What’s the best (*edit: plant-based) ‘bacon’ alternative you’ve tried?

(Obligatory meat-based dad-quips go here, I set it it up nicely to make it easy)

As a lifelong baconite (Yet conflicted since about nineteen-numpty-moo) my thirty-year quest for an alternative has been a long and sometimes strange journey. I first tried those Morningstar strips (thin, US-style, no longer available in UK) and those weren’t bad. I just had them once in a blue moon with egg on a buttie. Then I couldn’t get them. So I gave up for a while and carried on with the odd guilty purchase of fatty pig parts, more intermittent bacon-free years, and then some home-cooking experiments from the ridiculous (frazzle-type corn snacks straight from the bag into the pan then bunned with an egg on top) to the sublime (king oyster mushroom rashers, marinaded then baked until chewy-crisp) – the latter being by far the best. Various supermarket brand vegan and veggie rashers ranged from vile to ‘tastes like plastic frazzles’ (looking at you, Quorn)

Finally gave up last year because the mushroom version was IME too expensive for the minute yield once cooked.

Then, last week, the beautiful Mrs Rider arrived from a trip with ‘a surprise’. Thought it would be a bag of crisps or a cake because I’m a fat ****. But she handed me a packet of what looked like giant anchovy fillets that you get in a jar.

‘This isn’t bacon’

Intrigues yet skeptical I cut it open (stinks like smoke) fried three of them up in rapeseed oil, cooked till nearly crispy, then added a few mushroom slices then wapped the lot between some white bread with brown sauce on the plate.

Skepticism turned to silence. Happy time! These are without doubt the nearest I’ve tried (in both taste, smell and texture) to smoked crispy, meaty bacon rashers.

Impressed. Mightily.

Cons? Don’t like the plastic packaging. Too much like supermarket bacon-packaging. But otherwise, SCORE! Good times 🙂

Any others I should be trying?*

Some blurb here https://this.co/

* Once a week/fortnight, as part of a calorie controlled balanced diet, etc etc..

I’m puzzled.

You want something that feels, tastes and looks just like bacon but not bacon.

Pancetta? It’s not bacon honest.

Mask the taste of anything with vile mushrooms and brown sauce and it doesn’t matter what it is!

Go on then OP, what were they? You have a link?

I like new things in my face hole.

This is pretty good.

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/all-vegan-products/plant-pioneers-smoky-vacon-rashers-88g

Go on then OP, what were they? You have a link?

I like new things in my face hole.

I put a link at the end 👍🏼

Another review here (with many more exciting uses I never thought of 🙄) https://bakeydoesntbake.com/2019/09/04/this-isnt-bacon-review/

Also, cooked some more today and it was even better made crispier, not so it blackens but starting to brown and crisp on the edges.

Try the toy bacon from Early Learning Centre, can’t be worse than the other stuff!

Back when I was veggie, morning star was the best, but was a pain as it was so thin. iirc it was sold frozen (?) so the strips froze together.

Try the toy bacon from Early Learning Centre, can’t be worse than the other stuff!

🤣🤣😂. Funnily,enough, that’s EXACTLY how I rememberMorningstar Farms facon looking. Like those you’d get in a plastic pan in a toy kitchen!

this is totally different level stuff.

They remind me of my old Nan’s bingo wings in this pic

They remind me of my old Nan’s bingo wings in this pic

That was epic. Covered in glory. Like this suspected STWer, prepared earlier 🤣

(Note: Ye gods, it actually looks somewhat like me when my hair clippers broke. Silver-topped gammon wrapped in bacon… 😬)

Own up, which one of you is it?

That looks lush.

EDIT – ARGHH!!! I meant the breakfast, not the picture above.

This is pretty good.

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/all-vegan-products/plant-pioneers-smoky-vacon-rashers-88g

Tried that, not nice. Fine if you like smoky bacon crisps but otherwise not nice at all.

Usually get this stuff https://www.uptonsnaturals.com/products/bacon-seitan

That looks lush.

EDIT – ARGHH!!! I meant the breakfast, not the picture above.

😂😂 oh god! I’m laughing in public for what looks like no discernible reason.

