Does quorn taste as rank as it looks?

[Waxonwaxoff0]

Making an effort to try and cut down on my meat consumption so I've bought quorn mince to make bolognese with tomorrow. Never tried it before in my life but it looks horrible. DM who is vegetarian swears blind that I won't be able to tell that it's not beef mince. Is she having me on?

I prefer it to beef mince, but it is a bit soft so you have to make sure you don't over cook it. I like it with chunks of onion for texture and made into bolognese. I really love the chicken pieces myself. DH hates them. We are not veggies but I've never been a massive meat eater.

We think it tastes fine with a good sauce, but it brings on wind...not nice when everyone has it.

We like the nuggets (faux chicken nuggets) and the burgers are tasty as well. Not wind-inducing in our house either!

The one I'm finding difficult to try (have one in the freezer) is the Quorn roast, it's literally a solid cylinder, I can't imagine it looks nice when cooked.

DD has recently become vegetarian, so we're experimenting with various Quorn products!

How come it upsets people's stomachs?

It's supposed to be because it's high in fibre. But I think as well some people's stomachs don't like eating what is effectively mould and complain

I love mould all the best cheese has it and some of the nicest wine !

Wine? I never knew that, which ones?

BTW, I love Quorn but hate mouldy cheese

Quorn mince is nothing like real mince. Not even vaguely. Its fine as a substitute, but it does make me stink from the nether regions.

My vegan / veggie friends would insist its very similar, but that's because they've forgotten what actual meat tastes like. Its not similar.

Honestly though, it depends on your palette and how much you want to avoid meat.

I tried vegan kebab 'meat' the other day. It wasn't anything at all like kebab meat of course, but I had it in a wrap with salad and thought it was perfectly adequate and filled a gap. I made a wrap for DH as well, and he was utterly disgusted and threw it away.

I quite like Quorn, prefer it to soya but you need strong flavourings. There used to be a Quorn chicken and mushroom pie that was nice.

Botrytis cinerea can occur on fruits, vegetables and flowers –imagine a moldy strawberry. However with wine, it's considered a good thing. Wines such as Sauternes from Bordeaux; Tokaji Aszu from Hungary, and Spätlese level German Riesling all are made from 'Noble Rot' grapes.
@LoveMySituation

Thanks @ dreich sounds yummy

I don't like it as I think it tastes like sausage meat,and I hate the taste of sausage meat.

The mince and sausages are lovely.

It’s revolting.

Dd is allergic to Quorn so we don’t use it, we do like the plant based mince you get in Sainsburys though

If you are wanting to reduce meat consumption rather than go fully vegetarian you can replace half of the mince in your recipes for porridge oats. You literally cannot tell they are in there once it is cooked into a bolognese or a chile con carne, I was really surprised the first time I tried it. It bulks out mince much more cheaply too!

I think like any food there will be those that like it or don’t it’s irrelevant that it’s a meat sub in that regard.

I’ve been veggie over 30 years and well remember when there was sod all available! It was either spend loads of time cooking from scratch with vegetables or use less than nice tasting and very limited products from health food shops like unflavoured soya protein etc.

There was beanfeast which gives me horrendous heartburn and came ready flavoured in iirc max 3 different flavours, savoury, bolognese and chilli. And things like sosmix which was a dried soya product designed to be made up into veggie sausages, tasted nice enough but was messy and time consuming to make.

When quorn came on the market it was a huge change for many veggies.

Linda McCartney’s range came out around the same time I think and also meant there was much more choice and availability for veggies.

Regarding the stomach issues - again can happen with any foodstuff. I can’t tolerate spicy food these days, I’ve never been able to manage citrus fruits or juices, instant diarrhoea! And as a veggie I have to watch I actually don’t overdo the pulses as that also affects me.

Weirdly I discovered after turning veggie that red meat upsets my stomach MASSIVELY so, I’d spent my childhood until then having red meat most days as that was the norm for my mum, when I went veggie a lot of the stomach issues I’d had all but disappeared, but labelling/info on food wasn’t yet as good back in the 80’s as it is now and on a few occasions I ate red meat or by products by accident that’s what led me to the discovery, the last time actually landed me in a&e I was so ill. I’ve been VERY careful to avoid since.

Like eating anything new it’s trial and error.

I like most of the quorn products although obviously avoid the spicy ones, I’m not keen on the frozen sausages and prefer the Linda McCartney ones but I like the cocktail sausages.

The mince I like well enough thought the texture is a bit insubstantial so I prefer to use soya mince for that reason. But I will use it in recipes that are fairly quick and well flavoured like bolognese.