Moments in Meat History Part IV- Substitutes

The story goes that in the 7th Century, Buddhist monks in China stumbled upon the product now known as "wheat gluten" while cooking. Noting that it looked, felt and tasted somewhat like meat, they christened it "Mein Ching," or "Buddha's food," because their religion encouraged them not to eat meat. This is the first mention of a deliberate meat substitute.

Image via Jinjian Liang (Flickr)