WHY WON'T IT MELT!
Posted by Anonymous on Jun 01, 2006 · Member since Dec 1969 · 11789 posts
Hi,
I'm not vegan- in fact, I am not even a vegetarian. I used to be for 3 years and was nearly vegan- but I went back to eating meat for some strange reason. Well, now I want to go vegan or pretty close anyway.
My only problem is this: Soy cheese doesn't melt! It also tastes like plastic...I need to find a cheese that will melt.
There is no way I am going to convince my fiance - he'll be my husband in 2 months- that baked ziti doesn't need cheese- he's agreed to eat more vegetarian meals...but there will ne no convincing him to be vegan, I am sure- help! hehehe.
personally i think soy cheese sucks. i very rarely like it. maybe you could cook vegan meals and let your husband add his own cheese to them. i think most dishes taste just as good if not better without cheese :)
Okay here is what you do go to this site : www.followyourheart.com . Go to the order site and order some of THIS cheese. It's the creme de la creme of vegan cheese. Some local places carry it depending of where you live but, I would order and try it before you waste gas driving all over looking.
I am also a big fan of the Follow Your Heart soy cheese. Of course it's not *exactly* like cheese, but I think it is delicious in its own right. I fell off the vegan wagaon for a while, and even while eating regular dairy products, I still kind of missed the Vegan Gourmet. Weird huh?
I know a lot of vegans are totally anti-soy cheese, but I think that could be because soy cheese has some unique cooking properties. For instance, when I make pizza with the FYH cheese, I have to heat my oven up to about 500 degrees, much hotter than I would have to make pizza with dairy cheese. I would advise reading the label for suggestions on cooking, do what they recommend first, and then experiment with it on your own to see what works for you.
Best of luck!
The technical reason vegan cheese doesn't melt is because it doesn't have the same proteins as dairy cheese. Casein is the main protein in dairy. When people have milk allergies, they are usually allergic to casein. When casein encounters heat, the protein reacts by melting, and the food changes shape.
That's why most non-dairy cheeses are not dairy-free: they include casein for texture and melting properties.
I haven't found a vegan cheese worth my money. Good luck.
Hi, I have had luck making "cheese" sauce out of roasted rep peppers, nutritional yeast, cashews, and a few other recipes. I have also had cashew jack cheese which melted nicely. I was able to find these and other great alternative recipes through the CHIP program.