Scientists perfect plant-based cheeses - stretch, melt, and taste like dairy
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from Rodneyck@lemm.ee to vegan@lemmy.world on 05 May 2025 20:50
https://lemm.ee/post/63150928
from Rodneyck@lemm.ee to vegan@lemmy.world on 05 May 2025 20:50
https://lemm.ee/post/63150928
#vegan
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There isnt really any reason why it should be impossible, but yeah i will have to taste it to believe it.
I mean, have you tried any of the cheese alternatives /s
I am excited for any and all improvements.
Daiya American slices on nachos or a burger is perfectly acceptable. It’s just super weird when it’s cold. And I’ve given up entirely trying to find a blue cheese substitute.
I’ve found tofutti slices to be a little better for those dishes and my new bar for acceptable. Dayia is better now that they use oat milk but it still tastes wrong to me. All the other brands are really quite bad.
I miss wild berry tofutti cuties from 25 years ago.
There are three vegan blue cheeses that i know about, currently available in europe that i can recommend: French brand Jay & Joy “Jeanne” French brand Petit veganne “Petit Azur bio” German brand Veganz “Bluebert”
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by vegan blue cheese dressings, but blue cheese itself…yeah, it’s got a long ways to go.
This is surprising to me. The “follow your heart” blue cheese fits the bill perfectly for me.
I would kill for a mozz that got anywhere close to actual cheese.
I mean the fact that they ARE so terrible convinces me actually that there is so much room for improvements.
I’m always wondering: what if dairy+ meat never had gotten to be defined as western staples? Where would other sources of food be now in development ? A prime example is tofu in the Asian cultures: while diminished as “sub” in western culture, its a staple there.
In my opinion you have to be used to meat to enjoy it. Cheese too to an extent (excites some of the same neuro receptors as opiates…). I don’t think tofu is an acquired taste though, it’s very bland and neutral and you can make it taste however you like.
Fermented vegan cheeses have all the same tastes cause it’s the same process I’d recommend to try modern ones they’re really great nowadays. Depends of the country of course.
I’ve tried and will continue to try every one.
I’ve always wondered over why fermented tofu etc. isn’t popular here. It’s super hard to source but it fucks so hard.
All tofu is fermented, no? Do they sometimes double ferment it? That sounds bomb
Nah, tofu is just coagulated protein. Basically make soy milk and condense the protein, takes a couple hours tops at home for a brick. Tempeh on the other hand…
The headline is click-bait of course, but the plant based cheeses have gotten much better. Some of my family have dairy allergies (not just lactose intolerance) so I have to buy these often and I can confirm that the better brands do actually melt properly now and tasted better. It’s still not the same of course, but it is close enough that I can use them in many meals rather than making two batches and no one seems to notice.
My wife developed lactose intolerance 3-4 years ago and loves cheese. Just within the past couple of months she’s begun to find some plant cheeses that are decent. Still no replacement for feta though, unfortunately.
Violife makes a pretty decent feta.
Thanks, I’ll see if I can find that locallly.
Edit: That’s actually the brand she’s using for all of the other cheeses. Shows how much I’m paying attention! I didn’t think she was impressed with their feta though.
Cooked pressed cheeses like Sbrinz or Parmesan have no lactose. It’s livable to only go for those except on a few occasions with the help of lactase pills.
Can you recommend some?
Violife is the brand she likes right now. At least their slices and parmesan crumbles. She says they actually melt like cheese is supposed to and taste alright too.
Thanks!
Wow, really cool. Sounds like great progress for the industry. And it’s Canadian >.<! Good on AOL for covering this, although they should have used the “grilled cheese pull apart” test for the headline photo (copied below).
The research study was published in Physics of Fluids: pubs.aip.org/…/Impact-of-protein-sources-on-the-f…
Here’s a popular press summary from the journal’s publisher: Just as Gouda: Improving the Quality of Cheese Alternatives
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/094fd3e6-9cb0-4a0a-990f-807702ee60d9.jpeg">
Nice! I’ve been vegan for 25 years, so no longer the best judge of “just like cheese”, but I’m stoked at the improvements since I vegan.
