Veganism.

Discussions about serious topics, for serious people
Post Reply
User avatar
Woodchopper
Princess POW
Posts: 7057
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:05 am

Re: Veganism.

Post by Woodchopper » Thu Jan 16, 2020 7:57 pm

sTeamTraen wrote:
Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:56 pm
Aitch wrote:
Fri Jan 03, 2020 5:54 pm
According to this morning's i, there are about 600,000 of them, that's about 1% of the population.

Not sure how relevant that is... :?
Bump from the start of the thread... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti ... -help.html (*** WARNING: DAILY MAIL ***) claims that the number of vegans in the UK has gone from 540,000 to 3.5 million since 2016. No source is provided for the claim, but I do wonder whether Gregg's would be doing all this R&D for 1% of the population.
The 3.5 million figure has been floating around for a while.

Its from a survey done by a market research company which came up with 7% of the UK population.

Apparently the survey question didn't ask if people were vegan, but:
The question asked was: “Which of the following have you done or are considering doing to help reduce your impact on the planet?” This was followed by a list of options, which included “becoming vegetarian” and “becoming vegan”.

7% of respondents selected “I have done this” for the becoming vegan option
So the 7% includes everyone who tried being a vegan and stopped, and everyone who is still thinking about it.

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Veganism.

Post by Bird on a Fire » Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:33 pm

As well as the flexitarians Medi mentions, anything marketed as 'vegan' will also attract vegetarians (of which there are more), people avoiding dairy for whatever reason (not sure of numbers) and so on.

You don't *have* to be a vegan to eat some vegan junk food, as anybody who's ever eaten a salted crisp or some popcorn can tell you.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

User avatar
mediocrity511
Snowbonk
Posts: 409
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 2:16 pm

Re: Veganism.

Post by mediocrity511 » Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:36 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:33 pm
As well as the flexitarians Medi mentions, anything marketed as 'vegan' will also attract vegetarians (of which there are more), people avoiding dairy for whatever reason (not sure of numbers) and so on.

You don't *have* to be a vegan to eat some vegan junk food, as anybody who's ever eaten a salted crisp or some popcorn can tell you.
And if we're adding extra groups then there are certain allergies it's useful for. I'm vegetarian, but miniocrity2 has an egg allergy so the rise in vegan products has been handy for us. Quite a lot of "free from" foods in the supermarket are free from everything but egg and such not useful.

User avatar
discovolante
Stummy Beige
Posts: 4084
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:10 pm

Re: Veganism.

Post by discovolante » Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:46 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:33 pm
As well as the flexitarians Medi mentions, anything marketed as 'vegan' will also attract vegetarians (of which there are more), people avoiding dairy for whatever reason (not sure of numbers) and so on.

You don't *have* to be a vegan to eat some vegan junk food, as anybody who's ever eaten a salted crisp or some popcorn can tell you.
'a' salted crisp. Who are you and what have you done with BOAF?

Anyway thanks for that info woodchopper. No big surprises that the DM is talking sh.t but it's good to know exactly why it is rubbish.
To defy the laws of tradition is a crusade only of the brave.

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Veganism.

Post by Bird on a Fire » Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:49 pm

Well, you've got to start somewhere.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

plebian

Re: Veganism.

Post by plebian » Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:26 pm

I've started getting a flavour for the treatment vegans get; when choosing a vegan meatlike burger for a works lunch, a colleague spent the entire meal regurgitating anti vegan tropes*. It was quite tiresome by the end and based on this faulty notion that vegan food is for vegans only.

Moving the recurved wisdom from vegan as an identity to a food type is the next stage of the battle.



*..the thing I don't get is why do vegans want their burger to taste like meat? They've given up on that taste when they gave up meat. If everyone went vegan what would we do with all the animals in farms? Kill em? Well you're no better than meat eaters...

User avatar
discovolante
Stummy Beige
Posts: 4084
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:10 pm

Re: Veganism.

Post by discovolante » Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:49 pm

Kill all the farm animals! What a concept! Did you know pigs live for a thousand years??
To defy the laws of tradition is a crusade only of the brave.

