There is a widely held theory that bacon is just about irresistible and that it is the downfall of many vegetarians. People of the Muslim and Jewish faiths seem to get along without it very well and I don’t recall seeing much pork at all in India, let alone bacon. This bacon fandom must be a western phenomenon and I suspect that the shady spin doctors at the Pork Marketing Board have something to do with it. Actually, I just made that up – I have no idea if there is such a thing.
I stopped eating meat a couple of years ago and I don’t miss any of it, including bacon. Although I do miss some of the recipes that I used to cook and am very open to re-creating them without meat. I’m not a big fan of meat substitutes, but I have discovered some delicious veggie sausages (Cauldron’s Cumberland Sausages, since you ask) so that I can still enjoy a Sausage Bake, Bangers’n’Mash and Toad in the Hole.
I was out shopping the other day when my eye was caught by something called “This Isn’t Bacon” and, since it was on special offer, I thought I’d give it a go. I recalled a delicious pasta sauce recipe with bacon, walnuts, lemon and goat’s cheese that I used to cook, and thought I’d try to recreate it. So, full of optimism, I bought some and took it home. I opened the package and looked curiously at these (presumably edible) brown spongy strips, which didn’t look anything like bacon at all, and wondered about the name. Did they think their product looked so convincing that we needed to be told that it wasn’t actually bacon? A bit like that spread called “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”. Although to be honest that spread looks an awful lot more like butter than this not-bacon looks like bacon.
They could have called their soy and pea protein concoction “This Isn’t Champagne” and it would have been every bit as appropriate because it doesn’t look like that either. We seem to be getting into surrealist territory here and Magritte’s painting of a pipe titled “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” [“This is not a pipe”] springs to mind. Although that really was a pipe and now my brain is starting to hurt.
All things considered, I don’t think I can fault those advertising people – they said it wasn’t bacon and it wasn’t. Not only did it look nothing like bacon, it also tasted nothing like bacon. It tasted like nothing else I have ever experienced or want to again. I have learned my lesson: if you want bacon, buy it; if you don’t, just get a can of chick peas and whip up some falafels.
This post is seriously amusing if you don’t mind the oxymoron🤣 . It opened up so many questions and was hilarious too – great start to the weekend …
Thank you!!
Thank you, Roma.
Your last comment made me laugh because it hadn’t occurred to me till then that the ‘it’s not bacon’ slogan is in fact a double bluff. It’s actually the truth and they always intended it to be.
You know what they say: “When in doubt, tell the truth.”
You’re right Robert! referencing bacon was intending to make people think “maybe it does taste like bacon “ (even a little bit). If they’d said “tastes like carrots”, who would have gone for it?
Carrot lovers?
I’m not a veggie as you know but I don’t understand why there are so many fake meat things, burgers, sausages, etc. Why would vegetarians want to eat stuff that looks like meat? There are so many lovely vegetarian recipes I would have thought there was no need.
I think lots of veggies have given up meat because they’re concerned about the environment and animal welfare, but they still enjoy the flavour. My daughter is one. I’m not!