Confusing Groceries: Vegan 'Meat'

Part 18 in a series about the most confusing items to shop for in the grocery store covers vegetarian meat dishes like "meat-free meatballs"... why would they be called that??

[acetarlton]

I think Kenji put it perfectly in his crispy oven fried wings video; “language is used to communicate things. If I say ‘oven fried’ you know that they’re like fried wings but I baked them in the oven.”

[Cassius]

Coconut is a mammal:
- has hair
- gives milk

[lostinpencils]

I’m always amazed at how unbelievably repetitive comments are on vegan food accounts

[PoorEdward]

It amazes me when people forget the entire point of language is just to communicate as efficiently and specifically as possible.

[The_moonlit]

The fact that this needs to get explained...
That's like asking why a buildING isn't called a buildED when clearly it is finished.

[oggy]

Even as a meat eater, I can understand that just because someone decides for ethical reasons they are vegan, it does not necessarily mean they dislike the taste of animal products. It makes sense, especially if you grew up eating animal products, that you'd be interested in meals that 'replicate' those comforing meals and flavour profiles.

[SwarmofBees-inatrenchcoat]

Also, as a vegetarian, I wanted to add one more thing: it helps us distinguish between what products are meant to taste like meat versus which will taste like veggies . If I see "smoky tempeh, " I'm expecting it to taste like tempeh, but if I see "plant based bak'n" I'm expecting it to at least resemble bacon

[ImLimon]

honestly i think that a lot of people would comment similar things if they called them something new cause like
"uuh that's a burger?? dont you know??? you didn't invent those foods just for changing some ingredients??!"

[MegamiShin]

I assume those people correcting people about vegan meat or coconut milk are just technical geniuses via Seanbaby. “You're smart enough to spot a technicality, but too dumb to know everyone else did too and it was light years away from the point.”

[jcorona]

For those of us who speak Spanish, chingaderinera sauce is VERY explanatory.

[NinjaLLR]

Seen a lot of vegan food ppl making this point but it's good to see it coming from someone who is more mainstream! A lot of vegans like myself like the taste of meat etc we just don't want to contribute to animal suffering so that's why we have these substitutes!

[swedneck]

Also important to note that the practice of calling milk-like substances "whatever-milk" is literally like thousands of years old.

Nutmilk (get it out of your system) is not a particularly complex thing to come up with and we are not the first to do so.

[P.e.m.a.]

I miss the 90s when you could say coconut milk without everyone shreeking and writhing like a worm on arizona cement in july.

[chase--]

People will scream about the existence of a vegan cheeseburger but are completely fine with chicken burger

[twentytwo]

Chingaderinara sauce! 😂😂😂 I spit my water!

[EthanBeattie-whzx]

As a New England native, the very idea of "a lobster roll but shrimp instead" stunlocked my brain, like a verbal flashbang

[kankunation]

this has got to be one of my top 10 annoyances in food communities and it seems to always come from bad faith commenters who are just looking to cause conflict..

Like yes, everybody knows almond milk isn't really milk. the "milk" part is a descriptior letting you know its color, taste and consistency are intended to make it a potential replacement for milk, and everybody understands that is isn't really milk from a mammal. but some people insist on being snarky about such things, saying "just call it juice", when that name would imply an entirely different purpose in the kitchen and would not properly convey what it is intended for. and calling it "Almond-derived milk substitute" is just too wordsome for a normal person conversation.

as long as you have the Neccessary qualifiers that make it clear you arent consuming the thing ( milk, burger, etc) its perfectly acceptable language that 99% of the poulation understands without having to be explained that is isn't the "real" thing. the only people regularly being stnarky about it are the pople who for some reason or another aren not happy with the idea of such alternatives existing in the first place.

[parkerhunt]

No that “chingaderinera” comment might be one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard you say lmfaooo

[njujuznem]

Also, literally one of the oldest English dictionaries (Samuel Johnson's 1755) includes almond milk under the definition of "milk"

[miles_quartz]

thank you for this man 😭 whenever i read those comments i just want to scream "are you really that stupid or are you just trying to rage bait??" it's always "erm why vegan eat something that isn't meat if they don't eat meat? checkmate liberal i am very smart" god forbid we try new things!! why does calling vegan "meat" meat make them seethe so hard like they own the word meat