News Flash: Girl Scout cookies are not made from Girl Scouts.
Nor is hummingbird cake made from hummingbirds.
There, there. I’ll hold you quietly while you sob.
Hummingbird cake? I’m going to have to look that up…
I wasn’t kidding when I said I was going to look that up. I really did. That does look like one fine cake. I’m not much of a sweets person, but once or twice a year, I like to bake up something, and that looks like a prime candidate for the next time I find reason to bake.
ETA: I find that fascinating that the cake has been a Southern tradition since the mid-19th century, but it wasn’t until 1978 that an actual recipe was published. That just blows my mind if it is indeed true.
Well, you may be pleased to know that you won’t be needing any hummingbirds to make the cake. Durn critters are tough to catch! 
As long as we don’t have to talk about why I was kicked out of the Cub Scouts…
I’ve eaten vegetarian haggis. It’s made from oatmeal, and every bit as repulsive as the real thing.
Blah blah blah cakes.
It’s stuff like this that leads to misconceptions like shijinn’s.
The fact that there are many different types of vegetarians does not change the basic definition of “vegetarian.” And when a person can’t even get the basic definition straight, throwing all this stuff about rennet and bone char at them just makes things worse.
p.s. a person who eats fish is in no way a vegetarian.
Well played, sir!
p.p.s. IANAV
Blah blah blah yourself. That’s why I ask what “vegetarian” means, because it’s not as clear-cut as you think.
Speaking of which, how many Boy Scouts does it take to make one tin of Boy Scout popcorn?
For example, from Merriam-Webster:
This is why I ask. “Vegetarian” seems to generally describes ovo-lacto vegetarianism, but not always. It’s all over the map.
Caramel or Cheddar?
Cheddar? I never even kissed her!
Both.
The thing is, meat eating is so culturally ingrained that we are unable - even as vegetarians, vegans, etc - to reframe our dieting choices in any other way to make sense to anyone that isn’t. So seitan becomes “mock duck”, TVP becomes “ground beef”, etc. And it’s unfortunate, because it implies that we still crave meat some how, but eat poor substitutes out of some ideological concern. But I know for myself, as a vegan, and all of my other vegetarian or vegan friends, that none of us crave meat, none of use are wishing we had meat, and any language we use - BBQ ribs, fried chicken, etc - is only out of convenience.
This is about to get tricky, but stick with me. As a (damn good) chef, I think meat has a lot of wonderful properties - great texture, great mouth feel, browns easily, doesn’t turn to mush, accepts a variety of flavors well, etc. And nothing else has all of these properties in one big lump, so meat is very convenient to cook with. You could rub a chicken breast with BBQ sauce, grill it, and few people would complain.
But eating animals disgusts me (it’s a personal thing, I’m not pushing on anyone), so I can’t make BBQ so easily. But does that mean I shouldn’t eat it at all?
Depending on the tradition, BBQ is usually a stringy texture that holds flavors well (smokey, sweet, tangy), but also chars on the outside and forms a crust. None of those properties are inherently meat-based. What if I took a stringy plant-based texture, marinated it so it has those flavors, then charred it so it has a crust? Am I trying to eat “fake” meat, or am I trying to “make” BBQ, through deconstruction?
Another good one is Mexican chorizo, where the ground up pork is only a flavor vehicle for dried chillies, apple cider vinegar, and spices. So if I substitute a ground up vegetable protein for the pork, am I making “fake chorizo” if it has the same vinegar, chillies, and spices?
And this goes for a lot of things. A few days a go I made Greek moussaka for a party and instead of making the traditional vegan version, I used TVP (soy protein) and spiced it similar to lamb, so the sauce was chunkier and chewier. But I wasn’t trying to “fake” the lamb, I was replicating why people like lamb moussaka in the first place - a chewy, chunky mouth feel. With all the spices in the sauce, you don’t ever taste the lamb anyway, so why not go for the plant-protein? It’s not “fake lamb moussaka” it’s “moussaka with soybeans”, but since meet eaters would often turn up their noses at the latter, we tend to describe it as “moussaka… with lamb… but not lamb”. It’s an unfortunate necessity sometimes.
Also, everyone eats bread also eats seitan. If you mix flour and water, form a ball, then slowly knead out all the starches you’ll be left with wheat gluten AKA seitan AKA mock duck. Monk’s have been eating it that way for hundreds of years.
The definition of vegetarian is exactly that clear cut.
There are many diets that fall under the umbrella of “vegetarian.” That does not affect the basic meaning of “vegetarian.”
No, it’s not. Note my cited definition above. The reason I ask is because when I cook for “vegetarians” there is no absolute consensus, hence me asking to be absolutely clear.
Ok. I’ll admit I’m turning chicken (in a vegetarian thread?). I keep sensing a Mod sneaking up behind me for Gibbs - like headslap, so I’m running away now…
Nope. Put superglue in the feeder.
You’re conflating two things:
A. The definition of vegetarian, and
B. What individual people eat and don’t eat.
If you’re saying that the word “vegetarian” is too broad to use as a basis for planning a dinner for someone…well, naturally. As I said above, it’s an umbrella term. I ask anybody that I’m cooking for about dietary restrictions.