Not one to love the “real deal” before I became a vegetarian, I used to shy away from processed “meat” alternatives but now there are more and more nutritious, natural and GOOD tasting substitutes out now that I’m on a veritable mock meat-jag, helped along with the ersatz carnivores in the family still missing their old treats.
Enter: Match Meats. After a client and foodie friend on the west-coast told me about her fantastically realistic sandwich one night, I was on a mission to find this stuff, and thankfully, Boulder is one of the test markets and it’s available at Whole Foods. Match is being lauded as one of the best, most realistic, gourmet vegan matches for animal meats. These swankily packaged faux meats are seriously unlike anything else out there.
Flavours are: ground beef, pork, ground chicken, italian sausage, breakfast sausage and even crab. Amazingly, it smells, looks, tastes and prepares like the real deal. Unlike other vegan-meats that come pre-shaped and seasoned, Match Meats can be prepared according to your own traditional meat recipes and can be shaped to form many different types of dishes.
My first two to review shall be the Ground Beef and Pork varieties. The hamburger totally disarmed me out of the package; while it wasn’t pink (a nice burger-y brown) it SMELLED and FELT like actual cooked hamburger meat. It was kind of neat to be able to form patties and add ingredients to the mix. I wanted to keep it simple to better taste what the “meat” tasted like on it’s own so I added a dash of vegan Worcestershire sauce and a few shakes of chopped dehydrated garlic. Man, were these burgers amazing!! We were all just blown away by how “burger-like” the texture was. Instead of the strange somewhat soft-texture of vegan burgers, this was exactly like HAMBURGER! I had to resist the temptation to scrutinize the burger for gristle and fat the way I did when I was a kid. We ate this up on vegan buns with mustard, organic ketchup, pickles and tomatoes just to keep things plain and they were AMAZING. MIL almost came unglued with joy at having her favourite burger taste back. I will definitely be using this for my mom’s numerous ground beef recipes and and meatloaf.
and check out the texture on the inside:
Match Ground Pork, was another experience that was just on the edge of being a little TOO realistic in terms of texture and smell… (pork was one of my least favourites) but, unfortunately, due to my preparation I didn’t get to taste the porkiness of the finished product because I prepared it ala molé using a vegan adaptation of Mike’s Molé de Pollo , a recipe I got at Savory Spice Shop here in town. I used veggie broth and omitted raisins, but was extremely impressed by the smoky complexity of this powdered version of a notoriously difficult, labour intensive sauce. The Match Pork held up beautifully, even with the addition of extra liquid.** Most other faux meat would have turned into a pasty mess.
I served with rice, chipotle corn and white corn tortillas. On the side I served a cucumber salad made with dried shallots, olive oil, cumin, green chile powder, lime-juice and Grand Garlic salt .
Delicious! The picture below shows dad’s plate with some Daiya cheese sprinkles on top. - Next time, crab-cakes and breakfast sausage.
**Guidelines for cooking with MATCH®;
- MATCH® comes frozen and takes 24 hours in your refrigerator to thaw, depending on the temperature. Keep it cold until cooking; this will give you a better texture.
- MATCH® is soft when cold, firm when warm. Keep this in mind when cooking. It is a low fat food, and requires oil or water when you handle it.
- MATCH® is firmer with less moisture in it and softer with more moisture in it. Baking, sautéing, poaching, and steaming all affect the moisture and texture, so you may have to experiment with it.
- MATCH® needs oil on the outside of it when placing it on the grill, or spray the grill; when baking, oil the pan. We spray burgers, breast shapes, medallions and patties prior to grilling. You may want to oil or wet your hands in cold water when forming patties or other shapes.
- MATCH® requires about half the cooking time as meat (thawed) and about 10% less time when cooking from a frozen state. Pay attention not to cook it too long as when it becomes over cooked, it will dry out. Covering loosely if cooking in an oven is a good idea.
- We do not use egg yolks, as they are not necessary and make the dishes too soft. Nor do we incorporate bread crumbs (except in recipes for crab cakes), as they compromise the texture of the product. Some chefs have found that egg whites are acceptable, but not necessary.
- Use roasted or raw vegetables sparingly. Raw vegetables release a lot of moisture, which softens the product. The more moisture you incorporate, the softer the end (cooked) product will be.
- Incorporate fresh herbs and spices use as you would normally for a recipe for animal proteins. For salts and peppers, use @ 15-30% less in comparison to meat recipes. Roasted garlic, garlic, sugar, honey, salt, pepper use is about the same.
- When using MATCH® in casseroles, remember that the vegetable protein is dense and it will take up some moisture. For example, in lasagna, you do not have to squeeze out the spinach nearly as much. Or you may want to keep your tomato sauce with more liquid, or your casserole will be too dry.
- Fresh vegetables stuffed with MATCH® make easy and hot appetizers since the vegetable provides additional moisture and flavor when baked.
- When cooking off to use for sauces as in lasagna or marinara or a pizza topping, and other sauces, season the bulk product and sauté in oil, using a medium heat. Work quickly, breaking up into desired size as you cook. Remember, MATCH® has a short cooking time.
