Vegan faux fish burger (Non-vegan viewpoint)

[Mr Gus]

Not bad actually.

So I saw this a few weeks ago in heron / b.m. food store & thought i'd give it a try.

By a brand called "Good Catch" it has similarities to the beyond burger (also being pea protein based)

goodcatchfoods.com

The density of the 2-pack burgers was a surprise, as was the flakiness of the end result when i tried to check texture when chunking it for a salad wrap, ..good effort by the manufacturer, straight out the freezer pack was a vague lemony fishiness which ramped up a bit upon cooking, (I bunged it into the sous vide & cooked like for like, it might be better on a lower temperature.

Finished it off in the pan about 45 secs per side on the induction hob (level 5) ..but forgot as we cooked very late last night we'd had 2 massive rare, sous vide lamb chump rumps in there to finish (so....) The lamb was divine & only took a couple of hours in relatively cool water to cook, had to leave it for close to 5 hrs total due to wife being late, but you'd never have known.

Tried both a tartare sauce & a tommy sauce on each wrap, ..not bad, could consider a few of these & not be upset i'm not eating haddock, coley, pollock, mackerel etc.

There is zero chance of a mc-sh1tes swapping out a vile fillet o fish, & they'd ruin it anyway ..so little fast food take up potential right now.

Beyond Burger still the leader in pea protein burgers (cooked at home, pan finished) but the price difference between these two is chalk n' cheese)

[Oldgreybeard]

What I just cannot get my head around is why anyone would want to make plant based food look and taste like meat or fish. Seems completely bonkers to me. My mother in law is Buddhist, so veggie, but she's never once tried to cook pretend meat or fish, and I share her view. If someone has a moral objection to eating meat or fish, why on earth would they want to make plant based foods look and taste as if they were made from animals?

[GarethC]

I agree that the best vegetarian food isn't the stuff that mimics meat or fish.

However, for people that have eaten meat their whole lives I think meat substitutes help them make the transition. They can be a stepping stone.

Also, one might develop a moral (or other) objection to eating meat, but still love the taste of meat, so appreciate a near substitute.

[Mr Gus]

I agree that the best vegetarian food isn't the stuff that mimics meat or fish.

However, for people that have eaten meat their whole lives I think meat substitutes help them make the transition. They can be a stepping stone.

Also, one might develop a moral (or other) objection to eating meat, but still love the taste of meat, so appreciate a near substitute.

Agreed, ..I used to gag & puke many a veg, due to texture /taste / clean plate demands.

Options... & I've said why in other food threads, so shall not go over old ground again.

Howeverif folk cannot get it into heads that many here are oft exceptions to numerous rules thrn you need to widen your perspective s more, how many in the 1st world eat fast food diets daily, or fried chicken several times per week, or cheap breaded meats, burgers & formed whitefish?

That, & the sheer force of market domination, every high street, now garages too is the type of consumer we depend upon to make the change so it better be good, or "acceptable" to the masses withterrible taste & reasoning.

The beyond burger cooked well is terrific, its widened my daughters vegetable option perspective, & the beyond burger, sous vide & pan fried is our preference AS a burger, ..because we don't cook them "like sh1t" (like mc d's do) & if it gets our meat consumption down & veggies up without hairshirt wearing sacrifice, all the better.

Thus, I want to know how another alternative is coming along, I eat fish likely minimum 4+ times per week, sometimes 3x per day
Which may be breakfast of mackerel on toast or herring straight out ofthe brine, a fish & potato cakes, or fillet in a veggie wrap then maybe (as the fish eater at home) a do over of breakfast/ lunch as supper, ..so yes a good on the go option thatI know if its good or bad to grab in light of overfishing, modern living guilt etc.

We are up against a big burger society, so that is where the competition & comparisons are measured as to passable & profit.
If people find the meat alt acceptable as a no complaints swap out, there is scope to keep upping that because suddenly they are more open to try alternatives elsewhere, AND likely real veg too.

The beyond burger has been a leg up for us, less dubious plastic packaging, no freezer burn from brittle cellophane breakage & a consistently good taste & texture compared to many so called premium burgers that we have weaned ourselves off.

if you've ever had a decent 5 guys burger, i do about once every 14 monthsor so, then youve likely thought you'd forgo.3+.mc-sh----s in favour of one from 5 guys, ..which makes you consider your consumption in general.

[Stinsy]

What I just cannot get my head around is why anyone would want to make plant based food look and taste like meat or fish. Seems completely bonkers to me. My mother in law is Buddhist, so veggie, but she's never once tried to cook pretend meat or fish, and I share her view. If someone has a moral objection to eating meat or fish, why on earth would they want to make plant based foods look and taste as if they were made from animals?

