Question
Why do you eat things that look like meat?
Alternatives
Thinking that every plant-derived alternative is made of soy or tofu. Thinking all plant-derived alternatives have unnatural ingredients.
Summary
If you are offended by someone happily eating a veggie burger or sausage, and not by billions of animals suffering in slaughterhouses and factory farms, perhaps you need to reconsider your ethical framework. Vegans are generally more concerned with the ethics, not the aesthetics, of what we eat. Plant milks and meat alternatives have been widely eaten by many cultures for many centuries. If people are bothered by food that hasn't involved an animal in a factory farm or going through a slaughterhouse, then it is those people, not the vegans, who need to change.
Discussion
If carnists are so offended by vegans making food that looks like animal products, this begs the question: why aren't meat eaters eating things that look like parts of animals? A rissole, a burger pattie, a sausage, a bolognese, and even a steak, many of the things you find in a restaurant don't look much like their natural form. If animal products were so naturally delicious and appealing, why wouldn't aren't there restaurants everywhere just serving carnists the straight raw flesh torn from the bone? Freshly severed and still bleeding pig's leg, anyone? Why aren't live creatures simply brought to the table for the diners to kill and process themselves, without any tools? Instead, animal flesh is eaten after lots of processing and alteration. The fur, skin, feathers, scales, bones, intestines, organs, head, tail, and hooves will be removed, the blood will be drained, mostly, and then what is left will be shaped, spiced, marinated, sauced, textured, burnt and served with things derived from plants. Again, why don't carnists eat things that resemble animals?
Peace foods
We should start with some history of human food. There have been vegetarian sausages for a long time, certainly since the 19th century. During the First World War, "peace" sausages that were wholly or largely derived from plants were eaten in many countries as part of rationing. Though primarily made from things like soy or lentils, they would sometimes contain traces of meat. Vegetarian burgers have a much longer history. An Arabic recipe for an eggplant-based patty dates back to 1226. In Europe, a 14th-century recipe book included a recipe to make broad bean patties, which sound much like the veggie burgers commonly eaten today. Tofu is at least 2000 years old, with a legend that it was created by a prince who mixed soy with calcium sulphate while attempting to create an elixir of immortality. Seitan, one of the most popular meat substitutes, is made of wheat gluten and was mentioned in China in the 6th century. In the early 18th century, seitan featured in an Italian cookbook. Seitan became commercially available in the USA in the late 19th century. Tempeh was invented in Indonesia around 1700, though it wasn't commercially produced in the West until the 1940s. Buddhist practises have always contained a strong vegetarian strain, and contributed to China being the originator of many of the mock products which are still being improved upon and widely eaten today.
Milks made from plants have a long history in the human diet. In English, the word milk has been used with respect to plant-based milks for at least eight hundred years. Almond milk was popular in Europe in the Middle Ages, especially useful for Christians who abstained from all animal products on their many religious days. In the Middle East, plant milks were popular, and an Arabic recipe for Almond Milk dates back to 1226 CE. Although something resembling soy milk is made in order to produce tofu, the first record of it specifically as a drink dates from China in 1365. The first commercial soy milk production in Europe started in 1910 in France. Native Americans had been making plant-based milks from hickory nuts, walnuts, and pecans before Europeans arrived in North America. Coconut milk has long been a popular ingredient in cooking around Asia for thousands of years, with the first reference to it, specifically using the word milk, in English in 1698.
Mock meats and plant milks are certainly nothing new, but some people have become very worked up about them in recent times, as they started becoming more popular. It is not their existence that these people seemingly object to, but the threat that they represent to existing commercial interests. Conservative politicians aligning themselves with animal product producers have been hysterically alarmed at the rise in consumption of plant foods. They have tried to fight back at this in many ways, with a main strategy being the legislation of bans for terms like milk, sausage, burger, yoghurt and so on. In some cases, even though these terms have been used without issue, sometimes, for centuries, they have been successful. In Turkey, vegan cheese was seen as such a threat that it is now illegal to produce it. Why this is so triggering, and why a movement against these products emerged only in the early 21st century, is an interesting question involving commercial interests, conformity, and resistance to change and modernity. The culture wars have spilled out into what gets cultured.
Reclaiming words
Interestingly, the word meat wasn’t originally defined as animal flesh; meat just meant food, and then, more specifically, substantial, hearty food. It wasn't until the 19th century that the idea of it representing animal flesh completely replaced the older usage of the term, coincident with an increase in the consumption of animal products. Before refrigeration and factory farming, consuming animal products in the quantities now common was unrealisable for the average person, especially those living in cities. This is evident in most cultural cuisines, which were historically plant-based and often used animal products in more sparing ways. The diets of most countries only became animal product-heavy relatively recently.
Back to animal products looking like animal products, carnists seem unreasonably precious about terms here. We don't want to spoil any delusions, but most fish don't have fingers, and buffalo don’t have wings, though we don't see anyone get upset about these terms. Cheese, butter, sausages, milk and burgers, all of these products go through production processes that alter them significantly from their natural look, state, and taste. What humans seem to like is the process of cooking itself, which means combining, mixing, shaping, flavouring, and texturing, in order to create different culinary experiences. These processes are largely the same as those used when cooking with plants. Tofu is an excellent example of this: some people unwisely try tofu raw and find it unpalatable. You could say the same thing, though, about many foods, such as starchy root vegetables like potatoes, a foundational part of the global diet. You need to do some preparation for the deliciousness of tofu and potatoes to reveal itself. I know a few hardcore people who like to eat raw tofu, but then I once knew someone who would bite into a raw onion like an apple, so there's no accounting for taste. Everyone else I know who enjoys tofu adds some salt and pepper, or a marinade, cooks it in various ways, adds maybe a dash of chilli or soy sauce, some veggies and carbs on the side, and suddenly you have a dish that provides plenty of nutrition and flavour. Tofu does come in a wide variety of textures and styles, so it takes a little experimentation to understand which one is right for a particular recipe. My tip would be to start with the firmer varieties, pan-fried in a bit of soy sauce, and go from there.
