How do you make commercial style seitan???
Posted by mom2Phoenix on Mar 15, 2011 · Member since Jul 2010 · 25 posts
I have been making some super tasty seitan lately but I can not get the texture to be like a pull apart chicken breast like the kind you can buy in stores. Does any one know the trick for making it more like a pull apart meat?
Since nobody else has answered this, I'll tell you what I've picked up from talking with others. Don't take it to be fact though. It's my understanding that companies (like Ray's) make their seitan in the old school way (with whole wheat flour not vital wheat gluten) and have a special folding process that makes it more shreddy. I'm assuming it's all done with a machine given the quantities they produce.
I've also heard that the by excessive folding and pulling you can get closer to that texture if you cook it in a pressure cooker. I haven't tried it. I wish I really knew how it's done because it's good stuff.
I've made seitan in a pressure cooker, and the results for me were very similar to baking it in a water bath. I think the water bath is my favorite method, since it winds up more dense and not excessively chewy/gummy. Pan frying (alone) or simmering makes it too chewy for me.
I've made a couple seitan recipes that involve using both gluten flour and whole wheat flour. I think that's the closest I've come to commercial seitan. You'd think for the most meat-like texture you'd want as much protein and as little starch as possible, but I think having the starchy flour in there with the gluten prevents it from becoming a uniform blob o protein. Kind of like the margarine/butter in puff pastry, it prevents cohesion between the layers of gluteny dough and allows more "flakiness."
That being said, I've never replicated the texture of, for instance, gardein.
I have made it the old fashioned way with the rinsing, etc and the results are very similar. Just more time consuming.
I have also tried dozens of different folding techniques and none of them get me to that same stringy texture.
We should start a letter-writing campaign to Ray to convince him that it would be an immense public service if he divulged his seitan kneading technique.
jkl, that's a great idea!