User avatar
Grumble
Light of Blast
Posts: 4746
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:03 pm

Re: Veganism.

Post by Grumble » Fri Jan 17, 2020 11:18 pm

plebian wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:26 pm
I've started getting a flavour for the treatment vegans get; when choosing a vegan meatlike burger for a works lunch, a colleague spent the entire meal regurgitating anti vegan tropes*. It was quite tiresome by the end and based on this faulty notion that vegan food is for vegans only.

Moving the recurved wisdom from vegan as an identity to a food type is the next stage of the battle.



*..the thing I don't get is why do vegans want their burger to taste like meat? They've given up on that taste when they gave up meat. If everyone went vegan what would we do with all the animals in farms? Kill em? Well you're no better than meat eaters...
The trick is to keep doing it so it gets boring.
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three

User avatar
Tessa K
Light of Blast
Posts: 4707
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2019 5:07 pm
Location: Closer than you'd like

Re: Veganism.

Post by Tessa K » Sat Jan 18, 2020 8:47 am

I can't eat dairy (but do eat meat) and most vegan dairy replacements are great. Except vegan cheese. That is an abomination. It's either Cheddar so strong it makes the roof of your mouth itch or nothing for me.

User avatar
Pucksoppet
Snowbonk
Posts: 599
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:13 pm
Location: Girdling the Earth

Re: Veganism.

Post by Pucksoppet » Sat Jan 18, 2020 1:51 pm

I'll give vegan and vegetarian food a try, and some I like, some I don't.

I had vegan soup recently, which was OK. The next day, the leftover soup was greatly improved (to my taste) by adding a handful of sweetcorn kernels and the meat off a couple of leftover roast chicken drumsticks followed by a whizz with the stick blender.

Now it could simply be what I'm used to, but my experience has been that vegetarian and vegan food misses out some of the flavours and mouth-feel that meat and animal fat delivers. This is not to say my experience of meat-free food is that it is bland, but the flavour-spectrum is different to the one I am used to, and at present I prefer not to give up those currently easy to get meat-related flavours.

Obviously, if chickens cost £100 each, I would revise my gastronomic preferences to be in keeping with my budget.

User avatar
Tessa K
Light of Blast
Posts: 4707
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2019 5:07 pm
Location: Closer than you'd like

Re: Veganism.

Post by Tessa K » Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:21 pm

Pucksoppet wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 1:51 pm
I'll give vegan and vegetarian food a try, and some I like, some I don't.

I had vegan soup recently, which was OK. The next day, the leftover soup was greatly improved (to my taste) by adding a handful of sweetcorn kernels and the meat off a couple of leftover roast chicken drumsticks followed by a whizz with the stick blender.

Now it could simply be what I'm used to, but my experience has been that vegetarian and vegan food misses out some of the flavours and mouth-feel that meat and animal fat delivers. This is not to say my experience of meat-free food is that it is bland, but the flavour-spectrum is different to the one I am used to, and at present I prefer not to give up those currently easy to get meat-related flavours.

Obviously, if chickens cost £100 each, I would revise my gastronomic preferences to be in keeping with my budget.
A vegan dish with an added chicken stock cube can fool the brain into thinking you've had something more meaty. I'm not sure if they really have any chicken in.

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Veganism.

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:47 pm

Grumble wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 11:18 pm
plebian wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:26 pm
I've started getting a flavour for the treatment vegans get; when choosing a vegan meatlike burger for a works lunch, a colleague spent the entire meal regurgitating anti vegan tropes*. It was quite tiresome by the end and based on this faulty notion that vegan food is for vegans only.

Moving the recurved wisdom from vegan as an identity to a food type is the next stage of the battle.



*..the thing I don't get is why do vegans want their burger to taste like meat? They've given up on that taste when they gave up meat. If everyone went vegan what would we do with all the animals in farms? Kill em? Well you're no better than meat eaters...
The trick is to keep doing it so it gets boring.
My schoolfriends never got bored of offering me meat several times a week at lunch. Mind you, the repetitiveness became a joke in itself.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

User avatar
Grumble
Light of Blast
Posts: 4746
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:03 pm

Re: Veganism.

