I used to eat and enjoy vegan cheese but it isnt really like normal cheese. I liked it because it was a bit stringier and went well with mac and cheese.
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
#212There's certainly a trope of "...but I can't give up cheese" and as someone who went from vegetarian to vegan: Yeah, cheese is hard to replicate. But also: your body and tastes adapt. After a few weeks off of dairy our memories of those old textures and mouth feel start to fade and are replaced. Humans don't like changes in patterns, but at the same time are relatively quick to adapt to new ones. There's real addicti…
We have blood sausages, why wouldn't we drink some animals milk. Humans have been also eating entrails and brains for a long time, so milk is just another ingredient in the omnivorous diet of humans.
You point out the for-profit incentives of dairy industry, but surely you don't think that it is much different for non-dairy/vegan products. Of course they are also pushing for same kind of acceptance at societal level, which means $$$.
Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
I don't mind people calling something "vegan cheese" or "vegan milk" or "milk alternative" etc. But I do mind people calling it "cheese" or "milk" intentionally when it's a vegan alternative, revelling in the confusion, just to give the impression that they're interchangeable and it's really no big deal if you get the vegan version instead. Like, wtf is almond milk? When I was a kid, almond milk was super tasty, and…
It’s because “almond juice” sounds disgusting
Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves
#214A lot of the time I feel like health food is really just a way for manufacturers to cheap out and then sell something at a premium.
Margarine is vegan, but it was always just marketed as "cheap". Discerning or well-to-do consumers would just pass it up.
Now, people will put up with things that are very cheap to make, taste horrible, and are very expensive to buy.
That creates a problem: the food is becoming about the story and not the taste. That's not going to lead to good products; only good stories and packaging to tell the story. And bad products won't make for wide adoption.
Asking your customers to sacrifice gets you a small band of loyal customers, like a cult. But good products stand on their own and don't ask for sacrifice... think Tesla.
Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't mind people calling something "vegan cheese" or "vegan milk" or "milk alternative" etc. But I do mind people calling it "cheese" or "milk" intentionally when it's a vegan alternative, revelling in the confusion, just to give the impression that they're interchangeable and it's really no big deal if you get the vegan version instead. Like, wtf is almond milk? When I was a kid, almond milk was super tasty, and…
> What's wrong with calling the vegan almond milk "almond-based milk alternative" if it's not actual milk? Because that would be crippling for an advertising perspective. It sounds like something out of a satirical sci-fi dystopian environment. The goal is to encourage people to choose it as an alternative to dairy milk, not to use the most precise label.
I get it. But it could have easily been a play on the word 'milk/milky', without calling it 'milk' per se. Like "Nilk" or "Plantmilk" or something.
E.g. lactose-free dairy milk is marketed as 'delac'. It's not that hard.
Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
I tend to agree with this. I'm not a vegetarian, but if I were, I'd wouldn't eat imitation animal products anymore than I'd drink non-alcoholic beer. I'm happy to eat vegetarian food. It stands on its own as delicious. One of the best "burgers" I've ever had was made with black beans and wasn't trying to imitate meat. (It was at The Vortex in Atlanta years ago.) Imitation products that I've tried have always just lef…
I agree completely but one exception for me is using Boca burger as a sub for ground beef. If I chop them up, season them and then use the result in chili or something it really does give it, to me anyway, the "taste" and "texture" of ground beef. I know I'm tasting the seasoning I used and the infusion of other flavors from the chili more than the taste of the soy burger but my stomach doesn't care, to me it's just…
Here's an easy vegetarian chili recipe we've been using for years in my house:
Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There's something unexpected about this aspect of veganism, which is often embraced by those wanting to lead a healthier lifestyle ... I'm not sure what you base this statement on. There are many people whose initial motivations for going vegan were ethical, either to avoid funding animal abuse, environmental degradation, or both. That was why I went vegan 23.5 years ago, and why I'm still vegan. I eat mock meat an…
I totally get ethical vegetarianism, and appreciate that much animal abuse can occur within the dairy industry, but I don't think that's inherent. Of course, believing that and shopping ethically requires a great deal more selectivity and research (and willingness to pay more for food whose provenance can be trusted). Not to pick a fight, but I don't get the basic argument that 'all animal husbandry = unnatural explo…
> I totally get ethical vegetarianism, and appreciate that much animal abuse can occur within the dairy industry, but I don't think that's inherent.
It's inherent. Cows, like all mammals, need to have given birth to produce milk. This means dairy cows are impregnated and give birth roughly yearly. It's entirely uneconomical to raise all of the calves, since it would effectively triple or more the cost of producing milk, which is already barely profitable, even with government subsidies. So the calves are killed and sold as veal.
Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves
#218> 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…
On the contrary to most of these opinions, there's one vegan shredded cheese out there that makes delicious nachos. I can't recall the brand but it takes just like the gooey nacho cheese of my youth. Probably low-end nacho cheese didn't have any dairy to begin with :)
Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves
#219Miyoko's is good. Available at Whole Foods and even some products at Target. Miyoko cheddar-style cheese slices have a nice tang to them. The coconut oil and tapioca starch kind of stuff (Daiya, etc.) is alright for pizza, but it's not great. It's expensive too. This kind of stuff should be cheaper to make than dairy cheese. Unfortunately cheese and cheeze are both high in calories, sodium, and fat.
Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves
#220Mmmmmm, more processed food options, joy!
OG cheese is obviously a processed product. I have never seen a cheese cow but perhaps that just me