Is a vegetarian diet that hard a concept to understand?

I am with you Maw and yes I am afraid I find it hard to get my head round the strict vegetarianism. I have friends who are vegetarians and they all eat cheese and some eat fish. Titian you would not be welcome at my table, not because you are vegetarian but because of your intractable attitude.

When my DD was at uni she spent six months staying with a family near Tours. The University was supposed to have found a family who could accommodate her vegitarianism. This family, while lovely in all other respects, didn’t ‘get’ that she couldn’t eat meat. The father said to her “but the meat is very good - I shoot it myself!” The kitchen was frequently full of dead hares, rabbits, game birds and the like. They didn’t really eat much in the way of vegetables either, so she mostly ate omelettes, bread, cheese, fruit and salad. She said it was the longest six months of her life!

I do know what she said, but I still think her rigid interpretation is “vegan” Nobody with such a self righteous attitude would be on my guest list and I do number vegetarians and vegans among my friends!
Why is it seen as so virtuous all of a sudden ? No offence to those who prefer not to eat meat products, but there is growing up a whole aura of sanctity about veganism, as if it is the only way to save the planet, bring universal happiness and possibly break the Brexit deadlock at the same time.

So the answer to the OP’s question is ‘Yes, it is quite a ‘hard concept to understand’.

What is ‘easy’ to understand is the wish that no animal is killed just so you can eat it. That is perfectly understandable.

What is harder is how far an individual takes that as their own philosophy. If it goes beyond the ‘I don’t eat animals of any kind’ then it is up to that person to make it quite clear to a host what they can and cannot eat.

As far as recipes go and criticising those put up in good faith as vegetarian because they are meat, fish, etc free, then all that is needed is someone to simply avoid those that do not meet their own requirements, surely?

MawBroon If you read Titians second post she is very definite that she means vegetarian !!!

Surely Titian means “vegan”?
Otherwise many of her comments make no sense at all.

A lot of cheese is made without rennet. Hard cheeses tend to still use rennet because it is difficult to get the set otherwise, but we always manage a nice cheese board that caters for strict vegetarians. The shop will always check and tell you.
And I think there is a difference between proper food outlets, that should research and have good information, and private individuals. I would not invite vegetarians if I wasn't prepared to cater properly for them - but in my mind there is a huge difference between saying you've cooked the potatoes in goose fat because you like it (rude!) and not quite realising about isinglass in wine.
I too have catered for a lot of dietary restriction in friends and family, and it is just sensible these days to recognise that the work 'vegetarian' is used loosely. Our Jewish & Muslim guests usually say 'treat us as vegetarian' because it is the easiest way avoid getting tangled up in minutiae!

Greenfinch i would seriously like some advice.
They will be staying for several weeks and I will expect them to share the cooking. I can only think of barley broth with some meaty side dishes.

I truly sympathise Grammaretto. I had a similar situation on Christmas day.We had 12 guests. 3 were vegetarian,2 of my AC have a nut allergy,a 3 year old has hypoglycemia and has to have a special diet and an 11 year old is autistic ,is a fussy eater and doesn't like food touching on the plate. It was not easy but we coped.?

We're having a couple to stay next month and I'm already dreading it. She eats only plant-based food - and I don't think she means beef or lamb Baggs - he is allergic to nuts. I am an easy vegetarian and DH is an omnivore.
Who is volunteering to be cook?

If you think about it, we all eat plant-based diets. Beef and lamb, for example, are plant-based.

I have a number of lifelong vegetarian friends who define themselves as people who don't eat dead (or for that matter, living) animals, usually including fish and often including crustaceans and shellfish. They do eat eggs, cheese and other dairy products.

I was a professional cookery writer for decades before I retired and was careful to provide vegetarian and vegan equivalents if appropriate, if relevant in the particular book and if they existed. And yes, of course, Parmesan cheese is not and never will be fully vegetarian. It is a certified cheese, made by traditional methods, and Italians are rightly proud of its versatility. Me too!

