After watching the special on Netflix and then reading up on the Stanford study that compared an omnivore diet to a vegan diet in genetic twins, I decided to give some of these alternative meat products the taste test. Who doesn’t want longer telomeres? I was a little disappointed in the study as I refuse to give up cheese and we don’t know from the study design if keeping the cheese in would have reduced the lengthened telomeres or not.
Regardless, If we can get biologically younger by simply changing our diet, it’s certainly worth a try. I do however enjoy my meat so a taste test was in order. Still a lot of different products and brands to try but from my initial test I have a found a few that almost trick the taste buds and one in particular that stood out above the rest.
So first up was the beyond beef patties. They were grilled on the stove in a cast iron pan and the results were less than what I had hoped. The patties had that particular off after taste that I have experienced with meat alternatives in the past. Not horrible by any means but certainly did not replace a fat juicy burger.
Gluten free spaghetti and meatballs with garlic French bread is a staple dinner in the house, so meatballs were up next. The consistency was slightly mushy compared to meat based meatballs. The flavor again was just a little off with the same particular after taste of the burger patties. So edible but not a true replacement for the taste buds.
Next up were the chicken patties. These do not have the same after taste as the burgers or the meatballs. They taste like well chicken, kind of? Texture is different but similar to a traditional chicken nugget. Apparently trying to recreate something that already is trying to impersonate chicken is a little easier task. With the right buns and fixings you could almost forget it wasn’t actually chicken. Low bar here though as we know everything kind of tastes like chicken.
With all of the rave reviews and PR surrounding the impossible burgers I had high hopes for this product. It cooked up like a burger browning on both sides. It smelled and looked like a burger. It did not have the same odd after taste of the beyond burger, but the lack of actual fat content was discernable to my taste buds. Still the best burger alternative I’ve had yet, but it won’t fool the taste buds of any respectable carnivore.
Taco Tuesday can’t go away just because you go vegan. These crumbles did in fact fool the taste buds. A little on the salty and spicy side. When fried up and stuffed into hard taco shells with guacamole and hot sauce the taste buds will be fooled. It tastes a little more like chicken than actual churizo but it did fool me into thinking I was eating a meat of some sort taco.
Who doesn’t like a good chicken finger with sauce? Great snack food with a little dipping sauce. Shout out here to the horrible marketers that show dipping sauce in the photo but include a disclaimer that says sauce not included. What is next a disclaimer, no crispy tenders included and just an empty bag for $6?
As for the taste, they taste chicken ish? They actually tasted good, no off after taste. If you can get by the out of place oats that encase the outside, it’s a pretty good alternative meat snack. They were not as dense as normal chicken tenders would be but all in all not a bad replacement.
So the winner is Impossible Spicy Sausage. This was the first product that cooked up just like sausage. It smelled just like Italian sausage. And most importantly it tasted just like good Italian sausage. I used it on the Pizza in the featured image. I will be using this in lasagna, calzones, and of course meatballs. I would like a scientific analysis done on the contents as my taste buds still believe this is actual sausage.
