If the thought of eating flesh is so wrong, who do vegetarians try to make their food taste like meat?

I don’t, not all vegetarians do.
And what exactly do you mean by that?

@Tink1113 I think he means things such as veggie burgers and such.

Which, I’m not a vegetarian, but those things can be pretty tasty.

@ABoyNamedBoobs03
Oh, thanks :)

@pezz
Hmm…because they aren’t actually eating any flesh or animals it’s just a flavor

How do you know that it tastes like meat?

One can be opposed to lots of things and still desire to have them. So, if there is a reasonable facsimile of the undesired or forbidden experience, why not enjoy. For example, I do not eat bacon because I keep kosher. Fake bacon allows me to have some of the “bacon experience.” I do not eat veal for ethical reasons. While I have not eaten fake veal, I would eat it if I found some, because it would not implicate me in an practices that I find problematic.

I’m vegetarian, and most fake meat creeps me out. There are lots of people who go veggie for health reasons, but have no ethical problem with meat; these products would appeal to them, I’m sure. But I feel a strange disconnect when something in my meal is trying to be meat. It’s just not honest food.

I once shared a workspace with a couple of food developers who had been commissioned to come up with a line of meat-free patties. They came to me (the only vegetarian handy) for help with evaluating the samples. They started with the asumption that vegetarians must have some strong subliminal craving for meat, and it took awhile for me to convince them that I’d rather have a patty that wasn’t pretending to be something else. Once they understood that, it was like an epiphany that freed them to take lots of interesting new directions, and they came out with some really interesting stuff. I’m convinced that most of the fake meat out there is created by meat eaters who can’t imagine that someone could actually just get over meat.

Here’s an example of something I’d much rather have. These are great!

Most vegetarians do not refrain from eating meat because they dislike the taste. The decision is usually based on moral, ethical, or health issues.

Personally, I think the fake meat stuff is kinda gross and I avoid it (except for Quorn, which I enjoy).

Veggie burgers just resemble meat burgers…they don’t taste like them at all. I think it’s more a convenience thing…eating burgers is a simple, easy meal to make..so I imagine that’d be the same for veggie burgers. Now, veggie bacon grosses me out, I don’t really understand the point of it.

Because the prospect of ending a soybean’s life doesn’t upset me.

I am a vegetarian and I can tell you that most of these products don’t taste like meat. Some of them have a similar texture to meat and they have been shaped like some meat products. I think the shape is for simple familiarity. Most vegetarians did not start off as vegetarians (which is why we know how meat tastes). I used to eat hamburgers and sausage links so the shape is familiar to me. Also, how could you make any kind of proper burger if it wasn’t flat enough to put lots of cheese and mustard on?

Vegetarians are vegetarian for lots of different reasons. Some of them dislike the taste and texture of meat. Others do it for health reasons; still others, for moral and ethical reasons.

The ones who dislike the taste and texture of meat probably won’t like many of the meat substitutes. (Well, except that some of the meat substitutes are not much at all like meat, and you have to look at the picture on the label to see what they were trying at.)

I’m not a vegetarian, but I like a lot of the vegetarian foods that attempt to fill a similar role as meat but don’t try to imitate it slavishly. There are veggie burgers that can be cooked on a grill—a perfect replacement for hamburgers—that nobody on earth would mistake for anything but a veggie burger. But they’re tasty.

@casheroo: There are veggie burgers that are an attempt to mimic hamburgers as closely as possible. They’re pretty vile, but not as vile as the soy protein bratwurst-substitutes that I tried at one cookout….

good question. With the panoply of vegetables and grains and fruits available, it would seem like enough for a fabulous diet, if one wanted to not eat meat. I get the convenience of vegie burgers, but mostly I don’t get the imitation meat foods.

Many vegetarians have at some point eaten meat, so that’s how they know how it tastes.
Lots of veggie food doesn’t try to taste like meat- it’s yummy in its own right.
And as a veg, I can say that meat is delicious. If I can get that taste without harming animals, I’m all for it.

Not to mention the fact that they insist on making it look like meat too.

I don’t.
I think this is a stereotype you should consider reevaluating.

I am a vegetarian, and i don’t. Some of those foods make it easier to make a transition between an omnivorous diet and a vegetarian one. However, I don’t eat faux meat, I don’t need to! I <3 cooking!

@pezz The majority of vegetarians weren’t raised that way from birth. Most convert to that lifestyle later in life. The meat-tasting items are meant to help them stick to their new diet w/o missing meat so much. I personally hate the meat-tasting stuff, and would rather go without it.

There are certain “fake meat” products that I enjoy as a vegetarian – one of which is morningstar farms’ “chicken” patties… Yum!

I did not stop eating meat because I didn’t like the taste – I loved it. It was simply an ethical choice I made one day, and I have not purposely eaten any meat since then. I don’t see anything wrong with enjoying the taste of meat substitutes, though. Over the years I’ve tended not to seek out meat substitutes as much, though, because when something tastes TOO real, it starts to freak me out.

@pezz How do you know that it tastes like meat?

I know because at some point in my life I actually ate meat.

I think it’s a great question. Stereotypes aside, there is a market for meat-like (flavor, shape, etc.) soy-based food products. It’s a bit weird.

I don’t eat beef, and the idea of eating a veggie burger (or veggie bacon, sausage, crumbled soy product that resembles ground beef) that’s supposed to taste like meat grosses me out. But some of my vegetarian friends love the stuff. These people stopped eating meat for ethical reasons, and they admit that they miss the taste of beef or chicken. I guess they find these meat-like products to be an acceptable compromise.

People choose meat-free diets for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes for no reason at all.

I liked the way that certain meats tasted when I still ate it. subsequently, I learned that I have a wheat and gluten tolerance which puts most substitute meat off the menu anyway.

however, no one has (to my knowledge) ever come up with a good shrimp substitute.

Most of them don’t taste like meat. Veggie burgers are great. I like the mixed grain ones and the black bean patties. They taste lighter than meat burgers. After I stopped being a vegetarian I would still order the veggie burgers at burger places and ask them to add bacon. :^> That always got some odd looks.

It’s also convenient when you have a mixed group of vegetarians and omnivores at a cookout. All the condiments and buns are the same and you can tell which ones are plates of veggie burgers and which are plates of beef burgers. That way the cook doesn’t have to make whole new meals and the vegetarians don’t have to settle for the potato salad and chips.

Maybe to win some carnivores over.

if i didn’t catch the trolly douchebagyness of the question, i sure caught it in “How do you know that it tastes like meat?”.

@tiffyandthewall Lurve!

@Tink1113 (:

i eat it because i just recently became a vegetarian and i still sometimes miss the way meat tastes. chicken was my favorite before i became vegetarian.
it does feel kind of weird to eat it, because it tastes just like chicken, and it feels soo much like eating it.