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Post by Cornflake on Jan 11, 2024 20:58:40 GMT -5
Tonight for dinner I made enchiladas filled with "Soyriso," a soy-based chorizo substitute my wife got at Trader Joe's. The enchiladas were good. Nothing in the flavor alerted me that it wasn't real chorizo. Of course, the flavor was hidden under chorizo seasonings and the zingy enchilada sauce I made, so it wasn't necessarily a fair test.
That got me wondering whether meat substitutes have progressed since I last tried them. Beef is expensive and should be and isn't likely to get cheaper, so there's an economic reason for finding good substitutes if they're out there. Does anybody have any relevant experience?
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Post by howard lee on Jan 11, 2024 21:07:20 GMT -5
My daughter is a pescetarian. She eats fish occasionally, but mostly lives on a plant-based diet. When she is in the mood for something beefy, we make her a "hamburger" or a breakfast sandwich using a product called Beyond Burger. It very closely resembles the flavor and texture of ground beef without the fat, or that sharp aftertaste I sometimes get from real beefburgers. On the plus side, it's way easier to digest. We crumble and sauté it and add it to pasta for her, too, if she wants penne alla bolognese. I have tried it and find it most agreeable and tasty.
I may have posted about this not too long ago.
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Post by Cornflake on Jan 11, 2024 21:12:20 GMT -5
How does the price compare, Howard?
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Post by howard lee on Jan 11, 2024 21:23:39 GMT -5
How does the price compare, Howard?
I am not sure. Vivian does the food co-op shopping, but I do know that it costs less than an equal amount of ground beef.
To get it in the ballpark, Sam's Club in these parts sells a 10-pack of patties, a total of 39.8 oz, for $13.98. It is also available as a brick from which you can form your own patties or "meat"balls. There are also breakfast "sausage" patties.
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Post by epaul on Jan 11, 2024 21:26:07 GMT -5
Well, if your goal is to move away from highly processed foods and get your vital nutrients from natural sources, replacing meat with a meat substitute won't cut it.
Meat substitutes are highly processed. No plant-based burger will have vitamin B-12 (unless a synthetic B-12 is added to the mishmash). No plant-based burger will have as readily available form of iron, zinc as meat.
Now if you don't mind lab-food and are happy with synthetic forms of B-12, iron, zinc, and other micronutrients,you will get by. Many full-bore Vegans do. (hollow eyed anemic creatures that they are).
I don't see the point of fake-beef. If you want the taste of beef, eat beef (and get all those hard to duplicate nutrients). If you are concerned with the cost of beef, whether environmental or pocketbook, then just skip it. You can get by just fine without if as long as you keep your eye on your B-12, iron, folate, zinc, and a few other things. Go full-vegan or half-vegan (eggs, fish, the odd McNugget).
Fake beef will always be fake. Highly processed fake.
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Post by epaul on Jan 11, 2024 21:31:19 GMT -5
My wife has been a half-vegetarian since college. She doesn't eat red meat, chicken, or pork. She does eat fish, eggs, and dairy products. She likes certain veggie burgers, but not the ones that try imitate beef, she likes the nutty ones with a variety of nuts and grains in a chickpea base. (if you fry them up with butter, they taste pretty good).
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Post by howard lee on Jan 11, 2024 21:31:56 GMT -5
Written like a true man of the land, Paul. I eat beef. The kid doesn't. I can't force her. At least she's getting some nutrients. And she does eat fish, eggs, and dairy products. The BB maybe twice in a week.
Ingredients
Water, pea protein*, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, dried yeast, cocoa butter, methylcellulose, and less than 1% of potato starch, salt, potassium chloride, beet juice color, apple extract, pomegranate concentrate, sunflower lecithin, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, vitamins and minerals (zinc sulfate, niacinamide [vitamin B3], pyridoxine hydrochloride [vitamin B6], cyanocobalamin [vitamin B12], calcium pantothenate).
*Peas are legumes. People with severe allergies to legumes like peanuts should be cautious when introducing pea protein into their diet because of the possibility of a pea allergy. Contains no peanuts or tree nuts.
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Post by drlj on Jan 11, 2024 21:32:51 GMT -5
We watched a program on PBS that detailed how Impossible Burgers and other fake beef burgers were made. After seeing that, we vowed to never touch the stuff. We rarely eat beef—maybe 4-5 times a year. I usually have a steak on my birthday and my once a year scotch & soda. I am pretty sure there are no nutrients in the scotch. I don’t care.
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Post by howard lee on Jan 11, 2024 21:34:10 GMT -5
We watched a program on PBS that detailed how Impossible Burgers and other fake beef burgers were made. After seeing that, we vowed to never touch the stuff.