If you are not eating bacon why bother trying to pretend you are? Why not just admit that its a plastic tasting lump of veg gloop

^ Well-said. I’ve no idea why I like the taste and texture of bacon, but I’m not’pretending’ to believe that this is animal-tissue any more than I’m ‘pretending’ to believe that takeaway crispy seaweed isn’t cabbage.

I’m not fooled. I really like it. I really like food and am super-picky about good taste. I don’t even like cheap bacon and I love bacon.

lump of veg gloop

Is this another product from Gwenyth Paltrow’s lifestyle company?

I don’t understand this idea that vegetarian food has to resemble our taste like meat.

Accept that if you are not going to eat meat then the food you eat won’t taste like meat.

Having said that, my GF was very sceptical of Glamorgan sausages one time. It took some effort on the waitress’ part to convince her they were not some type of quorn alternative.

That looks lush.

EDIT – ARGHH!!! I meant the breakfast, not the picture above.

Almost crying here.

😀

I don’t understand

😑

this idea that vegetarian plant-based meat alternative products have to resemble or taste like meat.

FTFY

And I’ve no idea why people would make plant-based meat alternatives look, feel, smell and taste like ‘our’ meat-based alternatives? Why would they? It’d be like making a carbon-based bike alternative and then not accepting that if you are not going to ride steel then the bike you ride won’t feel like steel.

So why dress it up like a ..nother chewy, salty, fatty, marinaded protein-delivery snack? I mean bike. Yeah that.

OTOH, I often wonder if strict veggies bitch and moan that meat-loaf is imitating lentil-loaf? Or strict baconites get upset about turkey ham not being bacon or turkey?

Why have alcohol-free beer and decaf coffee? Makes no sense, you might as well just have a pint.

And chicken burgers, what are they all about?

Terrible thing, choice.

Ooops! Just reread your post and see you wanted plant based. No wonder I was puzzled.

Anyway pigs have been turning plants into meat for centuries so not sure we need to bother.

Anyway pigs have been turning plants into meat for centuries so not sure we need to bother.

Stunning. 9.5

😬

After some trials over the last month or so I’ve discovered it gets even better fried in coconut oil (get a jar from Lidl for cheapness) for fatty tastiness. Also discovered if cooked for longer until almost leathery it gets properly meaty and chewy, be sure you get the edges going crispy and the whole thing looking like in the pic above. Conversely if undercooked it’s not good at all.

Have also used in other recipe, although only one so far. But it’s a very, very tasty one and it works perfectly. Cut into little lardons and fry as above. Then use as designated for bacon here:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/246529/chef-johns-colcannon-hash/

Is this another product from Gwenyth Paltrow’s lifestyle company?

Just remember the jade eggs don’t fry up at all well.

And don’t use her candles to mask the smell.

It is odd that people go plant based / vegan etc and then start to consume some of the most serious **** about food on the planet. Most meatalikes are seriously processed.
Surely going plant based is about getting back to basics, closer to the farmer and field – not replace a perfectly acceptable foodstuff with something created ina food science lab.
Said as a food technologist BTW

^. Thanks for the question, I think! Was really just reporting on the product but I suppose it’s customarily inevitable hereabouts to get baited into ‘defence’. I never learn 😭

OK bacon is not ‘perfectly acceptable’ to me. I choose an alternative. I’m not a wholefood ‘purist’, and quite happy at my age to now eat a processed food item once a week. Aren’t you? Isn’t most bacon processed?

Many studies have linked processed meat products, such as bacon, with cancer and heart disease. All of them are observational studies, which cannot prove causation but their results have been fairly consistent.

At the end of the day, you have to make your own choice and take a look at the matter objectively. Importantly (for me) I decided a long time ago that ON THE WHOLE mass-farming and slaughter of pigs is not good for those pigs, not good for me, nor for the environment. I felt that it was a matter of personal weakness which prevented me from *not* buying packs of bacon and demolishing them between half a loaf of sliced white bread.

I am recently having to face up to the fact that I have had an impulsive eating disorder for many years, and typically have eaten (and continue to eat) lots of cheap,fatty, filling, and/or sugary crap to make myself feel better about a number of things in my life that I either can’t change, or do not have the strength to change. ‘Emotional binge-eating‘ is also normalised in my immediate family.

