Soy chicken: the breakthrough

You love soy

Yesterday it was soy Plah-Doh and now this: Many soy products have successfully replicated meat, but soy chicken has always been a big fail. Recently scientists at the University of Missouri had a breakthrough that will make vegetarians very happy; soy chicken is almost ready to roll (trying very hard to avoid "tastes like chicken" puns here).

In the past, the biggest challenge has been replicating the texture, what Time Magazine describes as "not too soft, not too hard, but with that ineffable chew of real flesh." Time also poses this question that may make us all prefer soy:

Before an animal is killed, its flesh essentially marinates, for all the years that the animal lives, in the rich biological stew that we call blood: a fecund bath of oxygen, hormones, sugars and plasma. Vegan foods like tofu, tempeh (fermented soy) and seitan (wheat gluten) don't have the benefit of sloshing around in something so complex as blood before they go onto your plate. So how do you create fleshy, muscley texture without blood?

To answer this question, watch the process of making soy chicken. (Suggested activity: drink a shot every time they say "chicken" in this video.)

Several companies have expressed interest in marketing this product, so the future is looking bright. And this all leads to one question: when is someone going to invent the vegetarian Double Down? It's too late, that's already been done.