Decentering meat
People often mentally focus on animal products when that is only a part of what they eat. I read a news story about a group of men who went on a camping trip together, and they said it had been a meat fest. They had collectively consumed something like 50kg of meat on the trip. Later in the story, it listed their full list of supplies for the trip, and I noted that they had also eaten more than 50kg of vegetables, along with plenty of bread and other plant-derived foods. It is probably for cultural and identity reasons that they didn't describe their male bonding session as a vegetable fest, which would have been more accurate. Take your standard burger, that carnists with nothing better to do complain vegans should come up with a new name for. Like many other meals, the animal flesh in most burgers is only part of the total nutrition and calories. Take one of the most commonly eaten burgers in the world, the Big Mac, once called the communion wafer of modern consumerism. Three-fifths of a Big Mac by weight is non-animal ingredients, comprised of bread, sesame seeds, oils, sauces, lettuce, onion, pickles, and so on. The bread, sauce, sesame seeds, and onion are as fundamental to the taste and texture of a Big Mac as the other ingredients. Generally, if people are just eating a plain burger, called a rissole where I grew up, the meat patty is combined with herbs and spices, vegetables such as onions and capsicum, and then it is finished with flour or breadcrumbs. The burgers will then be seasoned and grilled in oil, which further changes the texture and flavour. With most fast food, the meat is only a part of the final product, or has been so heavily processed and flavoured that it barely resembles or tastes like animal flesh does naturally. If vegans replace the meat in any of these dishes with some plant-based protein source, given that we still do all the other things to it, we can get a pretty similar end experience. Why people get offended by this, and how they can find it something more worthy of getting upset about than slaughterhouses and factory farms, is hard to fathom.
What people who go vegan often realise is that it wasn't the taste of meat that added much to food, it was their practical use as an ingredient in a meal, especially their texture, fat content and protein. I find texture particularly important; a burger without a dense patty is a little too easy to chew through. A large part of making the perfect veggie patty or sausage is getting a firm texture. Humanity has spent centuries coming up with different cuisines and recipes, and vegans see no need to discard this culinary history when we can continue adapting it and mining it for sensual pleasure. Everything an animal product brings to a meal can be replaced with other things that have similar properties. If we swap a few ingredients and then add the same spices and flavours and cook it in a similar way, we end up with something that ticks most of the same boxes for our palate.
How well do plant-based alternatives mimic animal products? How much a product resembles any animal-based product depends partly on the intent behind the recipe. While some veggie burgers try to mimic a meat style, others proudly display their plant origins. Some commercial products are almost uncomfortably similar, but most of the time, when cooking at home, we aim to make things that are pleasurable in a related but different way. How much that difference bothers you is subjective. If you've ever met people who argued passionately about which of two products is better, say Coke or Pepsi, Android or Apple, Vegemite or Marmite, when they are actually pretty similar, you realise some of our preferences are quite arbitrary and often inconsequential. After you've had a sufficient break from animal products, your tastes and expectations will adjust; personally, I don't compare things anymore because it's been decades since I ate animal products. You couldn't look into a busy vegan restaurant and know it was any different to any other restaurant. You will see people ordering and enjoying food, talking happily with friends, full of the same joy of food and life.
Beyond meat
When it comes to replacing animal protein, we have a wide array beyond the mighty tofu and slightly more niche tempeh. Beans and lentils are the easiest, cheapest and often healthiest drop-in replacements, but there are also nuts, seeds, grains, mushrooms, seitan, soy derivatives and other alternatives from the wide and diverse plant kingdom. There is a range of commercially made products that are increasing in quantity and quality. These are designed to be like-for-like replacements for animal products in a meal and are especially helpful for people making the transition. If someone wants to start having plant-based meals a few times a week without much fuss, what could be easier than swapping in some plant-based chicken strips into their usual stir fry or tacos, or some veggie mince into their bolognese, chilli or shepherd's pie? These vegan alternatives get better and more varied all the time as veganism grows and becomes more commercially profitable. People often prejudge plant-based food as boring, but blind studies show that people like the taste of plant-based alternatives, especially if you don't tell them that they are plant-based. Eating food without animal products at the centre is more of a mental shift for many people than any other aspect of the change. We all learned about our current diet unconsciously at our family kitchen table, and to change that requires learning a slightly different way of eating. To eat a diet that follows vegan principles, we need a little adapting, experimenting to find what foods we like and don’t like from the ever-increasing number of vegan choices out there. We need to experiment with different plant-based recipes and options. This is often a short transition, with much of the work being done once we can figure out a handful of staple dishes that will form the core of our regular meals.
Above all, people getting upset about vegans enjoying a veggie sausage are missing the point. Nobody goes vegan because they object to the texture, shape or flavour of animal products. People mostly go vegan because they object to the violence and oppression inherent in animal products; they want to boycott a system they see as cruel, environmentally damaging and unnecessary. A lot of vegans do avoid products resembling animal foods because they have uncomfortable connotations for them, and that is fine. Other vegans are happy eating anything so long as it isn't contributing to factory farming, which is also fine. Personally, I enjoy these products occasionally and see them as clear evidence of how little we need to give up to end factory farming and live more compassionately.
There are many things we could get offended by in the world, but sometimes that is a choice, and we need to have some sense of proportion about what actually matters. To reiterate the point I made above, if a person is offended by someone happily eating a veggie sausage, but they pay little attention to billions of animals suffering in slaughterhouses and factory farms, they are the ones who need to evolve.