There were only so many £1-£2 burgers, pepperoni pizzas, sausage rolls, meat pies, crisps, cheese toasties etc etc that I could stomach before making a change before it kills me either from depression, diabetes or a combination. I believe it’s something to do with dopamine and I score very highly on attention deficit tests, so that would also fit.

Your mileage varies, obviously and good for you, but I still can’t understand why so many meat-eaters get so confused atop a high-horse just because someone eats a few pieces of processed veg once a week. I fully understand if you don’t eat any processed food, btw.

I don’t make it my business to police or even question other people’s food choices. Last time I saw someone doing that (other than on this forum) was a meat-eater and his wife loudly and publicly ‘shaming’ Mrs Rider in a farmer’s market queue because she politely refused to try a sample of the pork sausage that she was (ironically) buying as a breakfast surprise for me. ‘OH NOOOO, SHE’s ONE OF ***THOSE***, SCOFF, BRAY, HEREWEGO’ etc

Anyway, I’m not vegan, yet you addressed me as one. If that were the case you would surely understand that pork would not at all be ‘perfectly acceptable’?

Surely even those of us making changes and trying to choose more plant-based diets are not automatically beholden to some kind of ‘holier-than-thou’, purist meritocracy where all processed foods are verboten on pain of interrogation from baconites?

Yours,

A N Otherbloke

she politely refused to try a sample of the pork sausage that she was (ironically) buying as a breakfast surprise for me. ‘OH NOOOO, SHE’s ONE OF ***THOSE***, SCOFF, BRAY, HEREWEGO’ etc

Mrs Rider should have replied “yes I am one of those Jews, are you a Nazi?”

BTW, it wasn’t a pop at you …
I am not sure that many people who look to eat less meat / become flexitarian/ vegetarian / vegan are aware of how processed some products are…
Beyond Meat / Impossible burger/ Tofurkey sausages etc are all high processed to make plant protein look, taste and behave like it’s not.
Which is all great – if you goal is to leave animals well alone. But most people are changing their diet (like you) for health reasons. Much of the new proteins are not giving you clean label / raw / healthy foods.
Thats all …
Basically the major flavour profile of bacon is smoke and animal fat – you cannot have the latter – but you can (easily) have the former.

BTW it wasn’t a pop at you

Cheers.

most people are changing their diet (like you) for health reasons

As I think I stated above – am changing for a number of reasons including for the pigs, my fat-piggery, and the environment. Most soy and grain is unsustainably sourced and is consumed by meat-eaters via livestock feed. By eating this (I’m informed) my footprint is a small amount of sustainably sourced veg in place of quite the opposite?

If OTOH (as a food tech) you could please inform me if ‘This…’ is dangerous/injurious/more harmful to the environment/climate and myself to eat (in place of bacon) I could drop this from my diet also.

Ingredients: Water, Soy Protein Concentrate (22%), Soy Protein Isolate (7%), Flavouring, Pea Protein Isolate (4%), Vegetable Extracts (Radish, Carrot, Paprika), Potato Starch, Salt, Rapeseed Oil, Maltodextrin, Iron, Vitamin B12.

Rashers

If you don’t want to go the whole hog and go veggie, serrano ham doesn’t have nitrites and nitrates and has got to be a healthier alternative porcine product.

I used to love a product called ‘streaky strips’, IMHO it actually tasted better than bacon, several meat eaters even agreed with me. Way better than any other ‘faky baky’ I’ve tried. Sadly, as far as I’m aware it is now banned in the UK (GM soya I think), I certainly haven’t seen it for sale for a long time.

If you don’t want to go the whole hog and go veggie, serrano ham doesn’t have nitrites and nitrates and has got to be a healthier alternative porcine product.

Thanks, am looking for better alternatives that:

Taste like smokey bacon
Have a leathery, fatty texture
Are made (ideally sustainably) from plants and/or fungi

I used to love a product called ‘streaky strips

I think those were the Morningstar ones I mentioned upthread. Not bad taste and texture IIRC, but more like US-style rashers (ie super-thin and quite a sweet taste)

Whether something is more dangerous / harmful becomes kind of subjective and depnds o what you issues are, or you think they are.