I might be wrong but I always believed that vegetarians included dairy in their diet having known a number of vegetarians.
Supermarkets include cheese in their vegetarian ranges.
Vegans as far as I know eat a plant based diet.
You sound very angry why, life can be short and most people don't think seriously about what other people eat why would they.
If you have been invited to friends for a meal it is common courtesy to explain any diet you are following surely.
Another options is to invite friends to your home and prepare a meal for them.

"Vegetarian" cheese is a rather sour joke. Dairy farmers slaughter male calves shortly after birth, keeping only the females as future suppliers of milk. The use of rennet, therefore, is virtually irrelevant.

Quite a few kosher wines do not contain isinglass or other animal products, but you have to check.

Isn't the cutting out of cheese and eggs a Vegan concept, rather than a vegetarian one, Paddyann?

I think I said before, a friend told me Vegetarians come in two forms: those who are V for the sake of the animal (they tend to be very much stricter, reading labels) and those who are V for their own health.
Orthodox and Liberal so to speak

I was always the latter and although my diet now comprises 98% vegetable and fruit, because I do eat fish very occasionally, I certainly wouldn't call myself a Vego now.
"Eat nothing which has a face" Paul McCartney says.

I was vegetarian for 12 years ..only now I find I wasn't.I didn't eat meat or use meat stocks but I did eat cheese and eggs .It was about 30 years ago and all the "vegetarians" I knew ate much the same things .It appears to be much stricter or maybe people just know more now .

I was considering going back to cutting out meat but I dont think I can do it without eggs in particular and at least some cheese.The veggie cheeses I have tried are vile .

I think it's quite a hard concept because of people who label themselves as vegetarians who only eat fish. Or white meat. Or only eat meat at Christmas..

I don't think it is vegetarians who object to eating anything pollinated by bees, but vegans.

I love vegi food because I love nuts pulses lentils, veg etc etc but I ve never gone into looking on every wine bottle or every cheese packet or checking if a bee has been near it so not a ‘real’ vegi however I m fine with it in my own way

My family and I were vegetarian for 4 years and people used to ask us how we could possibly eat, 'those nut rissoles'.
Well, we didn't.

We had various egg meals, cheese on toast, vegetable soups with pulses; beans and chips; salad sandwiches, veggie stir fry - and so on.
I still haven't tried nut rissoles

Pesto is usually made with Parmesan cheese which is always made with cow's rennet.

The Vegetarian Society website states that "the last forty years have seen several substitutes for calf rennet being developed and today around ninety per cent of the hard cheese made in the UK is made using chymosin produced in genetically modified organisms". I'm sure some people would object to this too but it goes on to point out that the enzyme does not remain in the cheese.

I've often fed my vegetarian neighbours but this is the first time I've heard about rennet and isinglass. Can the OP explain the problem with pesto?
Obviously I never put chicken stock in veggie meals.

Poor research like this has meant that I have gone hungry when eating out at friends houses and why I now choose to take my own dinner to be safe.

Surely it is up to the author of the veggie info on GN to research properly and to give accurate information.

If Titian1948 has been invited to a meal by someone who looks to GN for helpful info on what is suitable, not only Titian but also the host will feel bad if it turns out the information was wrong.

Titian, I hope you have notified GNHQ of the problems with that page.

Aldi has a good choice of vegan wine. Gin is fine?

I cook regularly for vegetarian friends & family - I always use veggie stock & separate cooking utensils & cook with cheese & serve wine - and usually provide meat or fish for the non-vegetarians - not once have any of the vegetarians mentioned problems with wine or cheese - in fact we have jolly occasions eating & drinking & being sociable which is surely what eating with friends is all about.
Perhaps my vegetarians do not come up to Titian's standards but I know who I'd prefer to entertain. The phrase "live and let live" comes to mind.