They don't "disguise" things as burgers, sausages etc. That's how meat has been prepared since time immemorial across all cultures.
Why do vegans and vegetarians insist on disguising vegetables as meat - now that's the question. Even though the same cultures have a mind-boggling variety of foods that don't involve meat, and don't pretend to be meat.
This one is funny, the history doesn't really matter, but might as well throw it out there.
Buffalo wings are named after the city Buffalo in New York State. It's that spicy buttery style of baked on sauce that got popular and spread around.
You could obviously bread and bake the sauce onto anything, I like it on potatoes. It's a funny modifier, because it's sort of the sauce, it's sort of the preparation, like you might say cajun style, but the phrase only seems to be used around wings.
Buffalo cauliflower makes sense to me, but I internalized the word differently.
The suggestion was for 'cauliflower' (or whatever) to replace 'vegan buffalo', no change to 'wing'.
I might buy 'halloumi and apple sausages', just like I might 'pork and apple'. I wouldn't buy 'vegetarian pork and apple sausages', even though it describes the former (and could be the same) - it's vague and unappealing.
But you accept that Buffalo Wings contain no actual buffalo, right?
Just like a Breaded Drumstick was unlikely to have been used by Ringo Starr.
People understand the colloquial terms for foods.
The term "vegetarian pork" may be vague an unappealing to you - but sales figures show it is pretty attractive to lots of people. And, to a veggie like me, it gives some indication of the flavour profile, which I personally find useful.
Honestly, I don't know what 'buffalo wings' are, I'm only aware of the phrase from American film.
To use 'chicken drumsticks' then, yes obviously no drumstick, but certainly chicken, as though a drumstick made of chicken instead of wood.
A 'vegetarian drumstick' only tells me it's not made of chicken, and that it's edible, non-wood, I suppose. 'Vegetarian chicken drumstick' is a contradiction.
An equivalent to 'chicken drumstick' would be 'jackfruit drumstick', or whatever it actually is.
> But you accept that Buffalo Wings contain no actual buffalo, right?
Let's go back to your original statement, shall we: "Why do meat eaters disguise things as burgers, sausages, and nuggets?"
No part of that statement ever said anything about buffalos. And wings don't disguise themselves as wings.
Also, Buffalo Wings have nothing to do with buffalos, and everything to do with Buffalo, New York.
> The term "vegetarian pork" may be vague an unappealing to you - but sales figures show it is pretty attractive to lots of people.
Because it turns out people crave meat, and the market is happy to disguise vegeterian/vegan food as meat. Including trying to replicate both taste and texture. Funnily, meat is never (or very very very rarely) disguised as vegetables.
> Also, Buffalo Wings have nothing to do with buffalos, and everything to do with Buffalo, New York.
Yes, and hamburgers have nothing to do with ham, they're named after the city of Hamburg. Frankfurters also not made of Franks.
> Funnily, meat is never (or very very very rarely) disguised as vegetables.
OTOH, what exactly do people think they're eating when they have wieners? Because I'm fairly sure the meat shapes that get replicated — bacon rashers, sausages, burgers, fillets, deli slices — even where they had a specific original cause like "stuff meat into intestine", stuck around because they're convenient. The meat that still looks like the original animal (whole roast chicken, whole leg of lamb, stuffed pig head), I've not seen replicated. Well, not since the "everything is a cake" meme, at least.
That "meaty" names are just as much nonsense regardless of whether or not meat is still involved.
Just remembered an even more extreme example, albeit one that may only exist in the UK: christmas sweet pastry called "mince pie" filled with "mincemeat" which is often entirely vegetarian because it's an extremely archaic use of "meat" in the sense of "food".
> That they eat a sausage made of meat that is named "weiner".
QED: the name and shape (in this case, both being penile) are not really that connected to the mental model the consumer has of what they're consuming.
To quote myself: "Because it turns out people crave meat, and the market is happy to disguise vegeterian/vegan food as meat. Including trying to replicate both taste and texture. Funnily, meat is never (or very very very rarely) disguised as vegetables."
I know you said that. I'm saying you're wrong, because it's vegetables being "disguised" as generic shapes that don't look anything like natural meat. The historical association you have between shape and substance is as irrelevant as the connection between hamburgers-the-food and the city named after the castle belonging to Hamma.
Those are not the natural forms of any animal's meat any more than they are the natural forms of vegetables. What you actually seem to be saying is "How dare vegetarians prepare their food in similar ways to how I do?"
The idea that vegans are being sneaky with their foods is kind of funny considering the usual reputation of vegans is best captured in the joke "How do you know if someone is a vegan? Don't worry, they will tell you."
> Those are not the natural forms of any animal's meat any more than they are the natural forms of vegetables.
Ah yes. The non-natural form of "vegetables that taste like pork hamburger". Funnily how you never see meat producst disguised or sold as replicas of non-meat products.
Animal products are constantly stuck into foods that are not clearly animal-derived. Every vegan is familiar with the experience of having to read the ingredients list on foods to look for random animal products or ask waiters if (for example) their Brussels sprouts are vegan. Many people don't realize that Jello is an animal products. Some "vanilla" flavoring is made from animals. Confectioner's glaze, many food colorings, Starburst candy, etc. And meat is very often covered or marinated in vegetables during preparation, leading to meat the incorporates the flavors of vegetables. The idea that vegetarians invented the concept of making a food look or taste different from its natural form is simply unrealistic.
But more fundamentally, I'm not sure what you're getting at. If "giving foods a different flavor or texture" were a totally new idea that vegetarians came up with, so what? Are you allergic to vegetables, but constantly being tricked into eating vegan food? What is the problem here?
Why do vegans and vegetarians insist on disguising vegetables as meat - now that's the question. Even though the same cultures have a mind-boggling variety of foods that don't involve meat, and don't pretend to be meat.