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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

‘Tricked’ by vegan sausages

449 replies

Rhubarbpeony · 10/03/2020 10:32

I had a friend round for dinner last night. It was a last minute plan (she lives in another city and only told me on the day that she was free that evening) so I didn’t make anything fancy. I had in the fridge a packet of Richmond vegan sausages and some potatoes, which I turned into olive oil mash. I’ve been vegan for about ten years - longer than the entire time I have known this friend. We have cooked for each other many times in the past.

As we were finishing eating, my husband got home from a late work event and saw that we had had the sausages. It’s not a brand we have tried before and they’re much cheaper than the kind we usually get, so he asked if they had been nice. I said they were good, and I’d happily have them again.

Friend gets a really odd look on her face and then says to me ‘you didn’t tell me these were vegan sausages.’ I said no, I assumed she would know that anything I cooked or ate would be vegan. She said I was wrong to assume, and that I had tricked her. She said it would be like me coming to dinner at her house and being tricked into eating a meat sausage.

AIBU or are these two things not the same?! For one thing, I definitely don’t feel like I tricked her - she saw me cook the sausages, and if she had asked anything about them I would have told her what was in them. For another, her diet doesn’t preclude her from eating vegan items, but mine does preclude me from eating meat, so IMO it’s a lot worse to give a vegan a meat sausage than it is to give a non-vegan a vegan sausage.

(for info: the sausages don’t contain any soy, and she doesn’t have any food allergies)

OP posts:
Strongmummy · 10/03/2020 10:43

Unless she was joking she was being ridiculous. It isn’t the same at all

LangSpartacusCleg · 10/03/2020 10:43

It is not even remotely the same. She is batshit.

BennyVegas · 10/03/2020 10:43

Presumably you were eating with her? It seems odd that she'd assume they were meat sausages in this scenario.

I think it might have been a tiny bit unreasonable if you were normally a meat eater not to mention they were vegan (simply because meat replacements e.g. soya or quorn can be issues for a lot of people) but as you are vegan I think it would be a given that you were serving vegan sausages.

Batqueen · 10/03/2020 10:43

If you had actively pretended they were meat, she might have a point, (although I presume she has no ethical objection to eating plants!) but you didn’t, she made an odd assumption. If I accidentally eat some sweets that contain gelatine or some non-vegetarian cheese, is it the other persons fault because I assumed? No, of course not! Not unless they actively lie to me and tell me it’s veggie when it isn’t.

Rhubarbpeony · 10/03/2020 10:43

@Bezalelle that is interesting! I remember being a cringeworthy teen and getting ‘sooo wasted’ from a couple of archers, but you would think the psychological effect is something you would grow out of!

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Namethecat · 10/03/2020 10:44

I voted yanbu . I'm vegetarian , I visit a friend at home now and again and have to go through the same scenario almost every time I go . She will ask if I want to soup she has made Veg but with a chicken stock. I'll say thanks but no thanks and she will say it only has a little bit in !

BarbaraofSeville · 10/03/2020 10:45

Batshit, as are just about all the 'I don't like vegan food' people.

Don't whatever you do ever give this woman beans on toast, falafels, hummus, salad and pittas, bean chilli, chick pea curry or any other totally normal food suitable for everyone (allergies excepted of course).

Because that would just be you vegans going round tricking people.

Glad that the Richmond vegan sausages are nice, I might try them, even though I can't bring myself to eat the meaty version as they're really low down the sausage quality scale.

UpperLowercaseSymbolNumber · 10/03/2020 10:45

I’d be a bit annoyed if someone served me vegan sausages, implied to me they were meat and when I finished went “haha haha they were vegan! And yet you still like them! Tricked you!” But that would be because I’d consider that unkind behaviour.

But on your fact pattern she is being silly.

Rhubarbpeony · 10/03/2020 10:45

@namethecat I get that from my mum too - even after ten years! ‘Go on, you can have a scone, it’s only got a bit of butter and egg in it!’.

OP posts:
Rhubarbpeony · 10/03/2020 10:47

@UpperLowercaseSymbolNumber I totally agree, I would never want to set anyone up for a ‘gotcha’ moment - it’s patronising and mean!

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SarahTancredi · 10/03/2020 10:47

Aaah the good old "I'll eat a cheese and tomato pizza for tea or a macaroni cheese but feed me something labelled as vegan and all of a sudden it's a problem" kind of crazy idiot...Hmm

Shes bat shit

SoupDragon · 10/03/2020 10:48

I wouldn't want to be "tricked" into eating a vegan sausage (I'm not keen on the idea of fake meat type substitutes) but I would expect to be served vegan food if cooked by a vegan - it's bonkers not to expect that!

SoupDragon · 10/03/2020 10:49

Aaah the good old "I'll eat a cheese and tomato pizza for tea or a macaroni cheese but feed me something labelled as vegan and all of a sudden it's a problem" kind of crazy idiot.

Do you think standard cheese and tomato pizza and macaroni cheese are vegan?

WorraLiberty · 10/03/2020 10:50

She does sound batshit.

But also, Richmond meat free sausages taste nothing like the meaty ones.

It's surprising she didn't put 2 and 2 together when she bit into one and remembered her host is a vegan.

Booboostwo · 10/03/2020 10:50

What did you trick her into? Is there something in the ingredients of the sausages that she objects to morally or has an allergy to? Most of these sausages I have seen are made from peas and flour so I don't see the problem.

SarahTancredi · 10/03/2020 10:50

No of course not . I actually typed vege it just auto corrected Blush

mumwon · 10/03/2020 10:51

the only thing to be concerned about is if the person has any issues with some ingredients - some veggie vegan type contain wheat protein as the main source or quorn or soya & each of these can cause issues especially in the larger amounts & many veggie version can be higher in fat! (think FODMAP for IBS - many people can tolerate smaller amounts ie one sausage - so warning can be useful)

AutumnRose1 · 10/03/2020 10:51

She thought you’d cooked separate sausages for both of you? That’s beyond bonkers.

ThePlantsitter · 10/03/2020 10:52

Those Richmond vegan sausages are fine but there is no way you could confuse them for a real sausage if you have ever eaten, smelled or even seen a real sausage. She's being extraordinarily weird.

easyandy101 · 10/03/2020 10:53

Your friend is an idiot

PatchworkMonkey · 10/03/2020 10:54

she will say it only has a little bit in !

@Namethecat

I get this eeevery time I go to my parents. "It's only a bit of chicken/bacon/beef it won't harm you/no one will know"

I think they do it to wind me up though. They'd never eat meat free they act like it's poison so I can relate to what you went through! So all the other meals you cooked here didn't have a "meat free" style bit?

Ravenfeet · 10/03/2020 10:56

She was probably embarrassed that she couldn't tell. It is obvious that you wouldn't serve meat so she must have been feeling like a right idiot for thinking that it was. People can get defensive and snappy in that situation. She was being completely unreasonable of course.

She should have just kept her mouth shut.

EmmiJay · 10/03/2020 10:57

You should have said, "OH NO! Now you're going to shrivel up and die!😭 I'm SO sorry!"............😐

Igotthemheavyboobs · 10/03/2020 10:58

What is actually in them then? I wouldn't want to eat some form of indescript meat substitute. I think I have been put off them by vegan friends though tbh.

Rhubarbpeony · 10/03/2020 10:58

@ThePlantsitter it’s almost like she was just trying to prove a point, but I don’t really know what the point was!

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