If this were the case, we would have stopped eating those dishes. But we didn't, we still make eggplant parmesan, pasta and beans, pasta al pomodoro, pizza marinara, bean soup, minestrone, ...
My point was that you _don't need_ stuff to taste like meat in order for them to be good. People couldn't afford meat so they had to invent tasty food without it, and they largely succeeded at that. Meat got so popular and common not only because it tastes great, but because it's easy to prepare and was associated to a higher status compared to more humble dishes. Several food historians theorised that the birth of many Italian-American dishes can be explained with the extreme poverty most emigrants were escaping from. people got euphoric from finally being able to afford all of the meat they wanted, so they started putting it everywhere just because they could.
The problem is that for too many people having meat is a necessary condition for something to be tasty, which isn't the case. And no, fake meat doesn't really taste like meat unless you haven't ever had meat before. It tastes good, but definitely not like meat. There are other traditionally vegan things that taste way better to be honest.
> great nutritional value
as a meat eater, this is somewhat debatable tbh. Sure meat contains lots of protein, but you can easily get it from other sources both plant and animal based (like eggs, for instance). Red meat is also pretty unhealthy, too; I eat it because it's tasty and convenient, not for the nutritional value it provides.
Easy is definitely a big part of it. It's not impossible to make tasty and nutritious food without meat, it's just not as easy. Especially if you don't use any animal products at all. From an environmental and ethical point of view those don't really differ that much anyway.
Fake meat doesn't really taste like real meat yet, which is one reason why they aren't selling as well as hoped. I think it will be easier to develop fake meats which are indistinguishable from the real thing than convincing the majority of the people to forgo meat without having an equivalent replacement available. Making really really good fake meat is going to be extremely hard, making the majority of people vegan (or even significantly reduce their animal product consumption) without it will be borderline impossible.
> It's not impossible to make tasty and nutritious food without meat, it's just not as easy
I respectfully disagree: while vegan cooking isn’t common for most of us, when you get used to it it’s not harder to cooking delicious and nutritious dishes. It’s also probably easier sanitary-wise.
Just to cite a few:
- mushrooms sauté
- tempeh cubes in broth or sauce
- dal
My point was that you _don't need_ stuff to taste like meat in order for them to be good. People couldn't afford meat so they had to invent tasty food without it, and they largely succeeded at that. Meat got so popular and common not only because it tastes great, but because it's easy to prepare and was associated to a higher status compared to more humble dishes. Several food historians theorised that the birth of many Italian-American dishes can be explained with the extreme poverty most emigrants were escaping from. people got euphoric from finally being able to afford all of the meat they wanted, so they started putting it everywhere just because they could.
The problem is that for too many people having meat is a necessary condition for something to be tasty, which isn't the case. And no, fake meat doesn't really taste like meat unless you haven't ever had meat before. It tastes good, but definitely not like meat. There are other traditionally vegan things that taste way better to be honest.
> great nutritional value
as a meat eater, this is somewhat debatable tbh. Sure meat contains lots of protein, but you can easily get it from other sources both plant and animal based (like eggs, for instance). Red meat is also pretty unhealthy, too; I eat it because it's tasty and convenient, not for the nutritional value it provides.