can we learn to love quorn?

As I stood in the cold factory, a large blue bin was pushed by a pile of thick mushroomscoloured paste.
Before going to the ceiling with a silver helicopter spiral, the paste is poured into a huge steel bucketskelter.
The noise is the ear-splitting.
This is the beginning of the process of converting a fungus into chicken
Like pieces, ham, fillets and minced meat.
I\'m not one of those vegetarians who disagree with meat alternatives.
If you can chew it like a steak, it doesn\'t taste like lentils and no animals are hurt, what\'s wrong with it?
Quorn is the king of cheap, chewy meat alternatives, and when we have neither time nor cash, will it become a new convenience food for health awareness?
Its orange packaging is very distinctive, but how many of us know what Quorn is and, more importantly, what\'s the use of it?
Quorn-usually purchased as an anemia sausage, oyster --
Color block or whey-
White minced meat-not the most inspiring ingredient.
I asked two vegetarian restaurants, the Maitreya cafe in Bristol and the Demus cafe in Bath.
Both are rather demeaning.
Rob Booth, owner of the Maitreya cafe, said, \"we don\'t use any fake meat products in our restaurant.
\"He sent me an email that boils down to three points-he wants to celebrate what you can do with vegetarian food, he doesn\'t want to use artificial food, and he thinks Quorn is more suitable for home cooking.
Because there are grilled pineapple and cashew cake on the menu of the Maitreya cafe, as well as mooli
I can see his point that quinoa wrapped in cider broth requires a dictionary and a degree in molecular cuisine to be recreated.
Rachel Demuth of Demuths also disagrees with the meat replacement, but she is more willing to give it a try. I try her stir-
Fried recipes-it was delicious when made with tofu, but Quorn pieces were sooozy and the dishes ended up in a compost box.
Quorn doesn\'t seem to have a particularly good reputation-\"this is some kind of mushroom\" is a general consensus when I do a poll of friends.
They are not far from wrong.
About 40 years ago, the fungus producing Qu en was found.
In their sixties, major scientists feared that our food would run out as the population grew.
Hovis McDougall is looking for number 20
The equivalent of a century of turning water into wine: they were able to turn the wasted carbohydrates in grain production into more nutritious proteins.
Scientists are looking for miracles around the world, but the answer is right under their noses: in a garden just four miles from the Marlow RHM research center in Cambridgeshire, a fungus called venenatum was found.
It turns out that you can brew this fungus like a beer and feed it with sugar.
High protein content, low fat content, form a soft dough
It\'s like a hint of beer.
It is called fungal protein and is the basis of all Quorn products.
It was these filaments that helped Quorn get its texture.
Dr. Tim Finnigan, the innovation director at Marlow Foods, was originally established by RHM and EGH in their 80 s with the aim of making Quorn-once the product was
He showed me the factory of the company North Yorkshire.
\"People think that Quorn is about meat stuffing and chicken --
But there is a whole world of Quorn there.
\"There are more than 150 products worldwide, and the company is now owned by Premier Foods with an annual turnover of 200 m.
This is a big problem, so it\'s not surprising how the factory is mechanized.
About 26 tons of fungal protein arrive from the brewery every day.
This pale white paste is mixed in a giant chrome
The color machine that spans the size of the gym room looks like it was designed by Willie Wonka\'s brother.
Other ingredients were added at this point: egg protein, dried onions, herbs, spices, and protein in wheat or whey.
One of the reasons why many vegetarians are skeptical about Quorn is that eggs are not free-range.
They are now-Marlow Foods has its own hens-and according to Finnigan, it will if the company can find a way without eggs.
For example, the machine models the mixture into fillets or squeezes it with giant sausages.
Then steam.
Cooked and frozen.
Freezing is the key to Quorn: Finnigan showed me the microscopic cross-section of fungal proteins.
Freezing creates pockets where ice crystals are located, which are bound by egg protein.
\"These are compression fractures that give density to fungal protein fibers,\" Finnigan said . \".
\"For many people, the texture of meat is very important.
\"There is a faint taste of chicken. the taste comes from chicken.
These chemicals are the main ingredients inosinate and guanylate of umami (umami (Our fifth taste).
At Quorn, they created a vegetarian version of the chicken flavor. The hi-
Technology Shocks, spinning machines, and the pale pie that comes with them are far from the happy chickens and carrots in the fields-however, that\'s how most of our processed foods are produced, as a food, there is no extra \"thing\" for Quorn \".
What Finnegan calls \"Heroes\" is Quorn and mince.
