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1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
2. Be civil.
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4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
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This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
6. Defend your opinion
This is a bit of a mix of rules 4 and 5 to help foster higher quality posts. You are expected to defend your unpopular opinion in the post body. We don't expect a whole manifesto (please, no manifestos), but you should at least provide some details as to why you hold the position you do.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
Quorn is my favorite. That shit is tasty. Don't get me wrong, I'll fat bitch a plate of wings in a heartbeat, to stop said heartbeat, but I do prefer Quorn to nuggets or tendies.
Mainly, chicken breast is bland if unseasoned, and that's what meatless chicken is emulating. So, any flavor tends to stand out more.
I think some of the chicken is hit or miss, but Beyond Burgers are definitely better than the real thing.
There is a brand they sell at a vegan store where the chicken is very close in texture to real chicken, that I can't eat much of it. They also have a beef product that is super close to real steak/beef. And same, I can't eat it (makes my stomach churn), but my wife loves it. She's more of a I gave up neat for animals type, but loves the taste/texture/dishes and I more of the "I never enjoyed meat" type.
I'll find the brand name out next time I buy it.
Yeah, let me know. The only good "this is really close to real beef" product I've found is a mycoprotein "steak" but they're extremely expensive so I don't buy them often.
I like most chicken substitutes. Some are impressively close to real chicken in terms of texture and taste. Actual, well prepared chicken is still a lot more delicious and offers more variation between different parts and the way they can be prepared.
I think this is still a pretty unpopular opinion, even if I've heard similarly positive responses to chicken substitute products from people I know (who aren't necessarily vegetarian). I've never heard anyone say they were flat out superior.
I had one that tasted hella good, but the texture with how it was like cabbage or something folded up a bunch, it was like chewing a wad of toilet paper.
The most perfect meat substitute I have ever had was carrot bacon. Cut thin enough, cooked to crispiness and covered in seasoning and liquid smoke, it's indistinguishable from real bacon. It even kinda looks like bacon.
Yes. Vegan Gyros is nice, too. And you'll get higher quality than some random super cheap meat that just couldn't be used for any other product.
Now I'm interested to try it. I do have two criticisms of the non-meat alternatives. The first is price. They're typically significantly more expensive, which seems odd to me. The second is lack of variety. The beyond sausages are actually really, really good. But there is only one type. The permutations of real sausages is so vast I'm spoiled for choice.
Yeah, they're definitely pricey. I tend to buy in bulk when they go on sale, and they freeze just fine.
The Beyond breakfast sausages are absolutely delicious. There's two, maybe three, varieties available in my area. There's the links, which are my favorite, and also the patties. I'm not sure if they stopped making them or my grocery store just stopped carrying them, but there used to be a maple sausage one that was beyond amazing.
Impossible makes a ground sausage that's also really good. It comes in a sleeve like regular ground sausage and, IMO, tastes better than the real thing.
If you're talking about the brats, then yeah, AFAIK there's only one type of those.
The meatballs are kind-of sausage-y and also excellent.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
Aren't the sodium levels really high with that stuff? I'm not trying to dismiss all the benefits of getting away from meat but you can't ignore that a lot of that is ultr-processed.
A little bit high, yeah, but you don't usually need to salt or season it in most cases. Not to mention regular chicken often gets heavily salted, so in my mind it's more or less the same in the end.
That's like saying cake is better than meatballs. "Vegan meat" has nothing to do with meat.
Honestly, for nuggets and chicken burgers I could see this but there's no way this is remotely true for roast chicken / chicken breasg unless all those brands have dramatically changed their products recently.
The texture between difference between actual real chicken and chicken paste that they add to nuggets burgers etc is wildly different and I've never seen any fake chicken product be able to replicate that texture.
They have more flavor but the flavor isn't chicken... Despite being called chicken. My main issue with imitation meats is just that they won't be honest about what they are... If it's a flakey tofu or something of a certain style just name it that, why call it the thing people are trying to avoid?
why call it the people are trying to avoid?
firstly, culture, specifically cooking culture is very much based around 4 main protein types, beef chicken lamb and pork. when cooking you want something easy and obvious to substitute, so you pick the thing labeled the thing you want.
also, most people don't stop eating meat because it tastes bad, they stop eating it because it's inherently cruel and a huge burden on the world's fragile ecosystem. of course i still want a juicy steak, but morality gets in the way and i compromise.
I haven't tried a lot of them and I'm not vegetarian or vegan.
But Morningstar Farms "chicken" patties are superior to any actual mechanically separated chicken item.
At this point, I consider them better than regular chicken with the sole exception of fried chicken which was never my favorite
Ha! Now we know you are a vegan plant, how ironic!!! 😀
I mean, with fried chicken, once you ate the skin the rest of it was just greasy and "meh".
Meatless chicken is better than regular chicken
This makes me want to find a crowded street and punch random people in the dick.