Dried beans simmered for half an hour after soaking overnight and being boiled quickly for 10 minutes resist your bite ever so slightly before breaking open in your mouth to release their beautifully textured contents onto the tongue.
Cole (2008) suggests that the prevailing language in the social research literature frames veg*anism (vegetarianism and veganism) as diets which are aesthetically limited. Cole tries to flip this view on its head by saying that, in fact, meat- and dairy-based diets lack the flavour and nutrition found in meals prepared from vegetables and beans.
Ninety percent of veg*ans in Neale, Tilston, Gregston, & Stagg's (1993)'s questionnaire study reported that they cooked their own meals; this brings with it the opportunity to learn cooking techniques designed to bring out the flavours of previously bland foods. One only has to read some of the blogs written by vegans to see that these are people who have gained rather than lost something from their switch to a vegan diet.
Applying a more neutral language may be more appropriate for describing the different tastes foods have. Veg*ans interviewed by Rozin, Markwith, & Stoess (1997) gave disgust as a reason why they would never eat meat again. Cole (2008) states this is incongruent with the idea that veg*anism is based on ethics rather than aesthetics. The disgust these respondents report may only be for the texture of these products and not for their taste since mock meats, such as seitan, which can be made in the kitchen, and tofu and soy mince, which are now widely available in supermarkets, share the latter but not the former. Alternatively, it may be a form of moral disgust (Rozin et al., 1997). From my own experience eating out, I find it difficult to eat food I am 99% sure contains no fish when it has the same taste and texture as tinned tunafish.
In Neale et al.'s (1993) study, the majority of respondents gave animal welfare as their reason for becoming veg*an, and yet comparatively few reported disgust for meat as a reason, replicating a similarly low percentage giving disgust as a reason in Amato & Partridge's (1989, cited in Rozin et al., 1997) study. The extent to which ethical veg*ans enjoy the texture and taste of mock meats would be something that further research could investigate.
References:
Cole, M. (2008). Asceticism and hedonism in research discourses of veg*anism. British Food Journal, 110, 706-716.
Neale, R. J., Tilston, C. H., Gregson, K. & Stagg, T. (1993). Women vegetarians: Lifestyle considerations and attitudes to vegetarianism. Nutrition and Food Science, 93, 24-27.
Rozin, P., Markwith, M., & Stoess, C. (1997). Moralization and becoming a vegetarian: The transformation of preferences into values and the recruitment of disgust. Psychological Science, 8, 67-73.
