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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

#261

Post by jodrellblank »

PKop wrote: post #241
eatbitseveryday wrote: post #72

Earlier 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…

>Why do we Because this is as much a political statement, and battle, as it is a personal dietary choice. As crazy as it sounds, a certain segment of people love to change the definition of words. It is not enough to not want to eat animal products themselves, they also are not content to allow others to have these things to themselves unmolested by grotesque artificial imitations. They want their non-thing to become…

Much simpler to assume that selling to omnivores opens a much larger market than selling only to vegans. Omnivores want to eat cheese, and are not looking for "fermented cashew cubes", but might try "cashew cheese" if it was with the cheese and (cheaper/healthier/prettier/recommended by a friend).

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

#262

Post by froh »

raffraffraff wrote: post #83
jchanimal wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. However a homemade “cashew cheese” (flavor from nutritional yeast, cayenne, and turmeric) can be yummier than cheese, if not totally realistic. Why the store brands can’t meet that quality I don’t know.

Anything that tries to be like actual cheese fails miserably and trends to be mostly fat (coconut) and starch with flavour added. Nutritionally terrible, usually very low protein compared with real cheese. At least with cashew cheese you are eating (mostly) cashews with some flavour added. Still higher in fat and lower in protein than a low fat cheese, but at least it isn't just starch and fat. I use the liquid from…

Yes, and the lack of protein is horrible. When you are vegetarian, you partially substitute meat with cheese --- no way with these vegan look-like-cheese-somewhat products.

it's like 1.3g of protein per 100g (pseudo pasta 'cheese') vs 32g per 100g (Parmigiano-Reggiano) or 23g per 100g for Emmental cheese.

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

#263

Post by cheese_goddess »

I don't understand why you need to imitate something that isn't vegan or vegetarian, when you want to eat vegan or vegetarian. There is a metric shitton of vegan and vegetarian dishes from the entire world's cuisines that you could be eating right now insteaed of a substitute for something you've decided never to eat again. Why pretend-eat what you don't want to eat in the first place?

That's just mad. Go eat Indian (meaning food from a dozen different places in and around India, including Bengali, Bangladeshi, etc). Eat a mediterrannean diet. Eat a North African diet. But why do you have to eat something vegan and call it cheese? That just doesn't make sense.

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

#264

Post by ashes-of-sol »

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…

I think saying it's "not even close to ready" is way over the top. I've been vegan for two years and was a cheese lover prior to that, and I'm happy with the selection there is for doing things like mac and cheese, pizza, a slice on sandwiches etc.

Is it a perfect stand in? No. Does it serve the purpose? Absolutely

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

#265

Post by xeromal »

RacfeelBudkind wrote: post #217
anigbrowl wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

Not a vegan or vegetarian but it's very hard to get past this point. It's definitely insane that we have to impregnate cows over and over to keep them producing milk.

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

#266

Post by TchoBeer »

cheese_goddess wrote: post #263

I don't understand why you need to imitate something that isn't vegan or vegetarian, when you want to eat vegan or vegetarian. There is a metric shitton of vegan and vegetarian dishes from the entire world's cuisines that you could be eating right now insteaed of a substitute for something you've decided never to eat again. Why pretend-eat what you don't want to eat in the first place? That's just mad. Go eat Indian…

Lol why are you so mad that people want to eat vegan cheese. Maybe people just enjoy eating vegan cheese.

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

#267

Post by xeromal »

qudat wrote: post #183
barbazoo wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is also true for buffalo wings. They aren't actually good, they are just a vehicle for buffalo sauce. Fried cauliflower with buffalo sauce is just as good if not better than wings.

Veggie Grill makes some great boneless buffalo wings

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

#268

Post by cheese_goddess »

danShumway wrote: post #230
tpoacher wrote: post #180

Earlier 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…

> and I gave you actual "almond milk" What makes that the actual version? Almond milk as an animal milk substitute made from almonds dates back to the 1300s[0]. It's not new. I hear where you're coming from, but I also question what does and doesn't count as an "authentic" name, and I suspect a lot of it comes down to people thinking that the names they used growing up or the names they ran into first are the "real"…

> What makes that the actual version?

That it's milk with almond. Like "chocolate milk" is milk with chocolate and "milk coffee" is coffee with milk.

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

#269

Post by ashes-of-sol »

fader wrote: post #7

I had some bad experiences early on with vegan cheese substitutes, so I wrote them off years ago. Recently I was eating my "standard" sandwich order from a local restaurant. It actually tasted so much better than normal that I asked if they had changed anything, only to find out that they had used their vegan cheese substitute by mistake. I'll be giving these cheese substitutes another shot in the future!

The food science has been coming leaps and bounds year over year. I've only been vegan ~2 years and in that span Daiya released a new recipe that really closed the gap for great meltability

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

#270

Post by xeromal »

rsync wrote: post #164

I am not a vegan but I do eat vegan meals from time to time ... I would prefer that we develop and maintain true vegan foodstuffs and recipes rather than create vegan versions of animal products. I am interested in eating an interesting new dish that was designed to showcase vegan ingredients. I have no interest in eating fake cheese pizzas and fake hamburgers.

If you just eat an a local indian restaurant, you can find many dishes that are vegetarian from the source.
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