Each to their own. But I don’t understand this “fake meat/fish” thing either. If you don’t want to eat meat or fish then don’t. But ultra-processed meat-like products? I just don’t get it.

[GarethC]

I find the whole issue of the need to move to lower environmental impact foodstuffs interesting, partly because it evokes strong gut reactions (sorry couldn't help it. Please don't ban me from forum).

A mashed up, preservative-filled piece of beef at MacDonalds is already very very processed is it not? You and I may not like that either, but if we can switch the daily Maccy D eater to a lower environmental impact version, surely that's a plus.

[Oldgreybeard]

I find the whole issue of the need to move to lower environmental impact foodstuffs interesting, partly because it evokes strong gut reactions (sorry couldn't help it. Please don't ban me from forum).

A mashed up, preservative-filled piece of beef at MacDonalds is already very very processed is it not? You and I may not like that either, but if we can switch the daily Maccy D eater to a lower environmental impact version, surely that's a plus.

Is there any evidence to show that putting an enormous amount of resource into processing plant based foods so they look and taste a bit like meat or fish is actually likely to make a long term change? I doubt it is, TBH, and suspect that in large part the investment in processing foods like this is being done because of the powerful, sometimes violently so, lobby groups pushing for everyone to become vegan. Having been at the receiving end of their violence, more than once, for absolutely no justifiable reason, I do have a bit of a bias though. I did get to be a dab hand at cleaning red paint off the drive and gates, though.

When it comes to environmental impact then I've yet to find any really hard evidence, that properly balances all the factors involved, almost all of it is biased to some degree. For example, humans are pretty inefficient at digesting plant matter, when compared to, say, ruminants, so some sort of correction factor needs to be put into the analysis to adjust for the greater land area needed. Land use in general would have to change massively, all grass fields would needs to be replaced with crops growing human digestible plant matter, as humans aren't good at digesting grass. A fair bit of agricultural grass land would probably fall into disuse. Around here, for example, we have lots of sloping land that is really only suitable for pigs, sheep or perhaps cattle. Without them that land would have little or no economic value. The chalk downland here is largely a product of centuries of grazing, so it would revert to scrub and woodland, which might be environmentally beneficial, but would also probably attract criticism from those that are resistant to changing the landscape.

What I'd like to see happen is a switch to better diets overall, with far less processed food and with people switching to preparing and eating locally produced food. The cost argument is clearly already there, unprocessed foods are slightly cheaper than processed foods in general. What's missing are two things, one is freeing up people's time so they can spend longer preparing meals, the other is providing an education in how to make nutritious meals from raw ingredients, without this becoming a chore. The success of all the TV cookery programmes shows there is a fair bit of interest in food preparation in general, so we're part way there.

[Stig]

What I just cannot get my head around is why anyone would want to make plant based food look and taste like meat or fish. Seems completely bonkers to me. My mother in law is Buddhist, so veggie, but she's never once tried to cook pretend meat or fish, and I share her view. If someone has a moral objection to eating meat or fish, why on earth would they want to make plant based foods look and taste as if they were made from animals?

My nephew, who's now pescetarian and used to be vegetarian, summed it up by saying he really likes eating meat but feels that morally he can't so he's happy to eat alternatives that are close in taste & texture to the real thing.

I've been veggie for so long I really don't miss the taste of meat so I'm not that bothered about meat-like alternatives.

[Oldgreybeard]

What bugs me is that there is so much fantastic vegetarian food around, especially that from some Asian countries where a vegetarian diet is more common than here, perhaps. I don't much like meat or fish, we rarely eat either, but that's almost wholly down to preferring the taste of a lot of the vegetarian foods that my MiL has prepared. It seems to me that, rather than produce poor imitations of meat or fish, the food companies could do worse than just look at the wonderful range of vegetarian foods from other parts of the world. Perhaps the greatest challenge is doing as my MiL has done, and produce a repertoire of only very mildly spiced vegetarian food. I'm not a fan of hot and spicy food at all, and it does seem that there is lot of spices used in a fair bit of vegetarian cooking from Asia.

[Mr Gus]

OGB, please buy a small bottle of cholula (the basic orangey-red original) ..that may surprise you as to adapting your tastebuds / give others an ingredient alternative which is fruity with a bit of tempered heat which diesnt hang around, a bit stronger than too much brown sauce if you get my drift

As a curry eater with bad guts, cholula has been a lifesaver for me being more fruity flavour than heat.(regular price £1.25 in supermarkets, found in B&M for 79p of late.