Eh, there’s three criteria for me with “fake” or substitute foods like this.
Does it either taste indistinguishable from the food it’s mimicking, or taste so good on its own that its still worth using?
Is it going to be no worse health wise than the original?
Does it perform either the same as, or so similar to as not to matter, as an ingredient as the original?
Previous cheese replacements fail all three metrics, or at least two of them when they manage to be better health wise. And I’ve tried a goodly number of them.
This one looks like it should perform similar to dairy cheese in some ways, but if it can’t match the taste close enough, it’ll still fail.
Cheese isn’t “just” a lump of protein and fat. There’s a complex series of processes between the teat and the cracker. The biggest one is what happens over time as a given cheese sits and matures. Something like mozzarella, I can see this process mimicking fairly well. Something like a bleu or parma, it just ain’t gonna happen.
But there’s another factor involved that isn’t one of my concerns regarding a cheese substitute. Is there an animal besides cows that can make a product where it’s more environmentally friendly, and still be cheese in every way that matters? There are cheeses made from milk other than cow milk, and they often have a much better track record environmentally and/or cruelty wise because the industry is different and the animals just don’t need the same conditions to maximize profit. That could change if they took off in a big way, but not in all cases.
Eh, there’s three criteria for me with “fake” or substitute foods like this.
Does it either taste indistinguishable from the food it’s mimicking, or taste so good on its own that its still worth using?
Is it going to be no worse health wise than the original?
Does it perform either the same as, or so similar to as not to matter, as an ingredient as the original?
Previous cheese replacements fail all three metrics, or at least two of them when they manage to be better health wise. And I’ve tried a goodly number of them.
This one looks like it should perform similar to dairy cheese in some ways, but if it can’t match the taste close enough, it’ll still fail.
Cheese isn’t “just” a lump of protein and fat. There’s a complex series of processes between the teat and the cracker. The biggest one is what happens over time as a given cheese sits and matures. Something like mozzarella, I can see this process mimicking fairly well. Something like a bleu or parma, it just ain’t gonna happen.
But there’s another factor involved that isn’t one of my concerns regarding a cheese substitute. Is there an animal besides cows that can make a product where it’s more environmentally friendly, and still be cheese in every way that matters? There are cheeses made from milk other than cow milk, and they often have a much better track record environmentally and/or cruelty wise because the industry is different and the animals just don’t need the same conditions to maximize profit. That could change if they took off in a big way, but not in all cases.