Post by Grumble » Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:35 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:47 pm
My schoolfriends never got bored of offering me meat several times a week at lunch. Mind you, the repetitiveness became a joke in itself.
You’d hope that adults might come round more quickly. But maybe not.
where once I used to scintillate
now I sin till ten past three

User avatar
mediocrity511
Snowbonk
Posts: 409
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 2:16 pm

Re: Veganism.

Post by mediocrity511 » Sat Jan 18, 2020 8:55 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:47 pm
Grumble wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 11:18 pm
plebian wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:26 pm
I've started getting a flavour for the treatment vegans get; when choosing a vegan meatlike burger for a works lunch, a colleague spent the entire meal regurgitating anti vegan tropes*. It was quite tiresome by the end and based on this faulty notion that vegan food is for vegans only.

Moving the recurved wisdom from vegan as an identity to a food type is the next stage of the battle.



*..the thing I don't get is why do vegans want their burger to taste like meat? They've given up on that taste when they gave up meat. If everyone went vegan what would we do with all the animals in farms? Kill em? Well you're no better than meat eaters...
The trick is to keep doing it so it gets boring.
My schoolfriends never got bored of offering me meat several times a week at lunch. Mind you, the repetitiveness became a joke in itself.
Oh yeah, we were the only vegetarian family in a rural farming community when I was a kid. Endless jokes about carrots feeling pain, offers to try meat, asking if I ate chicken because it wasn't meat it was bowl etc. etc. Mind you the dinner ladies were no better, only ever giving us blocks of cheese with salad. Quite why the hot vegetables and chips/mash/rice wasn't veggie I'm unsure.

User avatar
Pucksoppet
Snowbonk
Posts: 599
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:13 pm
Location: Girdling the Earth

Re: Veganism.

Post by Pucksoppet » Sat Jan 18, 2020 9:18 pm

Tessa K wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:21 pm
Pucksoppet wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 1:51 pm
I'll give vegan and vegetarian food a try, and some I like, some I don't.

I had vegan soup recently, which was OK. The next day, the leftover soup was greatly improved (to my taste) by adding a handful of sweetcorn kernels and the meat off a couple of leftover roast chicken drumsticks followed by a whizz with the stick blender.

Now it could simply be what I'm used to, but my experience has been that vegetarian and vegan food misses out some of the flavours and mouth-feel that meat and animal fat delivers. This is not to say my experience of meat-free food is that it is bland, but the flavour-spectrum is different to the one I am used to, and at present I prefer not to give up those currently easy to get meat-related flavours.

Obviously, if chickens cost £100 each, I would revise my gastronomic preferences to be in keeping with my budget.
A vegan dish with an added chicken stock cube can fool the brain into thinking you've had something more meaty. I'm not sure if they really have any chicken in.
That could well be true. I avoid using stock cubes in my cooking, simply because of how much salt/sodium they add. Again, it's down to taste: I can't abide rice boiled without salt, or porridge made without salt, but I cut back pretty much everywhere else. I find liberal use of chilli helps, and I am slowly experimenting with different types of chilli pepper to try and get the effects I'm after: intensely sharp, or an all round warm glow. One of my favourite spreads at the moment is hummus made with fresh bird's-eye chillis, which I can eat by the spoonful if allowed...

User avatar
Martin_B
After Pie
Posts: 1614
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:20 pm
Location: Perth, WA

Re: Veganism.

Post by Martin_B » Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:46 pm

Tessa K wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:21 pm
Pucksoppet wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 1:51 pm
I'll give vegan and vegetarian food a try, and some I like, some I don't.

I had vegan soup recently, which was OK. The next day, the leftover soup was greatly improved (to my taste) by adding a handful of sweetcorn kernels and the meat off a couple of leftover roast chicken drumsticks followed by a whizz with the stick blender.

