Nacho cheese help, please?

[Vegan Princess]

Hi,

I made the nacho cheese from Alissa's book yesterday. I was hoping to just use it as a dip. It tastes ok, but it does not taste like cheese to me at all. I dehydrated half of it to see if it was any better. It's super crumbly and tastes a little more cheese like, but not much. I am wondering what I did wrong? The only things I can think of were 1)the bell peppers were sort of large or 2)the lemon was a little less juicy than I expected.

Any thoughts? This seems to be a popular and easy recipe around here. I was so looking forward to it! Thanks!

Cindy

[Shona]

If you are just coming right off of dairy cheese, it might be a good idea to forego cheeze subs for a while and let your taste buds forget what cheese tastes like. Vegan cheezes can be really good, but they aren't dairy and are not going to taste the same. They should be appreciated for their own flavors.

[Veganforlife]

I agree! I tried when I first went raw a few of the dishes that were very heavy (creamy) types - like the Alfredo. And found out I didn't care for them. I've been Vegan for two years and it was too dairy like for me.
This is a very important point. These raw foods (most of them, desserts excluded) will NOT taste like their SAD cousins. They taste better. But if you are expecting an exact, you are not going to get it.

[JinxieKat]

I have to agree there. I tried several of the raw 'cheeses' when I first started and after wasteing alot of nuts I gave up on them. They just didn't taste good to me at all. Now this summer I did make a raw lasagne (from Raw Food, Real World) just to see what I thought of it. Oh my goodness.. did it taste like cooked.. no.. it was sooooooooooo much better! I can hardly wait for tomato season again so I can make the delish stuff. But, I digress.. they don't taste like cheese, but they can be good. Raw Priestess has a uncookbook that has a recipie for 'stringy pizza cheese' that is good too, once you stop thinking that it is going to taste like 'cheese'.

Jinx

[juliebove]

Did you add any hot peppers to it? I find that to be necessary. I would not say that it tastes totally like real cheese but very close to it. I don't have the book right in front of me but I could have sworn that the nacho cheese took a whole orange and not lemon juice? I usually partially dehydrate mine so it is thick, like a spread. But sometimes I use it not dehydrated at all as a dip.

[Vegan Princess]

I have been vegan for over a year. I don't miss cheese at all really, I just thought I'd enjoy the recipe. I have eaten at a number of raw foods restaurants and I have always found their nut cheeses to be a good substitute..mine does not taste like theirs. I didn't have any peppers to add though...I intend to buy some today and see if that helps. Oh and it takes an orange and the juice of one lemon. Perhaps it could be off b/c I used a mandarin orange instead of regular..mandarins are much sweeter.

Cindy

[Raw Magwene]

Has anyone out there considered experimenting with real cheese cultures? I think this would make our vegan raw cheeses taste more like normal cheese, cause it's largely the bacteria of the cultures that give cheeses their distinctive flavors.

[juliebove]

Has anyone out there considered experimenting with real cheese cultures? I think this would make our vegan raw cheeses taste more like normal cheese, cause it's largely the bacteria of the cultures that give cheeses their distinctive flavors.

I presume you mean rennet? I have seen such recipes but they look quite tedious and time consuming so for that reason I've never tried them. I hate having to track down weird ingredients and then spend days babying something along only to find out that it didn't work or tastes bad.

[Shona]

Rennet is an animal product anyway - from the lining of a calf's stomach - so cheeze made with rennet would not be vegetarian or vegan. I know you can buy vegetarian dairy cheese made with a vegetarian rennet, but I've never ever seen any.

Because rennet is simply used as a coagulant, I don't think it really contributes much to the flavor. The flavor of dairy cheese comes from aging - old cheese always has more flavor than young cheese - and a ton of salt.

[Raw Magwene]

No, not rennet. Rennet is an enzyme (i.e. a catalytic protein). I'm talking about the bacterial cultures that make brie brie and camembert camembert, etc. The "molds" as it were. That's what makes dairy cheeses all so different tasting--bacterial cultures. They're why old and French cheese are so "ripe" and flavourful--highly developed bacterial colonies that have been allowed to grow in specific conditions...

I guess that would make cheese a living food!