They contain almost fungal proteins, which show many health benefits.
Low saturated fat content (
Less than one gram per 100g)
High protein content (
About 11 grams per 100g)
High fiber content and low carbohydrate content (3g per 100g).
In a paper just published by the British Nutrition Foundation, fungal protein has been shown to help reduce harmful cholesterol, and there is tempting evidence that it can help you feel full longer than meat.
Anna Denby, the lead author of the paper, said: \"It\'s just a small part of the research, and it\'s just a small part of the topic, so we need more research . \".
\"Fungal protein has a lot of benefits to health, especially for vegetarians.
This is a good source of selenium, but the iron, zinc and B vitamins are low, so it is important to eat a variety of protein sources such as beans, nuts, dairy products and tofu.
\"Marlow Foods is funding a study that will look into the long term
Long-term effects of the Quorn diet.
Professor Gary Frost of Imperial College London said \"we will start to study whether fungal proteins play a role in appetite regulation-if it can make you feel full and thus reduce your appetite.
This is the golden cup of nutrition, \"he said excitedly.
\"Quorn is an attractive candidate because it has a very low fat content, so it would be great if it really had the role.
\"Given that British women are now the fattest women in Europe and men are slimmer than Maltese women, we need very sharp solutions.
It has taken 20 years since Quorn went from soil samples to supermarket shelves, and another 20 years to clean them up, and quorn\'s people have plenty of time to look at how to deal with these things.
I got a bunch of food that took a few minutes to prepare and could be distributed at the party or put into the children\'s lunch box from picnic eggs (
Scottish eggs without meat)
Bite with gold ass (
Fungal protein balls with butter and oats coating)
Ham, satay skewers, southern burgers and sausage rolls.
I can imagine that those tomatoes and mozzarella cheese were bought in panic by vegetarian tourists or clams --in-the-
The hole of the meat animal is forced to break the bread with meatfree.
\"Chicken\" and mushroom pie, mixed with wine and cream, was delicious, but as Danby said, \"The key is how fungal proteins are presented and what other ingredients are.
If it is wrapped in a pastry with a lot of saturated fat, it will change its health.
\"I explained my stirring to the chef at Quornfry.
Obviously, fungal proteins do not need to be cooked for a long time and should not be soaked in liquid marinades.
A curry takes a few minutes: Soak the croissants in the curry sauce for the night and fry them with onions and withered spinach.
Thai salad is also fast-Quorn is marinated with Thai green curry sauce and then fried with mango, bean sprouts, salad leaves and lime dressing.
Fresh, delicious, full and healthy.
As Finnegan says, \"The irony is that a product designed to address poverty-stricken diseases can now address well-off diseases.
\"Quorn may help us tighten our belts, but it\'s another matter whether we will use it to overcome the credit crunch.
\"Eating vegetables is much cheaper than meat alternatives,\" says Demuth.
You can make a delicious root vegetable and lentils stew with pumpkin seeds and shredded oats and some money left to bake on cheddar cheese.
\"Supply of chestnut mushrooms and Quorn carbonnade: 42 medium onions, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, chopped chestnut mushrooms, quartered900g Quorn chunks1 teaspoon vegetable broth 1 teaspoon Marmite1 tbsp shoyu250ml boiling water 30 ml organic ale2 bay leav1 teaspoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon corn flour Salt and
Heat the olive oil in a large oil-proof casserole.
Add onion slices, stir-fry until golden, and start caramel.
Add garlic and fry for another minute.
Add mushrooms, heat and stir-
Stir-fry until the mushrooms start to brown.
Stir-fried meat with Quane plain,fry quickly.
Ingredients are made with bouillon, Marmite, shoyu and boiling water.
In low heat, place the ingredients in a casserole, then add beer, bay leaves and sugar, boil and stir.
Lower the temperature and simmer slowly for about 30 minutes until carbonnade is a lovely rich brown color.
Remove the leaves of the Bay
Mix the corn flour with a tablespoon of water and stir into a smooth paste.
Put the corn flour into the stew and cook until the stew is thick.
Taste the season.
Cut enough bread to cover the top of the casserole.
Sprinkle the bread with French mustard.
Put the bread, mustard up, cover the carbon Nader, and push the bread to the gravy.
It is essential to have enough liquid to allow you to dunk the bread.
If not, add more boiled water to the stew before adding bread.
Cook in the oven for 30 minutes or until the bread is crispy and golden.
Rachel Demus is adapted from the Book of the green world; www. demuths. co.