My Unexpected Journey to Meat

Until January 2026, I had been vegetarian. An existence I had known for 28 years. But all that was about to change. I had experienced most of the dietary lifestyles – I was a pescatarian for 18 years, I spent 3 years as a vegan, and then went back to being vegetarian. Throughout all of those experiences I loved food: I loved eating food, I loved cooking food and I loved reading about food. 

However, for a while I had felt that maybe there was something missing. Over Christmas, my uncle and my wife had tried to get me to try the venison sausages that were on the table. The peer pressure was too much – I didn’t want to feel like this wasn’t my choice. I also didn’t want my first try to have an audience. 

A few weeks later, we found out that our infant daughter is allergic to milk and the paediatrician suggested that she would need to get protein from animal sources. My wife and I had already discussed that when she is weaned we would keep the rule of one table one meal. Therefore, I made the choice to open my palette to meat. 

I mentioned this while eating dinner with my Mother-in-law. The next week, she arrived with a soft looking package wrapped in brown paper. On the label in small letters were printed l ll the words ‘triple pork sausages.’ She had known that I wasn’t keen on the idea of buying cheap meat from the supermarket so had gone to the butchers and bought a package of proper sausages. My wife cooked them in a tray bake of parsnips, potato and brussel sprouts. These sausages were a far cry from the dryness of imitation sausages (and they were probably better for us too). Their juices dripped through the rest of the vegetables and they had far more flavour than any vegetarian alternative.

So that was the first meal of many in my journey to meat.

I’m not writing this blog as a how to convert to eating meat or as a political or moral argument for eating meat. This is simply my experiences of making the move from a vegetarian diet to eating everything. I will share experiences, recipes, and research I have done during my gastronomic journey.