The Lemon Fool

Having been told by my GP I need to adopt a 'mediterranean diet' and eat less than the already trivial amount of red meat I currently consume, my thoughts are returning to my life-long hunt for a vegetarian sausage that tastes vaguely like a sausage instead of being tasteless and textureless mush.

The closest I've ever found has been the Richmond Meat-Free sausage but while they taste (sort of) ok, I find they repeat on me horribly. For hours after eating them I'll be burping an unpleasant chemical flavour that puts me right off them.

So, does anyone here have a veggie sausage they can actually recommend, please?

Much obliged if you have!

Cauldron Foods do two veggie sausages in packs of six, often available in the main supermarkets. They look more-or-less identical in their packaging, but taste different. The nice one is called a Lincolnshire Sausage. The one with very little taste is called Cumberland Sausage. There's a surprising difference in shelf life: the bland Cumberland will commonly have "use by" dates several weeks away, the tasty Lincolnshire much shorter.

I occasionally buy them, then I'll typically fry them with onion, pepper, tomatoes and mushrooms, and serve on old-fashioned mash. Haven't had them since tomatoes became harder to source, and I have no burning desire to try substituting turnips.

I have bought the Cauldron sausages quite regularly and agree the Lincolnshire variety were much better. Unfortunately Cauldron have recently changed the recipe and they are now vegan, like all Cauldron products now. The results is a repulsive parody of the previously quite nice sausage, ugh....

Thanks both.

And there was me getting ready to add Cauldron Lincolnshire bangers to my shopping list, then saved by Imbiber from a horrible mistake!

I find myself wondering what on earth could have been in the veggie sausages that needed taking out to make them vegan tho!

I think it was egg. The new sausages are a completely different product.

Imbiber wrote:I think it was egg. The new sausages are a completely different product.

Yes I was wondering if it might have been that.

So, it seems there are no veggie sausages on the market worth buying nowadays. I'm not sure why I find this disappointing, but I do.

Imbiber wrote:I have bought the Cauldron sausages quite regularly and agree the Lincolnshire variety were much better. Unfortunately Cauldron have recently changed the recipe and they are now vegan, like all Cauldron products now. The results is a repulsive parody of the previously quite nice sausage, ugh....

I thought they were always vegan? At least for the 10 years or so I've been buying them!

But if they have buggered up the recipe and people share your reaction, that might be why I haven't seen them on the shelves recently. I remember looking (actively, as opposed to just picking them up if I see the price is on offer) and failing to find as recently as January.

"Quorn" brand in the orange packaging. Try the "chicken" pieces too.

Monabri ( vegetarian since 2000).

p.s. avoid the Linda McCartney range !

There's no such thing
a sausage has MEAT
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... sh/sausage

If the aim is to eat less red meat have you already ruled out chicken sausages. Not a patch on the real thing but are lean, have more like the correct texture and can always be drowned in thick tasty gravy

I quite like Linda McCartney sausages (the rosemary and onion ones a bit more than the original ones (there's also a chorizo style variety, but I really didn't like it)). I couldn't really tell you if they taste particularly meaty or not, but they're "sausagey" enough for me whenever I fancy a sausage (they're a bit of a thinner sausage than some, so are probably better suited to a roll and sausage or brunch than sausage and mash, say (where I might go for Quorn or Cauldron sausages instead - although disappointing to hear that Cauldron may have changed their recipes for the worse; I've not had them for a while).

The main thing with vegetarian sausages is not to cook or grill them for quite as long as you might a meat sausage, otherwise they get too dried out and shrivel up and become cardboardy and really horrible. Similarly, don't be tempted to judge the cooking time by them becoming browner, as by the time they become noticeably browner they'll likely be overdone and dried out (a little bit of browning and no more is probably about right - most of them are brownish in colour to start with anyway as they're not raw meat).

Don't some veggy sausage have other nasties in. Then again the meat ones, especially at the budget end were probably worth avoiding.

Does it have to be sausage? There are other breakfasts

Mike4 wrote:Having been told by my GP I need to adopt a 'mediterranean diet' and eat less than the already trivial amount of red meat I currently consume, my thoughts are returning to my life-long hunt for a vegetarian sausage that tastes vaguely like a sausage instead of being tasteless and textureless mush.