Now it could simply be what I'm used to, but my experience has been that vegetarian and vegan food misses out some of the flavours and mouth-feel that meat and animal fat delivers. This is not to say my experience of meat-free food is that it is bland, but the flavour-spectrum is different to the one I am used to, and at present I prefer not to give up those currently easy to get meat-related flavours.

Obviously, if chickens cost £100 each, I would revise my gastronomic preferences to be in keeping with my budget.
A vegan dish with an added chicken stock cube can fool the brain into thinking you've had something more meaty. I'm not sure if they really have any chicken in.
Oxo Chicken stock cubes do contain chicken fat (3.4%) and "Chicken Extract (2%)"
"My interest is in the future, because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there"

User avatar
Tessa K
Light of Blast
Posts: 4707
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2019 5:07 pm
Location: Closer than you'd like

Re: Veganism.

Post by Tessa K » Sun Jan 19, 2020 11:55 am

Martin_B wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:46 pm
Tessa K wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:21 pm
Pucksoppet wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 1:51 pm
I'll give vegan and vegetarian food a try, and some I like, some I don't.

I had vegan soup recently, which was OK. The next day, the leftover soup was greatly improved (to my taste) by adding a handful of sweetcorn kernels and the meat off a couple of leftover roast chicken drumsticks followed by a whizz with the stick blender.

Now it could simply be what I'm used to, but my experience has been that vegetarian and vegan food misses out some of the flavours and mouth-feel that meat and animal fat delivers. This is not to say my experience of meat-free food is that it is bland, but the flavour-spectrum is different to the one I am used to, and at present I prefer not to give up those currently easy to get meat-related flavours.

Obviously, if chickens cost £100 each, I would revise my gastronomic preferences to be in keeping with my budget.
A vegan dish with an added chicken stock cube can fool the brain into thinking you've had something more meaty. I'm not sure if they really have any chicken in.
Oxo Chicken stock cubes do contain chicken fat (3.4%) and "Chicken Extract (2%)"
OK. I use Sainsbury's ones that are probably the same. I never add salt to anything so a few grains in a quarter of a cube doesn't bother me.

User avatar
bjn
Stummy Beige
Posts: 2916
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2019 4:58 pm
Location: London

Re: Veganism.

Post by bjn » Sun Jan 19, 2020 3:10 pm

plebian wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:26 pm
*..the thing I don't get is why do vegans want their burger to taste like meat? They've given up on that taste when they gave up meat. If everyone went vegan what would we do with all the animals in farms? Kill em? Well you're no better than meat eaters...
Most don't, meaty vegan burgers are generally aimed at people who eat meat that want to cut down on their meat intake for whatever reason but don't want to give up on meaty tastes.

plebian

Re: Veganism.

Post by plebian » Sun Jan 19, 2020 5:17 pm

bjn wrote:
Sun Jan 19, 2020 3:10 pm
plebian wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:26 pm
*..the thing I don't get is why do vegans want their burger to taste like meat? They've given up on that taste when they gave up meat. If everyone went vegan what would we do with all the animals in farms? Kill em? Well you're no better than meat eaters...
Most don't, meaty vegan burgers are generally aimed at people who eat meat that want to cut down on their meat intake for whatever reason but don't want to give up on meaty tastes.
He was unable to understand this perspective. As is often the case with this kind of thing he was taking other people's choices as critique of his choices. I used to get the same growing up about a whole host of things where the retorts would descend to "you think you're so much better than us don't you".

User avatar
sTeamTraen
After Pie
Posts: 2554
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:24 pm
Location: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Re: Veganism.

