a lot of things in vegetarian diet, which is that the problems come about when you start trying to create imitations of animal products. I do not want to suggest that people "just don't like vegan chee…

> stop thinking of certain vegan cheeses as substitutes for animal cheeses Why do we even begin with naming vegan food products after the items they are meant to represent? "Cheese" is made from milk. "Vegan cheese" as a label is specifically targeted at being "like milk cheese" and thus intends to replicate it. If you want > Why can't it just be treated as a food in itself? we should entirely dispense with imitating…

it's a good point, and one I broadly agree with. These products do exist, however, like seitan and tempeh. If you making something sufficiently delicious, however, it should be easier to sell than those (IMO).

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#106

Post by barbazoo »

Accacin wrote: post #18
endisneigh wrote: post #6

Leaving aside for a moment the morality of eating meat and dairy - is there actually any (health) benefit to the heavily (and I mean heavily ) processed dairy alternatives compared to just eating regular cheese?

I'm vegan, and probably not. I've heard that most vegan substitutes are processed heavily so not really more healthy (and probably less healthy than non-vegan options). However, I do still eat them on occasion. Sometimes after a 30km run, all I think about is burgers so when I get home and sit and have vegan burger with vegan cheese. It may not be as good as the 'real thing' but it hits the spot :)

After 2 years or so of eating vegetarian I don't think that meat burgers are actually better. First of all, a burger is all about toppings and condiments. And vegetarian patties have come such a long way, texture and flavor wise, it blows my mind. Compared to the boring and ever the same taste of meat it doesn't even come close for me.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#107

Post by [deleted] »

da_big_ghey wrote: post #54
willcipriano wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanted to make pizza with my two year old daughter a couple of weeks ago. Picked up some mozzarella at the store and when I went to use it noticed the well hidden plant logo and "plant based" text that was almost the same color as the packaging. Figured I'd give it a shot. It was inedible, completely ruined the pizza. My daughter took a bite and said "no, dad" I agreed and we threw it away and got a happy meal. I fig…

i am not liking the way many of this is packaged. any other product and hackernews would be angry for the "deceptive packaging", but because the hackernews like this product, they are give it a freepass.

[deleted]

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#108

Post by jl6 »

I have tried all the easily available vegan cheeses and have found them tolerable at best, except for one occasion where a food truck served a plant-based burger with smoked vegan cheese. I don’t know which type of vegan cheese it started as or how they smoked it, but they did achieve something that was more than tolerable. Just.

Until the tech improves I will prefer to stick to burger toppings like sliced tomato, avocado and onion. Much, much better. And for pizzas, it’s better just to go without.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#109

Post by andor »

CarelessExpert wrote: post #27
gameswithgo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ingredient list of an apple is also miles long if you are forced to write it out, you just aren't. There are a million different things "processing" can mean. It can be as innocuous as just chopping something up, or complicated like pickling. Not all of it is bad.

Certainly true. But, as an example, the Impossible Burger notably has more fat and significantly more salt than its meat-based brethren. Sure, it may be purchased due to a perceived variety of other benefits (sustainability, animal rights, etc) totally unrelated to the healthiness of the product, but it's objectively not a healthier option.

The Impossible Burger has about 12% fat which is quite lean. As far as I understand, the meat in most burgers is around 20% fat. Adding things like breadcrumbs, eggs or onions to the patties will of course change the amount.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#110

Post by raffraffraff »

Pfhreak wrote: post #82
endisneigh wrote: post #6

Leaving aside for a moment the morality of eating meat and dairy - is there actually any (health) benefit to the heavily (and I mean heavily ) processed dairy alternatives compared to just eating regular cheese?

Milk has quite a bit of sugar, many of the milk replacements are higher in protein and lower in sugar, or have different macronutrient profiles. Also, I like the flavor and mouthfeel of things like oatmilk. I'm also not convinced that milk is not a 'heavily processed' commodity. You are just using a pregnant cow to do a lot of the processing.

Which vegan cheeses have higher protein? In my experience they're all lower. Philadelphia lightest has 11% protein, 2.5% fat, 4.9% carbs. Violife slices are 0% protein, 23% fat (20% saturated) and 20% carbs. Pure trash.
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