For those who are vegetarian: why eat foods made to emulate the texture and taste of meat?
Most veggie burgers don’t emulate the taste of meat. I’m a happy carnivore, but I eat veggie burgers pretty regularly because they’re yummy.
Well, I only eat them when I’m dining out and there aren’t a lot of other veggie options and I want something more satisfying than just a salad. They’re good for pretty much the same reasons burgers are: they’re tasty (although I don’t think they taste like meat) and easy to eat. There really aren’t a whole lot of good (cooked) veggie sandwich options. I personally can’t stand roasted eggplant…
As a vegetarian, I eat veggie burgers because they contain lots of protein and are created to fit nicely between slices of bread/bun halves. Most of the types that I buy wouldn’t be mistaken by a blind man with no sense of taste as being meat.
Regarding the types that do taste like meat, not all vegetarians loathe the flavor of meat. Some feel guilty over eating animals. Some are doing it for nutritional reasons. Some get nostalgic over meat now and then and would like something close to eat - my biggest time experiencing this is when I’m cooking the Thanksgiving turkey.
What Ferret Herder said. I’ve been a vegetarian for the past ten years, and while I’ve gotten used to it enough that I never crave meat, it’s not because the taste is unpleasant. Veggie burgers are meat-like in the same way soy milk is soy-like (although I don’t drink it for ethical reasions. I’m lactose intollerant.); they’re both similar to the foods they’re imitating, but by no means exact matches in flavor or texture. They are both really yummy, though, and an easy way for vegetarians who don’t mind the taste of meat (or even some who do!) to get some tasty plant protein. Mmm. Which reminds me, it’s about lunchtime. I think I’m going to have a veggie burger.
I’m not vegetarian, but I do keep kosher. That means no cheeseburgers, unless they’re veggie burgers.
I stopped eating beef and pork about a year ago, one of the reasons being that I just plain stopped liking it. So therefore, I usually don’t eat veggie burgers and the like. However, I did make my boyfriend lasagna about a month ago, and just didn’t feel it would be right without ground beef. They had this stuff called “Veggie Crumbles” I think, which was just a vegetarian version of ground beef that you use just like the real thing. It smalled like ground beef as I was cooking it, and the lasagna came out very well and I don’t even know if my boyfriend would have known had I not told him. So there are times when I will eat it, but as a general rule I don’t eat the veggie-meat products.
Funny enough, the particular veggie burgers I hate are Boca burgers. Why? Because they actually DO taste a lot like meat.
I tried to be vegetarian for a year, but I wasn’t a very good one; I kept sneaking in yummy bits of meat here and there. Unfortunately, right around the time I was coming off vegetarianism, I found out that I have high cholesterol. I eat Boca’ s Flame-Grilled burgers because they actually do taste like meat, fit into my low-cholesterol diet, and because soy protein is good for lowering cholesterol. Incidently, Boca’s Smoked Sausages are hard to find, but devotedly meat-eating friends of mine have been surprised to learn that there’s no real sausage in their panini.
Mostly for variety, to get different flavors into my diet. And sometimes, just for the novelty of it. Some of these things sound funny - like the phony vegetarian bacon - and I get curious. As far as veggie burgers go, I prefer Gardenburger.
I’v e not really had any meat cravings in my 14 yr vegetarian career but I quite like chicken flavoured veggie burgers. Variety is good. 
Ooh, those chicken pattie ones are awesome. I especially like Boca’s spicy chicken ones. MMm.
Because (in my experience) the ones that aren’t meant to taste like meat are nasty.
Particularly the “9-vegetable Patty” ones that consist of, well, nine kinds of vegetable formed into the shape of a patty. Ugh. The first time I actually worked up enough nerve to eat one (because it was either that or starve), I had my first projectile vomiting experience (granted, probably related to something else I ate). The visuals from that experience have, well, shall we say, made me somewhat critical of veggie burgers since then.
Also, both beans and mushrooms can unintentionally taste quite meaty in certain preparations. I have a delicious stew that I make with shiitake mushrooms and worcestershire sauce that tastes quite convincingly like meat, even though there is no intention for it to.
