How can they make “vegan meat” that’s made of plants taste and feel so much like real meat?
In: Biology
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Chemist’s found the molecule which makes both the smell and taste of beef. They manufacture/purify that molecule, and use it to flavor the plant products. The texturing is a different matter, which I dont understand either lol
vegan meat has been a thing forever and was just squishy soy. The recent really exciting thing is they have figured out that “tastes like meat” meant “tastes like blood” and someone figured out how to make yeast produce ‘heme’ which is the part of blood that tastes like anything. Mix that in with a little effort in making fats that feel more like animal fat than plant oil and you have some fake hamburgers that taste a lot like a hamburger.
It only tastes like real meat to someone who only knows about how meat tastes from someone who read about it a long time ago.
u/Volsarex is the closest to the right answer, if only he named the protein. The molecule is heme – it’s what the red juices that come out of meat is made of (it is not, contrary to appearance, blood). Heme is part of hemoglobin, the protein structure that encapsulates iron molecules and is what acts as an oxygen carrier in our red blood cells.
Your liver processes old and dead red blood cells, strips the precious iron from the hemoglobin, and throws the heme down the garbage shoot – the bile duct. Heme then constitutes what is called your “bile pigments” and is the reason your shit is brown. It would be white because of the bleaching effect of your stomach acids, otherwise, and if you ever get sick enough, you may find that out the hard way!
Anyway, heme in meat alternatives has nothing to do with shit, the knowledge was an intrusive thought and I couldn’t help but make that connection for you – seeing the whole “bigger picture”.
The protein is indeed found in plants, which makes it compatible with strict vegan diets, and is the secret sauce to make meat alternatives taste and smell like real meat. Chemists can synthesize it. The texture of these products is, as commented, another problem.
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Also, a lot of flavor that people associate meat with is actually plant spices used in those dishes. It doesn’t make it super difficult to replicate.
I have no idea what the science is, but I know I made Seitan (isolated wheat gluten) last week and it came out like grilled teriyaki steak. I still don’t believe it.
If your’e talking about impossible burgers, they mix the ‘blood’ dna with beets and some plant matter that bonds with it and grows into the stuff that gives red meat its bloody taste and juice. I know i read about it in an article a while ago, but can’t find the link rn
The real answer to this question is that they can’t. My GF is vegan and I’ve tried all of these “game changers” not a single one comes even remotely close to the taste and texture of real meat.
Taste like real meat? I don’t know what kind of meat you eat, but mine definitely doesn’t taste like salty greasy rags.
As far as a fast food burger goes, sure, they taste similar. Then again, if you grab anything, up to and including play-doh add a ton of salt, smear it with ketchup, mayo and mustard and then bury it inside a bun, it’ll taste similar.
Try comparing a medium cooked half pound 80/20 meat burger to a vegan alternative and they will not be alike, at all.
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