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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

#341

Post by [deleted] »

dagw wrote: post #125
novok wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't get how people think impossible burger tastes like meat. It has the texture of a lentil patty with blood flavoring added.

It depends what you are comparing it against. I've had the Burger King meatless Whopper and found it was no worse than the normal Whopper. If you didn't tell me and I wasn't paying attention might not even notice. But eaten 'naked' side by side with a real high quality meat patty, there is no way you can confuse one for the other.

[deleted]

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

#342

Post by cheese_goddess »

bromley wrote: post #321
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…

Here's one: because you love cheese but you also love animals and so don't want to contribute to their suffering. In my experience people tend to become vegan: 1. for the animals; and/or 2. for the planet; and/or 3. for health. I have never heard another vegan say they became vegan because they didn't like the taste of cheese.

I have. Rather, the vegan I know didn't like the taste of meat.

But of course what I said had nothing to do with being vegan because you don't like the taste of cheese. What I said was, if you like the taste of meat and cheese so much so that you can't do without a substitute of it, then why are you vegan? If you are vegan, for good ethical or environmental reasons, then why do you need to eat pretend-meat and pretend-dairy? Either you are vegan and you don't want to eat meat or dairy, or you want to eat meat or dairy and you're not vegan.

"I eat it because I like the taste of it" is exactly the moralising accusation levelled at non-vegans. If I have to go without meat and dairy to satisfy your morals then you have to go without pretend-meat and dairy to satisfy mine. You can't have it both ways. You can't preach to me that eating meat is murder and then turn your back and scoff down a pretend-sausage because you like meat. That's hypocritical.

And it only encourages people to eat more meat anyway.

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

#343

Post by cheese_goddess »

balls187 wrote: post #323
bromley wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one: because you love cheese but you also love animals and so don't want to contribute to their suffering. In my experience people tend to become vegan: 1. for the animals; and/or 2. for the planet; and/or 3. for health. I have never heard another vegan say they became vegan because they didn't like the taste of cheese.

Here is another: you love cheese and are allergic to casein. Not me, but the gal I am dating is allergic to dairy, and so we had some fun finding vegan cheeses that did not have casein. It was nice to make a dish that typically has cheese, that we both could enjoy.

Allergic to casein and any animal matter besides? Your friend can't eat meat?

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

#344

Post by ragingrobot »

tpoacher wrote: post #180
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…

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?

Costco does this. They don't call it almond milk but "Almond beverage". I think they do similar with other vegan products.

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

#345

Post by athms »

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…

>...all mammals, need to have given birth to produce milk.

Wrong. Humans don't need to be pregnant or give birth to produce milk. Lactation can happen with medication or stimulation, which becomes easier as women age. If a woman is not inducing lactation with hormones, she must stimulate the breasts several times a day using hand compression or a breast pump. This is how adoptive and foster mothers breastfeed their babies. Lactation can also occur in men because they have milk glands, which is the reason they too can get breast cancer.

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

#346

Post by africanboy »

balls187 wrote: post #323
bromley wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one: because you love cheese but you also love animals and so don't want to contribute to their suffering. In my experience people tend to become vegan: 1. for the animals; and/or 2. for the planet; and/or 3. for health. I have never heard another vegan say they became vegan because they didn't like the taste of cheese.

Here is another: you love cheese and are allergic to casein. Not me, but the gal I am dating is allergic to dairy, and so we had some fun finding vegan cheeses that did not have casein. It was nice to make a dish that typically has cheese, that we both could enjoy.

ricotta contains no caseine and it's real cheese

caseine and lactose intolerance are very common conditions, they have always been for humans

throughout history people developed techniques to make cheese that contains no or little of both

Swiss cheese, Blu cheese, Gouda, Provolone, brie, Cheddar, Camembert, Münster, Parmigiano and many others contains only 2% of lactose

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

#347

Post by AussieWog93 »

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…

We don't need to invent new anything. So many great vegan dishes have existed for centuries and survived against meat on their own merits. Proper falafel with tabouleh and tahini is amazing. Chana or brinjal masala are a treat. Pasta with a simple 4 ingredient Napoli is the ultimate comfort food. Don't even get me started on dosa. Hell, fucking bread dipped in olive oil is good.

Yet, for God knows what reason, whenever some vegan is trying to convince me of the merits of their diet, they hand me some godawful dry sausage made of hydrolysed soy protein and say "see, it's just like a real sausage. Did you know she's Paul McCartney's daughter?". Or some fermented cashew nuts smeared on a piece of bread that they think is anything remotely like cheese. I have never understood this and have since reached the conclusion that most vegans are closer to paleo, gluten-free (not coeliac) and other alternative diet folk in that they just don't "get" people who derive a massive amount of pleasure from food.

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

#348

Post by africanboy »

roland35 wrote: post #335
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…

I would eat cheese if I wasn't lactose intolerant! These vegan cheeses aren't perfect but they work well enough for some things!

there are many kinds of cheese that are very low on lactose

see my previous comment

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26988408

I'm lactose intolerant myself, but have no problems with Parmigiano

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

#349

Post by h0l0cube »

CarelessExpert wrote: post #17

There's something unexpected about this aspect of veganism, which is often embraced by those wanting to lead a healthier lifestyle, resulting in the development of more and more advanced food processing technologies designed to synthesize the experience of foods being excluded from the diet. Basically, in the quest to return to a more healthy, natural diet, some folks end up moving to foods that are more and more pro…

Cheese is a 'processed' food. It's a long article, so I'm not surprised that nearly no-one in the comments has read it, but it goes into a lot of detail about the many small home-made cheese shops that are springing up with processes that more or less match that of the artisanal cheese making process.

> A nut is soaked and then blended with water to create a milk base, to which a culture is added. The cultured milk is left to ferment, forming a curd. After the curd is drained through a cheesecloth, it is molded into whatever shape the cheesemaker desires.

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

#350

Post by wheybags »

bin_bash wrote: post #213
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…

It’s because “almond juice” sounds disgusting

I'm a big fan of cow juice myself.
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