Why do people assume that all vegetarians don’t eat meat because they don’t like? I didn’t quit meat because I didn’t enjoy the taste or texture. I just don’t want to eat other animals, esp. knowing how most of them lived before they were killed for dinner. If I can get a nice hunk of protein that tastes good and isn’t another animal, I’ll eat it. Also, veggie burgers enable me to participate in barbecues and grill with other folks. Many of them taste good in their own right, too.
Personally, I never was that fond of beef I just liked all the stuff you put on the hamburger. I like the cheese, lettuce, tomato*, pickles, onions and mayo on a nice fresh bun. But they just don’t work by themselves they need to have something else in there and a portobello mushroom, turkey burger or a nice veggie burger works for me.
*The tomato has to be perky. I love it when they’re perky.
Good timing. The WryGuy, the Kid and I decided to try vegetarian for a month. We all feel it’s a generally healthier way to eat, and we could all use a few points shaved off our cholesterol and yadda yadda yadda… mostly we just want to see if we can do it for a month. WryGuy eats veggie burgers for NO GOOD REASON anyway, so I’ll probably give them a whirl. And I think I would prefer one that doesn’t attempt to taste like beef, actually. I had a bad experience with a buffalo burger because I expected it to taste like beef and WOW. It most certainly did not. Had I tasted it expecting it NOT to taste like beef, I probably wouldn’t have had the weird gag reflex. So I should skip the Boca burgers?
I am curious about the “facon” though. I love BLTs (perky tomatoes should go without saying) - is “facon” a reasonable facsimile?
Yes! IMO, it’s the most realistic tasting of all the imitation meat products. In fact, on the rare occasions I cook some, meat-loving family members have said “Mmm! I smell bacon!” These are the same people who think other forms of veggie meat smell “icky” or “eh, okay I guess”, so that has to count for something. And, as far as I can tell, this holds true for all brands of veggie bacon. Ok, so for all I know there might be a few out there that are the anti-bacon, but I haven’t encountered any of those yet. Mmm. Bacony.
Vegetarians choose their foods based on the same principles that anyone else does.
Some do it because they are veg for health/ethical concerns and miss the taste of meat.
Some do it because it’s the only option.
Some do it because it’s an easy way to make a sandwich more substantial.
Some do it for the novelty factor.
Some do it because they think they taste good.
Some do it because they are buddhist monks with a long tradition of fake meat
Some do it to look normal around their friends
I won’t go to great lengths to imitate meat, but my current breakfast is a fake sausage/cheese/mustard sandwich on rye. I can prepare it at night and put it in the fridge and cook it on the forman grill in the morning. It’s hard to get something so hearty so easily. I love chick patties. I hate boca burgers. I’ll try any silly novelty fake meat (Soyrizo!!!) once just for fun. Sometimes I like imitating recipes from my childhood using fake meat for nostalgia. I seek out as much variety in my food as I can, and fake meat is just one more tool in my cooking toolbox.
It’s like those fake apple pies made out of ritz crackers. Theres no real point to it, but it’s neat and fun now and then.
The less they try to imitate “meat,” the better I like it. Mainly because the veggie “meat” flavor heavily depends on smoke flavor to disguise the fact that it really does not have a meat taste in itself. And smoke flavor makes me gag.
The Boca Burger type is OK with me once in a while, though I’m used to living without any diet of veggie “meat” at all. My menu has always been formed on the Indian vegetarian curry model. Also my special spaghetti.
Burgeroid items aside, the very best fake meats are the breakfast fake meats – spicy sausages and the like.
Let’s face it – no meat eater actually wants to taste what they make the sausages out of. You never hear “Man, that’s some good leavings and by-products, stuffed into a slick intestinal wall!” What people want to tase is the spices that flavor spicy sausages, and those cover up veggie tastes just as well as they do meat by-product flavors. You can get fine-tasting spicy sausages without anyting disgusting in them.
It’s frankly easier to enjoy the tasty vegetarian sausages then it was to eat the real meat by-product versions and wonder queasily what was in them.
Sailboat