4 ms·

What is vegan cheese? Have folks reproduced milk proteins in the lab, or is it taste-and-texture replication?

by monadic2 6y ago

mikequinlan 6y ago
Taste and texture 'similarity' using mostly nuts.
- copperx 6y ago
  And lots of fat, often more than cheese.
  - twic 6y ago
    And not a lot of similarity.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  Why’s everything always nuts in vegan food? Surely there’s more options out there than nuts nuts nuts.
  - klyrs 6y ago
    They're a really good source of protein, which is otherwise pretty scarce in fruit & veg. As cheese and milk are more or less defined by their proteins, nuts and legumes are pretty much the only viable alternatives. I personally can't stand the stuff. The main selling point seems to be "it melts like cheese" but in my experience, it takes on a snotty texture. It'd probably help if I was a real vegan and didn't have alternatives...
bobbyi_settv 6y ago
It's typically made from seeds or nuts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_cheese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_cheese So it's taste-and-texture replication. I don't even think it is aiming to perfectly replicate dairy cheese, as much as to be something that can be reasonably substituted for dairy cheese in the typical cases where it is used. It's analogous to how soy milk isn't meant to be indistinguishable from dairy milk but instead to be usable in place of dairy milk in coffee, cereal, etc.
- williamdclt 6y ago
  > I don't even think it is aiming to perfectly replicate dairy cheese It isn't, indeed. I've tried a whole bunch of different vegan cheeses, and while they sometimes call them "mozzarella", "camembert" or other dairy cheese names, they do not try to match the taste. It would be an obviously losing battle as the best they could do is to be as good, most probably and understandably falling short of that. They instead create new kinds of cheese-like products, sometimes taking inspiration from dary cheeses sometimes not, and the results are actually pretty good espectially considered how recent the art of vegan cheese is!
  - guildan 6y ago
    What I found out trying out more vegan food or vegan receipes is to stop looking at them as replacement of somehting and more like a novelty. Since I've done that everything taste much better to me because I'm trying the taste and not comparing it to anything.
- com2kid 6y ago
  > It's analogous to how soy milk isn't meant to be indistinguishable from dairy milk but instead to be usable in place of dairy milk in coffee, cereal, etc. Unrelated, but why is it American's treat soy milk this way? American brands of soy milk are terrible, while Asian brands of soy milk can taste really good.
stellar678 6y ago
There actually is a company that has a microorganism-produced casein that's on the market and can be bought as vegan ice cream at Smitten in the Bay Area: https://www.perfectdayfoods.com/ https://www.perfectdayfoods.com/ Then there's the Real Vegan Cheese project in the East Bay, which isn't venture funded and therefor seems to be moving a bit more slowly: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/real-vegan-cheese#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/real-vegan-cheese#/

What is vegan cheese? Have folks reproduced milk proteins in the lab, or is it taste-and-texture replication?

mikequinlan 6y ago

Taste and texture 'similarity' using mostly nuts.

copperx 6y ago
And lots of fat, often more than cheese.
- twic 6y ago
  And not a lot of similarity.
chrisseaton 6y ago
Why’s everything always nuts in vegan food? Surely there’s more options out there than nuts nuts nuts.
- klyrs 6y ago
  They're a really good source of protein, which is otherwise pretty scarce in fruit & veg. As cheese and milk are more or less defined by their proteins, nuts and legumes are pretty much the only viable alternatives. I personally can't stand the stuff. The main selling point seems to be "it melts like cheese" but in my experience, it takes on a snotty texture. It'd probably help if I was a real vegan and didn't have alternatives...

bobbyi_settv 6y ago

It's typically made from seeds or nuts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_cheese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_cheese So it's taste-and-texture replication. I don't even think it is aiming to perfectly replicate dairy cheese, as much as to be something that can be reasonably substituted for dairy cheese in the typical cases where it is used. It's analogous to how soy milk isn't meant to be indistinguishable from dairy milk but instead to be usable in place of dairy milk in coffee, cereal, etc.

williamdclt 6y ago
> I don't even think it is aiming to perfectly replicate dairy cheese It isn't, indeed. I've tried a whole bunch of different vegan cheeses, and while they sometimes call them "mozzarella", "camembert" or other dairy cheese names, they do not try to match the taste. It would be an obviously losing battle as the best they could do is to be as good, most probably and understandably falling short of that. They instead create new kinds of cheese-like products, sometimes taking inspiration from dary cheeses sometimes not, and the results are actually pretty good espectially considered how recent the art of vegan cheese is!
- guildan 6y ago
  What I found out trying out more vegan food or vegan receipes is to stop looking at them as replacement of somehting and more like a novelty. Since I've done that everything taste much better to me because I'm trying the taste and not comparing it to anything.
com2kid 6y ago
> It's analogous to how soy milk isn't meant to be indistinguishable from dairy milk but instead to be usable in place of dairy milk in coffee, cereal, etc. Unrelated, but why is it American's treat soy milk this way? American brands of soy milk are terrible, while Asian brands of soy milk can taste really good.

stellar678 6y ago

There actually is a company that has a microorganism-produced casein that's on the market and can be bought as vegan ice cream at Smitten in the Bay Area: https://www.perfectdayfoods.com/ https://www.perfectdayfoods.com/ Then there's the Real Vegan Cheese project in the East Bay, which isn't venture funded and therefor seems to be moving a bit more slowly: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/real-vegan-cheese#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/real-vegan-cheese#/