Prepared and processed foods
Vegan meat alternatives
Charted alongside the meat versions and given different times, because they are a different material.
What it does in fast-moving hot air
These products are protein isolates, starches and fats bound with methylcellulose or a similar hydrocolloid, and the binder is what governs their behaviour. It sets on heating and holds the shape, which is why they need no resting and tolerate a shorter cook than the meat equivalent — the published frozen vegan sausage time is eight minutes against nine to twelve for a frozen pork one. There is no fat to render and no connective tissue to break down, so extra time buys nothing at all and simply dries them; and because the added fat is usually coconut or rapeseed rather than animal fat, it liquefies at a lower temperature and leaves earlier.
Why the cut matters
Vegan burgers, sausages and nuggets appear in the charts we have read as their own block with their own figures, which is the useful finding: the manufacturer does not treat them as meat with a substitution, and neither should a cooking page.
Cooking pages
- Vegan burgers — Seven to nine minutes on one manufacturer's grill plate for fresh ones, and ten minutes at 180°C from frozen in its charts for two other machines.
- Frozen vegan sausages — Eight minutes at 180°C, against nine to twelve for a frozen pork sausage.
- Frozen vegan nuggets — Ten minutes at 200°C, less than half the time of chicken nuggets by weight.
- Frozen veggie burgers — Twelve minutes at 200°C from frozen.
This page gives no cooking answer of its own. A food does not have one — a cut, at a thickness, in a state, at a loading, in a particular appliance does. Any figure mentioned above is one manufacturer’s, and the page for the cut says which machine, quantity and state it was printed for, or that the manufacturer named no state.