Post by sTeamTraen » Sun Jan 19, 2020 5:44 pm

Tessa K wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:21 pm
A vegan dish with an added chicken stock cube can fool the brain into thinking you've had something more meaty. I'm not sure if they really have any chicken in.
One of the things that irritates me slightly about certain types of vegan is their fanaticism occasionally excessive keenness when it comes to avoiding *anything* that might be animal-based. "I can't eat that, I don't know if they used a meat-based stock cube" type of thing. I don't eat what I think is a lot of meat, and I can imagine going basically plant-based overall, but once it gets down to "OMG there is a 0.3g of dried milk powder in this" it seems to be to be getting like some of the more extreme religious diets. I read that one of the 9/11 hijackers, when he lived in Germany, refused biscuits in the office because they might contain gelatine which could have been non-Halal; had he been super-vegan he wouldn't even have had the possibility of going "Oh it's OK, they are halal after all". (My local halal butchers shop also sells sweets for kids that have been made with halal gelatine.) Yes, I get that it's a principle, but it would be like someone who has decided not to fly to save CO2 also not buying anything whatsoever that it hadn't certifiably been shipped into the country exclusively by sea.
Something something hammer something something nail

User avatar
bjn
Stummy Beige
Posts: 2916
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2019 4:58 pm
Location: London

Re: Veganism.

Post by bjn » Sun Jan 19, 2020 7:11 pm

plebian wrote:
Sun Jan 19, 2020 5:17 pm
bjn wrote:
Sun Jan 19, 2020 3:10 pm
plebian wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:26 pm
*..the thing I don't get is why do vegans want their burger to taste like meat? They've given up on that taste when they gave up meat. If everyone went vegan what would we do with all the animals in farms? Kill em? Well you're no better than meat eaters...
Most don't, meaty vegan burgers are generally aimed at people who eat meat that want to cut down on their meat intake for whatever reason but don't want to give up on meaty tastes.
He was unable to understand this perspective. As is often the case with this kind of thing he was taking other people's choices as critique of his choices. I used to get the same growing up about a whole host of things where the retorts would descend to "you think you're so much better than us don't you".
My mother in law (who lives in rural France) is like that, but she reacts by saying she out does me. The classic quote my wife and I still chuckle about was, “I’m a proper vegetarian because I eat rabbits. They lead such a miserable existence I have to buy them from the farmer to put them out of their misery.” The amount of wrong in that sentence is stunning. And she’s not a stupid woman.

User avatar
mediocrity511
Snowbonk
Posts: 409
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 2:16 pm

Re: Veganism.

Post by mediocrity511 » Sun Jan 19, 2020 7:51 pm

sTeamTraen wrote:
Sun Jan 19, 2020 5:44 pm
Tessa K wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:21 pm
A vegan dish with an added chicken stock cube can fool the brain into thinking you've had something more meaty. I'm not sure if they really have any chicken in.
One of the things that irritates me slightly about certain types of vegan is their fanaticism occasionally excessive keenness when it comes to avoiding *anything* that might be animal-based. "I can't eat that, I don't know if they used a meat-based stock cube" type of thing. I don't eat what I think is a lot of meat, and I can imagine going basically plant-based overall, but once it gets down to "OMG there is a 0.3g of dried milk powder in this" it seems to be to be getting like some of the more extreme religious diets. I read that one of the 9/11 hijackers, when he lived in Germany, refused biscuits in the office because they might contain gelatine which could have been non-Halal; had he been super-vegan he wouldn't even have had the possibility of going "Oh it's OK, they are halal after all". (My local halal butchers shop also sells sweets for kids that have been made with halal gelatine.) Yes, I get that it's a principle, but it would be like someone who has decided not to fly to save CO2 also not buying anything whatsoever that it hadn't certifiably been shipped into the country exclusively by sea.
I don't think it's about being keen, it's about disgust. There's all sorts of research about how people can't drink perfectly good glasses of water after they've had plastic cockroaches dunked in them or similar. I'm vegetarian, so obviously eat some animal products, but eating flesh is genuinely disgusting to me. It might not be rational to not want to eat a veggie burger cooked touching a meat one or similar but I can't do it. I don't like touching meat or washing dishes that it's been on.

User avatar
Martin_B
After Pie
Posts: 1614
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:20 pm
Location: Perth, WA

Re: Veganism.