There ain't much red meat in a sausage, especially not a pork one

If you are trending towards a med diet, may I suggest trying Salami, Chorizo, make some spetsofai, or even some Mediterranean Saussage

Paul

I am not sure there is much hard evidence that a small amount of red meat in an otherwise well balanced diet is particularly unhealthy. What is more important is to eat plenty of unprocessed fresh food in a balance that includes all main food groups.

Sausages while not really red meat could be considered to be processed food, although a 100% pork sausage with fresh herbs and spices and no nitrites is hardly that processed.

What definitely to be avoided though are ultra processed foods such as ice cream, ham, sausages, crisps, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, biscuits, carbonated drinks, fruit-flavoured yogurts, instant soups, and some alcoholic drinks including whisky, gin, and rum. Also many ready made meals are included in this category, things like pies and ready made pizzas.

I'd say that unless you have specific health issue that eating the occasional sausage or steak is not going to kill you.

Finally, many vegan and vegetarian foods fit into this ultra processed category...especially sausages and other products that try to pretend to be meat and the now ubiquitous non-dairy milk. Again while OK in moderation these should not be overdone.

It's a minefield out there!

John

dave559 wrote:I quite like Linda McCartney sausages (the rosemary and onion ones a bit more than the original ones (there's also a chorizo style variety, but I really didn't like it)). I couldn't really tell you if they taste particularly meaty or not, but they're "sausagey" enough for me whenever I fancy a sausage (they're a bit of a thinner sausage than some, so are probably better suited to a roll and sausage or brunch than sausage and mash, say (where I might go for Quorn or Cauldron sausages instead - although disappointing to hear that Cauldron may have changed their recipes for the worse; I've not had them for a while).

The main thing with vegetarian sausages is not to cook or grill them for quite as long as you might a meat sausage, otherwise they get too dried out and shrivel up and become cardboardy and really horrible. Similarly, don't be tempted to judge the cooking time by them becoming browner, as by the time they become noticeably browner they'll likely be overdone and dried out (a little bit of browning and no more is probably about right - most of them are brownish in colour to start with anyway as they're not raw meat).

A +1 on not over-cooking them

I did a blind taste test between Linda McCartney original sausages and the red onion ones, the originals won, but the red onion look much more appetising

Lanark wrote:
I did a blind taste test between Linda McCartney original sausages and the red onion ones, the originals won, but the red onion look much more appetising

Ah now that's another point. So often people judge the quality of the food they are eating by its appearance alone, and I find this so disappointing. Veggie sausages are a particularly good example of this effect. Almost all of them are disgusting things to eat yet crafted to look so appetising and realistic, just like a meat sausage but with no apparent attempt to make them taste or feel nice in the mouth to actually eat. World's going to the dogs, I tell ya!

After much testing, frozen Quorn sausages were the winner amongst the veggie members of our household. They're in bags in the freezer section. Sometimes they've done posher ambient temperature ones that are better, but haven't seen them for a long time.

Midsmartin wrote:After much testing, frozen Quorn sausages were the winner amongst the veggie members of our household. They're in bags in the freezer section. Sometimes they've done posher ambient temperature ones that are better, but haven't seen them for a long time.

My own fault for being over-optimistic, probably, but we had some Quorn sausages lurking at the back of the freezer, where they'd been for a year or so. And so, finding myself alone in the house for a couple of days last year, I decided to eat them.

I failed. Texture, two out of ten. As instructed, I didn't brown them, but after less than two minutes in the pan they were still like sticks of balsa wood with a slimy coating that stuck to the roof of my mouth and could only be finally dissolved by several glasses of IPA.

Taste - errrm, can you have a minus number? Lashings of barbecue sauce helped, a little. But not enough to permit the completion of the experiment.

Chorizo veggie sausages sound a bit more possible. If only chorizo wasn't filled with nitrites. Which reminds me. I don't think British bangers use nitrites at all? (No, I've just checked, they don't.) I think I've made my decision.

BJ

I wonder if your Quorn sausages had been in the freezer too long. They do tend to turn to a dried sawdust consistency after a while.

The Linda McCartney ones were quite good too.

My personal sausage preference is pork, from our local high Street butcher.

Midsmartin wrote:I wonder if your Quorn sausages had been in the freezer too long. They do tend to turn to a dried sawdust consistency after a while.

The Linda McCartney ones were quite good too.

My personal sausage preference is pork, from our local high Street butcher.

You've given me an idea. I'll try asking for veggie sausages in my local greengrocer...