Dr. Praeger’s veggie burgers are fantastic. But they cost too much retail. I will only buy them by the case at Costco, and have just recently tracked down Costo’s local supplier for them, and will be buying the same case (the larger restaurant size burgers- not the grocery store size), for much, much less. So happy to cancel Costco- that place is a zoo!

But, without a single exception I can recall in the great many years I have been alive (and I was born and bred in the land of the braaivleis), nothing that anyone anywhere has ever cooked on a barbecue has even come close to being edible. This is not surprising, because 5-10% of barbecued food is ash and the rest is raw. The “nice stripy effect” that you mention with respect to sausages is a helpful guide: the black stripes will choke you and the pink stripes will give you trichinosis.

In truth, barbecues are one of the most powerful weapons that evangelical vegetarians possess: the only thing at a barbecue that anyone who comes hungry ever actually eats is the salad.

It is important not to evangelize overmuch, though – at the most recent barbecue I attended, the host had placed some potatoes wrapped in tinfoil to bake at the bottom of the barbecue. After about five hours these were pronounced ready to eat, but by then the starving company were sufficiently intoxicated that some of them omitted to remove the tinfoil, and perished on the spot in horrible agonies.

A note to hard scientists: of course this foil was not really made of tin. But the question of whether it was made of aluminum or aluminium is one that I am ill disposed to discuss, having been invited to a barbecue on the morrow.

I believe that the casein-containing “nondairy” cheeses are for people with lactose intolerance. I can’t see that they’re much good for anyone else. If eliminating all dairy from your diet is important to you, for whatever reason, then obviously you want to avoid the casein-containing brands. If you’re just looking to reduce your dairy consumption (again, for any number of reasons), I suspect you’ll be a lot happier using a smaller amount of regular dairy cheese than a larger amount of soy or rice cheese with casein.

There are several brands of truly nondairy (vegan) cheese out there, and they are all totally different. If you’ve tried one and didn’t like it, don’t assume you won’t like the others. My favorites, as I’ve mentioned before, are Sheese and Daiya. They can be hard to find (although that’s getting better) and a little on the expensive side. But the way I see it, the whole point of cheese is for it to taste good, so I’d rather spend more money on stuff that tastes good than any money at all on stuff that doesn’t.

I’ve tried fake meat patties of all kinds, including a very similar recipe to this, & they just don’t do anything for me. I’ve about decided if I ever go full-on vegetarian, I’m going to have to face that fact & not try to fake a meat or dairy item (the only alternative product I’ve found that I like is Rice Dream ‘milk’).

And if you put sausages across the grill instead of parallel to the grid, you don’t risk them falling into the coals – & get that nice stripey effect.