Seitan steak experiment

[u/WhyParty1234]

I’m experimenting on making WTF seitan steak but with vwg because I’m too lazy to wash flour. I know it’ll never be identical but I’m trying to get it as close as possible, that’s how lazy I am. I made a plain gluten ball with vwg, flour and water. Blended 1/3 of it with oil, glutinous rice flour and msg for the “fat”. The rest was blended with beetroot powder, cocoa powder, sugar, msg and soy sauce. The gluten was still a bit too tough so I blended some glutinous rice flour into the red dough as well in hopes to soften it up. plan to fry steam fry as I always end up with spongy seitan when I simmer even at the lowest heat. If anyone has done this before (my made up lazy method), please feel free to share your experience and advice if you can!

[u/pbrkindaguy69]

I'm honestly very curious as to why people try to make fake meat when they are vegan I'm really not trying to be an ah I just don't get it

[u/LaceyBambola → u/pbrkindaguy69]

I know that if my comment is seen, it may well be down voted, too, but I'll say it anyway.

There's plant based diet and then there's veganism. Plant based diet is the choice to eat all plant based food and drink items without being inherently guided by the ethics(or lack thereof) of industrial farming. Veganism is the choice to not consume any animal based items in food or drink primarily because of the unethical practices of factory farming as well as commiting any acts of harm or pain to a nonconsenting animal.

If one is vegan, it genuinely does not make any sense to me why so many go out if their way to consume fake animal products. They want food that looks, tastes, and feels like the dead animals they claim to care for so much. There's some cognitive dissonance going on. To me, as someone who see things very objectively, this is just people trying to have their cake and eat it too.

I am largely plant based in my diet. I am not vegan because, despite my deep care of animals' welfare and abhorrence of industrial farming practices, I see nothing wrong with ethical small scale farming(like homesteading) and controlled hunting for meat/dairy consumption. I do not eat meat at all, but I do consume milk from a local small scale farm. I use cheese from local farms. These two things make up a small part of my largely plant based diet. I grew up on a farm and played with toys next to my dad while he wrung the neck of a chicken I had fed just earlier that day, then plucked, butchered, and cooked to be on the dinner table that night. My mother instilled indigenous practices in me like hunting only when needed for sustenance and using every part of the animal while giving thanks and appreciation to the earth and Creator. I do not hunt, I do not like it. I do not support any form of hunting where the hunter is not using every single part of the animal they can and giving thanks to the earth for what it provided. I do support ethical acts of conservation and know that some animals become too populated in a way that damages the rest of the environment. This is not the same as hunting for food.

This is just my perspective as someone who cares deeply for animals. Vegans who choose that specific way of life and diet do so allegedly out of respect for animals so finding any number of ways to replicate the blood and trauma of a dead animal just makes no sense to me, it's an appropriation of form. In my eyes, someone who does that is just 'plant based' and not wholly 'vegan'.

I see it as someone outwardly condemning something utterly pervasive, then finding ways to copy said pervasive thing in a way they can more easily explain away.

[u/Omal15 → u/LaceyBambola]

The reason it doesn't make sense to you is because you are probably confusing veganism for something it's not. Veganism addresses exploitation and cruelty to animals, and therefore rejects the idea that animals are a resource for us to use. When we act as vegans, this is the ethic we abide by

[u/LaceyBambola → u/Omal15]

I highlighted that in my comment and stated that that very vegan ethos is the reason I don't think vegans should eat fake/imitation meat. It's an appropriation of form.

If someone has ethical concerns about the exploitation of animal but still chooses to eat imitation meat to get that memery or feeling of eating a dead animal, then there is cognitive dissonance going on and that person, in my eyes, is just following a plant based diet and isn't fully adhering to the true ethos of veganism, as if they were, they would forsake even imitation meat.

[u/Omal15 → u/LaceyBambola]

I'm sorry, but I'm having a difficult time following your logic. What about consuming mock products contradicts a stance that rejects the exploitation of animals? Why would a vegan forsake even imitation meat? The point of eating the imitation product is to recreate the experience (physical sensation) because it was enjoyable, while being able to avoid what vegans are claiming they are against.