Never been vegan, but would love to see vegan alternatives that are as good (subjectively) as real cheeses. I do try to make an effort to reduce my animal-based food consumption, but cheese is really hard for me to leave behind.
It’s a big sticking point for many, and I felt the same way making the transition from vegetarian to vegan. In the end, I found I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I would, but that’s just my experience.
I appreciate your sentiments, and your efforts to limit your consumption. I will always applaud someone who eats a vegan diet 5 or 6 days out of 7. If everyone could manage something like that, it would make a huge difference :)
And I appreciate your non-dogmatic point of view as you hit the nail on the head - having a vegan diet 7 days of the week for sure has a bigger (positive) impact on the world than having a vegan diet on 5 or 6 days.
But even 1 day a week is better than 0 days.
We mustn’t allow ‘perfect’ being the enemy of ‘good’.
Agreed. I make an effort, though I’m not gonna pretend that I’ve ever been shamed for not being vegan, despite what the stereotypes suggest.
Crap. Drag prefers the taste of vegan cheese. Drag doesn’t want it to take like breast cheese
You’ll eat the fake breast cheese and you’ll like it
Cool development and I’m sure it’s good, but ain’t no way it tastes like dairy cheese.
i will take exactly ONE “no thank you bite”
Cheese is so interesting because it’s cultured, with different bacteria that make it all taste different. It’s more like a living thing. Vegan cheese is the stuff of school pizzas. Pasteurized Processed Cheese Food.
Still interesting, and happy for vegans, but coconut oil and pea protein made into an ultraprocessed cheese food doesn’t sound healthier than cheese.
fair, but it’s not like the high saturated fat and high cholesterol levels in dairy based cheese make it really that “healthy” by comparison … meanwhile, lots of vegans are motivated more by not supporting the poor treatment of cows or by environmental concerns, both of which are solved by vegan cheese.
Ohh wo/man I totally agree. I just can’t eat the real stuff. I blow up, not just in my digestion but physically I have terrible whole body inflammation.
I like to have fake pizza once or twice a month. This will make it better (once i read the article and taste it).
Sounds like you’ve only ever had bad vegan cheese…
There’s a lot of it, so yeah. If vegan cheese reaches the point where it’s basically indistinguishable from dairy cheese, a lot more people will become vegan. Maybe price is also a factor but most vegan cheese is plain bad in my experience
Price is a factor, but so is brand recognition. Daiya is a great example that’s carried everywhere because it’s been around so long but is awful.
If you can find Miyoko’s, that was started by the chef that popularized actual cultured (meaning produced by a bacterial process like animal milk based cheeses) vegan cheese, and is an entirely different experience.
Yeah, it can be quite hit-and-miss. Some vegan cheese tastes like fat and stinky feet. But on the other hand, I’ve had sliced cheese and cream cheese, which I liked better than the original.
Main limiting factor at that point was the selection. I could get one or two kinds of good sliced cheeses, not ten+ like you might get for the non-vegan side of things. But yeah, I branched out more towards legumes and nuts, then the selection is good, too.
There are plenty of molded/aged cheeses in higher-end vegan markets, and do-it-yourselfers.
It is, for the cows.
If you think most cheeses are not purely industrial foods you’re fooling yourself.
I’ve made cheese, though, it just seems more like food than the ones made from oil. Still - I know this is the vegan sub, and I cook for vegans quite often, I am happy for y’all that it’s getting better tasting, for sure.
I’ve made home made vegan cheese too. The ingredients were cashews, water and salt. My point is that the stuff we buy in the supermarket is very far from the home made stuff.
You think cheese is HEALTHY? You gonna die young.
Too late for that!
<3 I love vegan cheese
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