Then you shouldn't go near olives or lutefisk either. I don't think what goes on in meat-packing plants is appetizing, either.
If you ever get as far east as Brooklyn, we'll cook you up some real beefburgers.
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Post by epaul on Jan 11, 2024 21:34:16 GMT -5
Oh, and the stuff is not cheap. The nut burgers I get cost more than hamburger.
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Post by howard lee on Jan 11, 2024 21:37:00 GMT -5
Oh, and the stuff is not cheap. The nut burgers I get cost more than hamburger.
I am surrounded by nut burgers where I commute and work.
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Post by epaul on Jan 11, 2024 21:43:21 GMT -5
I forgot my links. easy: www.verywellhealth.com/iron-absorption-in-plant-based-meat-7094203not easy: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10303107/There will always be a battle of links. But, if you grab recent ones that aren't from an advocacy group (either beef council or save the planet types), there is a concern with plant-based diets and B-12 and iron (and other stuff, like zinc). Some fake meat products address it by (basically) adding crushed up vitamin pills to mishmash. But no source of iron is as readily available and easily digestible as iron from red meat (iron from pills, in the amount some will need, can lead to constipated pebble poops).
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Post by drlj on Jan 11, 2024 21:43:24 GMT -5
We watched a program on PBS that detailed how Impossible Burgers and other fake beef burgers were made. After seeing that, we vowed to never touch the stuff. Then you shouldn't go near olives or lutefisk either. I don't think what goes on in meat-packing plants is appetizing, either.
If you ever get as far east as Brooklyn, we'll cook you up some real beefburgers.
Never had lutefisk and there are no plans to ever change that. I may have 5 or 6 olives in the course of a year. We eat chicken, turkey, and fish and I have killed and cleaned a few of them myself. You haven’t lived until you go around the neighborhood gathering up the headless dead chickens that took off running as soon as the axe separated their head from the rest of the body. That’s another story for another time.
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Post by howard lee on Jan 11, 2024 21:47:06 GMT -5
I forgot my links. easy: www.verywellhealth.com/iron-absorption-in-plant-based-meat-7094203not easy: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10303107/There will always be a battle of links. But, if you grab recent ones that aren't from an advocacy group (either beef council or save the planet types), there is a concern with plant-based diets and B-12 and iron (and other stuff, like zinc). Some fake meat products address it by (basically) adding crushed up vitamin pills to mishmash. But no source of iron is as readily available and easily digestible as iron from red meat (iron from pills, in the amount some will need, can lead to constipated pebble poops).
OK.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 20,345
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Post by Dub on Jan 11, 2024 22:38:40 GMT -5
We eat beef once in a great while but mostly, we rely on beef substitutes, pork, chicken, lamb, fish…
We shop for meat, and other consumables, at the co-op. Organic, grass fed, pasture raised, etc.
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Post by Village Idiot on Jan 11, 2024 22:43:44 GMT -5
Tonight for dinner I made enchiladas filled with "Soyriso," a soy-based chorizo substitute my wife got at Trader Joe's. The enchiladas were good. Nothing in the flavor alerted me that it wasn't real chorizo. Of course, the flavor was hidden under chorizo seasonings and the zingy enchilada sauce I made, so it wasn't necessarily a fair test. That got me wondering whether meat substitutes have progressed since I last tried them. Beef is expensive and should be and isn't likely to get cheaper, so there's an economic reason for finding good substitutes if they're out there. Does anybody have any relevant experience? Check the sodium levels before you fall in love with this kind of stuff. In a lot of cases it's not meat, but it is a lot of salt. Which is the real enemy.
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Post by millring on Jan 12, 2024 6:03:23 GMT -5
Zoom is a meet substitute.
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Post by Cornflake on Jan 12, 2024 7:15:30 GMT -5
"Check the sodium levels before you fall in love with this kind of stuff. In a lot of cases it's not meat, but it is a lot of salt. Which is the real enemy."
Not for me, Todd. Low sodium is what got me hospitalized last year. Neither wife nor son have been advised to reduce the sodium they consume. As a practical matter, my wife under-salts everything anyway.
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Post by Cornflake on Jan 12, 2024 7:22:36 GMT -5
By the way, I don't have particularly strong feelings about all this stuff. I'm a carnivore and I have no plans to change. I'm still interested in meat substitutes. One reason is that we occasionally have vegetarian friends as dinner guests and I'm on the lookout for things I might be able to serve. Another is that beef prices are high. A third is that I have my doubts about all the meat we consume being good for us; cutting back some might be advisable. We'd still eat plenty.
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Post by majorminor on Jan 12, 2024 7:27:12 GMT -5
This thread reminds me I need to marinate that huge flap of flank steak that’s in the fridge. We are having us some beef fajitas tonight baby!
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