If you look at the ingredient dec on bacon, it will be pork, salt, nitrates, nitrites plus some other stuff – and similar to most cured products but with a high water content. So it won’t last as long.

Ingredients: Water, Soy Protein Concentrate (22%), Soy Protein Isolate (7%), Flavouring, Pea Protein Isolate (4%), Vegetable Extracts (Radish, Carrot, Paprika), Potato Starch, Salt, Rapeseed Oil, Maltodextrin, Iron, Vitamin B12.

That is about as manufactured as it gets – but that is not a bad thing. I have no issue with processed foods – just don’t eat them at every meal time. Despite what the press / social media says it won’t kill you.

But if you are looking for a healthier / cleaner / more natural diet, as you think this benefits you and you well being, that product is not definitely not on the list. And that will mean cooking from first principle and with an understanding of the provenance to the ingredients.

Sustainability is going to be a huge issue for the food chain going forwards – hence why everyone is pushing meat analogue – there are figures around about plant based being way more efficient. That is true – if you eat grains and vegetables. Not if you make it into meat alike burgers , that bleed, smell like meat and behave like meat. I would guess the energy investment will be similar to growing a cow …..

@mrmoofoo

I eat this approximately once a week, maybe every other Saturday/Sunday as a not-so-guilty ‘guilty treat’. And as stated in the odd colcannon recipe maybe once monthly. Largest part of my ‘meals’ diet is now vegan-friendly, freshly home-cooked pulses, veg, legumes, dahls, curries, pastas etc. Processed ‘snacks’ are my biggest downfall and in that ‘snacks’ category I include pizza slices, crisps, chocolate, cheese toasties, sausage rolls, bacon/facon sarnies, pies, chips, etc.

I would guess the energy investment will be similar to growing a cow.

If so then they lied to me on the packaging (and their website) by frankly piss-taking orders of magnitude. **** sake. 😡😡😡

Chicken is 10x more efficient to raise than cattle. I will go and dig the figures out I have
Regarding their figures on efficiency
I have no idea what the are including – but they do not include energy input etc. Water usage is just one thing to consider – growing the soy and pea? Processing / isolating/ spray drying? Making of the bacon strips …

My advice – don’t over think it. Once every couple of weeks is far from being threatening to you or the planet.
Processed food is processed food – whether it contains meat or not. ( and whether it contains enumbers or not)

I am not sure that many people who look to eat less meat / become flexitarian/ vegetarian / vegan are aware of how processed some products are…

I’d like to bet that most people who are “looking to eat less meat” etc are far more aware of what they’re eating and how “processed” it is or isn’t than your average carnivore who stuffs food down their gullet for no other reason than that’s what they’ve always done.

“Processed” does rather seem to be the latest demonisation buzzword. As a “food tech,” could you perhaps elaborate on what processed means and why it’s so bad please? Unless you’re of the “raw food” persuasion than pretty much everything we eat is processed to a greater or lesser extent. I peeled and chopped up some carrots last night then threw them in boiling water for half an hour, or as one might say “processed” them, am I going to die?

I would guess the energy investment will be similar to growing a cow …..

@mrmoofo

From the NY Times (you have to register so here is the conclusion):
‘https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/climate/plant-based-meat.html

“A much-cited 2018 report commissioned by Beyond Meat and conducted by the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan compared the environmental impact of making a 4-ounce Beyond Meat burger with a similar beef product in the United States. The findings: Beyond Burger generated 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, required 46 percent less energy and had far less impact on water and land use than the beef burger.”

Ta zilgog … I am some figures that I got from a conference last year that in need to go and have a look at.
But do those costs include the R&D , marketing, media, etc costs?

Cougar – processed food. Something that you take out of a packet, do very little to … and not first principle cooking.
Peeling carrots is not processed food. Taking pea protein, hydrolysing it, bleaching it, cross linking it and forming into carrot shapes and making taste like a carrot is ….
Is processed food bad for you? not as part of a balanced diet. But that is the crux of the problem.
I happily eat processed foods – but just a lot less than I used to … and never takeaways