It is a beloved Thanksgiving tradition for vegetarians throughout the place — and attracts the ire of meat lovers everywhere: the Tofurky roast.

The oval-shaped pale meal from the enterprise whose name is a portmanteau of “turkey and tofu” has been a staple among a lot of vegetarian Thanksgiving gatherings because the roast was created in 1995. 

To day, Tofurky has offered 7.5 million holiday getaway meat-no cost roasts — which now are explained on its box as “plant-based” in its place of “vegan” for extra consumer-welcoming language, according to a report.

Regardless of its title, CEO Jaime Athos stated his organization is not trying to flawlessly mimic the style of a Thanksgiving turkey, but fairly produce a thing new and exclusive.

“I feel there is a small chance in receiving too near to the exact taking in experience of meat,” Althos instructed the Washington Write-up. “There’s that notion of the uncanny valley: When something’s near, but not rather, it’s even worse than becoming significantly away from the aim. 

“For us, it is additional about, ‘Does it take in perfectly? Is it a gratifying and flavorful eating practical experience?’ That is so a great deal more on our minds than, ‘Is it particularly the similar as meat?’”

When Thanksgiving ways, the corporation churns out about 6,000 of its tofu and wheat-primarily based roasts in 10-hour shifts for 4 days right before returning to its other plant-based merchandise, in accordance to the Washington Publish, which a short while ago visited the Tofurky facility.

The paper received a very first-hand glimpse into how the holiday break “sausage” is produced at its most important Fort Hood facility, wherever about 50 of Tofurky’s 175 staff members operate.

The tofu and wheat “masa,” consisting of 130 kilos of wheat gluten, 56 lbs of tofu puree, 23 pounds of canola oil, water and spices is kneaded into a beige goopy mass within of an industrial-sized vat for 15 minutes.

All through the process, workers test the gluten as it’s heated up and mixed with the rest of the ingredients until it reaches the wished-for sleek texture, according to the Washington Article.

4 personnel blend the masa though just one will make the wild rice stuffing and another lone worker puts the seasoning combine alongside one another prior to the product or service is sent to the packaging room.

The masa is placed into a hopper and the wild rice stuffing in one more — akin to how Fig Newtons were at first generated much more than 100 many years ago, in accordance to the paper.

The stuffing is a mix of wild rice celery, onions, carrots, leeks and seasoning as very well as bread crumbs — despite calls to make the dish gluten-no cost.

Although the equipment make the roasts, employees check out to make absolutely sure the ratio of masa to stuffing is suitable ahead of they’re put in an oven and cooked for four hours just underneath 300 degrees. The roasts are then placed in a freezer for eight hours prior to they are ready to be delivered out to grocery outlets across the place, WaPo documented.

In a last action, an X-ray equipment scans each individual roast to appear for everything dangerous that may possibly have gotten into the food to keep away from recollects, even though no regulation involves this move.

In the packing room, a gravy packet is wrapped up with each and every roast just before they’re boxed — some with a vegan brownie to spherical out the meal.

The tofu- and wheat-centered turkey roast with gravy operates about $13.50 and feeds about five individuals.

Tofurky dates again to 1980, when Athos’ stepfather started out Turtle Island Soy Dairy. Considering that Athos took the reins of the organization, there has been a nationwide boom in vegetarian-dependent “meat” items, this sort of as “burgers” and “chicken.”