Post by Martin_B » Mon Jan 20, 2020 1:01 am

mediocrity511 wrote:
Sun Jan 19, 2020 7:51 pm
I'm vegetarian, so obviously eat some animal products, but eating flesh is genuinely disgusting to me. It might not be rational to not want to eat a veggie burger cooked touching a meat one or similar but I can't do it. I don't like touching meat or washing dishes that it's been on.
I shared a house for a while with a couple of blokes who called themselves vegetarian.

Bloke A didn't like handling raw meat. If he was eating out, or if I cooked it, he was happy eating meat. Fine, just an aversion to handling raw meat (which I can understand) and so if left to himself he'll eat mostly vegetarian. He never pretended there was some great philosophical reason for being a vegetarian.

Bloke B refused to eat meat because he disagreed with modern farming. He wouldn't even allow meat in the house, which effectively meant, if I followed his restrictions, that he was forcing me to be vegetarian. (If Bloke A and I were going to have meat, we had to wait until he was out!) But Bloke B was also perfectly happy eating fish. Now I have multiple issues with this philosophy:
- 'modern farming' may be different to 'old-timey farming back in the 1920s', but when has farming ever been for the benefit of the animals?
- some fish are farmed, and the methods of fish farming are often less well regulated/enforced than land farming.
- fish which aren't farmed are then ripped from their natural environment; is this better?
- badly (usually over-)cooked fish stinks a house out far worse than cooking meat.

I know that the argument of trying to enforce your philosophy on others who don't share your philosophy can be difficult to justify (although isn't this essentially what climate change protestors are trying to do?) But this feels different because of the scale involved (personal vs global).
"My interest is in the future, because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there"

hakwright
Buzzberry
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2020 12:58 pm

Re: Veganism.

Post by hakwright » Mon Jan 20, 2020 1:13 pm

Martin_B wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:46 pm
Tessa K wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:21 pm
Pucksoppet wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 1:51 pm
I'll give vegan and vegetarian food a try, and some I like, some I don't.

I had vegan soup recently, which was OK. The next day, the leftover soup was greatly improved (to my taste) by adding a handful of sweetcorn kernels and the meat off a couple of leftover roast chicken drumsticks followed by a whizz with the stick blender.

Now it could simply be what I'm used to, but my experience has been that vegetarian and vegan food misses out some of the flavours and mouth-feel that meat and animal fat delivers. This is not to say my experience of meat-free food is that it is bland, but the flavour-spectrum is different to the one I am used to, and at present I prefer not to give up those currently easy to get meat-related flavours.

Obviously, if chickens cost £100 each, I would revise my gastronomic preferences to be in keeping with my budget.
A vegan dish with an added chicken stock cube can fool the brain into thinking you've had something more meaty. I'm not sure if they really have any chicken in.
Oxo Chicken stock cubes do contain chicken fat (3.4%) and "Chicken Extract (2%)"
I suspect this could be a question of umami. I'm a meat eater, but have cut my meat consumption roughly in half since last year. I enjoy cooking, and found that cooking many more non-meat meals raises interesting challenges, with "satisfying savoury flavour" being the main one. Rather than rely on obvious short-cuts (butter, cheese, cream), I quickly found that non-meat sources of umami were often a big help. Soy sauce, chilli oil, miso paste, korean sweet chilli paste, pickles, dried mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, anchovies, fish sauce... a little of some these kind of umami-rich ingredients often made a big difference. So perhaps this was the main thing missing from the original vegan soup, which the chicken meat fixed, but that could have been fixed with a non-meat umami source?

Even a small pinch of msg might help, but one of the pastes/sauces with natural msg is likely to give you better bang for your buck.

Howard

plebian

Re: Veganism.

Post by plebian » Mon Jan 20, 2020 1:23 pm

I bought a big bag of granular msg from the Korean supermarket on Cowley road and now put it in many things savoury and sweet (porridge OMFG yes!).

Definitely helps elevate the depth of flavour of non meat dishes, at least to my taste buds YTBMV.

Post Reply