• MilitantVegan@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Tofu is made essentially the same way cheese curds are made, but using beans instead of dairy. It produces the iconic brick of compressed bean protein (and sometimes calcium depending on what catalyst is used). It’s existed for something like 2000 years, and Ben Franklin may have played a role in bringing it to the US.

    TVP is very different. It involves using solvents like hexane to remove most everything from the bean except the protein, and generally results in small amorphous chunks of material, or even tiny bits that are used as an alternative to ground up muscle tissues.