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Meat tastes good. Mushrooms taste good, but in a different way. You can want a perfect world, but it will never exist. Like it or don't, solving meat consumpt
by Loughla 3y ago
Meat tastes good. Mushrooms taste good, but in a different way.
You can want a perfect world, but it will never exist.
Like it or don't, solving meat consumption and its effects on the planet is something we'll have to do. That probably involves a meaty substitute for meat.
- pjot 3y agoDoes meat actually taste good though? When has anyone ordered unseasoned chicken? Salt and spices taste good.
- dpig_ 3y agoRed meats taste good sans spices.
- parthdesai 3y agoeh, you still need salt + pepper.
- ddingus 3y agoNo, you don't. Well, maybe you do, but it can be prepared well and require none of those things.
- tsimionescu 3y agoSalt helps a lot, but pepper is not necessary. And even an unsalted steak is still good.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- parthdesai 3y agoJust for fun and games, let's apply your logic but inverse the argument. Do salt and spices actually taste good though? When has anyone ordered only salt and spices? Need both (or salt, spices and vegetables/lentils/beans etc), and a skilled cook for delicious meal.
- ethanbond 3y agoI really think the "you don't actually like meat" strategy is counterproductive to the cause of getting people comfortable with alternatives.
- ddingus 3y agoIt totally is. I like meat. In fact, I really like it. No shame in that. The answer is in the fact that I (we) like a lot of other stuff! Maximize that and meat consumption will be reduced.
- timeon 3y agoMaybe not good strategy but still really interesting question.
- tsimionescu 3y agoIt's a really silly question. People love the aroma of meat, obviously. Steak is often served with just a bit of extra salt, which has no aroma of its own. The smell of meet on a fire is already delicious, even without salt. Of course, there are also people who don't like the taste of meat at all. But to claim people who like meat actually like the spices is patently ridiculous, not interesting.
- ddingus 3y agoIt does taste good! When cooked, most meats have the necessary fats needed to bring out great flavor. Anyone who has done primitive camping can tell you just how good meat cooked in various ways is!
- dlkf 3y agoThe fallacy here is pretty transparent. On the one hand, you’re saying meat ”doesn’t taste good” because it is usually not served in isolation. But on the other hand, you claim that seasoning tastes good, despite the fact that it is never served in isolation.
- zaphirplane 3y agoWhere is fallacy ? Sugar is sweet I’ve never ordered a cup of sugar in a cafe or seen it on the menu
- dlkf 3y agoParent claims that because we don’t eat meat plain, this shows that it isn’t the meat that ”tastes good”, its the seasoning. The fallacy is that we could have applied the exact same logic to the seasoning: we don’t eat steak seasoning plain, therefore it isn’t the seasoning that tastes good, its the meat. By parent’s logic, meat both does and does not taste good. The resolution, which has always been obvious to everyone (except hackernews, apparently) is that flavour is the result of the combination of ingredients. That you typically eat X and Y together doesn’t mean X is tasteless and Y is tasty (or the reverse). It just means X and Y combine to make a good dish.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- anonylizard 3y agoIndians have figured out how to make vegetables taste very good (It helps India is perfect for growing spices) But Indians still eat meat, the majority in fact.
- Loughla 3y agoYou haven't really understood what I said. You can want one thing, but you have to live with the real thing. Some people think meat tastes good, regardless of seasoning. Drawing attention to seasoning is just a red herring. We need to figure out low-co2 meat. And seasonings.
- xwdv 3y agoWe do eat meat plain. Not poultry typically, but give me a Dutch oven and with little more than some oil and water I can easily prepare a delicious 3 hour braise of chuck roast that can gently shred apart with a fork. The fat is delicious, it melts out to a liquidy goodness that bathes the meat. Get a nice charred sear on both sides before adding the braising liquid, you’ll have flavorful goodness. Adding more ingredients only enhances the flavor, but it’s not necessary if your taste buds aren’t hyperstimulated. Meat tastes good.
- brightlancer 3y ago> Does meat actually taste good though? It does to me -- but I think there's a good point here (even if unintentional): Meats have _textures_ that vegetables don't have. Someone else mentioned how the Impossible Burger replicates "the bloody meat texture". For many folks, that's going to be as important as the taste. I love vegetables but sometimes I just want a hamburger -- or kung pao chicken, or lamb kadhi, or many other dishes where I _like_ the taste and texture of the meat, and I don't have a better replacement.
- ETH_start 3y agoThe only reasons to find ways to end consumption of natural meat are 1. to increase efficiency and 2. ethical concerns relating raising animals in confinement to slaughter and eat them. The effects on the planet can be completely eliminated with massive expansion of nuclear and/or space-based electricity generation to power vertical farms that a) don't displace natural habitats and b) capture and recycle livestock's methane emissions along with other waste products.
- howlin 3y agoFungi make up one of three primary kingdoms of multicellular life. Mushrooms and other fungus have a variety of flavors already, and some of them are quite meat-like. Given fungus cells are more similar to animal than they are plant, it is possible that they can be selectively bred or engineered to taste more meat-like. I wouldn't be too dismissive of the potential here.
- asah 3y agothere's a startup for that: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/hedgehog-2 https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/hedgehog-2
- Loughla 3y agoI'm not being dismissive, but was instead responding to a completely useless argument based on the ideal. Ideally, people will choose to eat mushroom instead of meat. An ideal situation only exists in a textbook, and dealing with reality is what we should do, was sort of my point.
- beefpies 3y ago> I'm not being dismissive, but was instead responding to a completely useless argument.... Listen to yourself.
- Loughla 3y agoSorry, let me explain more. I'm not being dismissive of the use of mushrooms as a meat argument. But I was being dismissive of the moral superiority based, "you should do this because it's right" argument being made framed by mushrooms. I hope that's more clear.
- s0rce 3y agoAnything is probably possible eventually, you could engineer a fungus to grow and taste like meat. Is it economical and possible with current technology, maybe not.