Seitan - General Guidance
Well friends, I girded my loins and tried making my own seitan yesterday. I had trawled the Net for info and some of it was contradictory, others were confusing, but I did find out how to make it with gluten powder and when to freeze it--after the initial cooking.
I always follow the easiest recipe thru the way it says the first time and go from there. NOW I understand why they recommend you add seasonings, herbs, mushroom powder etc. to the gluten mix...it tastes of absolutely nothing, as is. I mean, imagine eating an eraser. OK as a chewing exercise...flavour, not so much! LOL I also understand why they suggest you work it very little (mine was almost as dense as me!) and if it weren't 100º out I might have tried baking instead of boiling it.
BUT...and it's a big but...after I had laughed at the way it swells up when you boil it and looks like something out of a biology lab, and tasted it and found it...well, completely tasteless...I sliced it up and marinaded it in an African barbecue sauce. And DH the carnivore tasted it and did NOT go "Gross!" or laugh at me about it. We agreed the recipe and method need "tweaking" and that I need to print out the instructions and follow them closely, but that we are definitely onto something, at less than a dollar a pound for pure food, no waste. No bones, no fat, no cholesterol...and cheap! He ate some and said maybe we should put it in a curry etc.
10 years ago or even 5 he would have laughed at me and made "cute" remarks all the time I was trying to eat it. Now he agrees we need to eat less meat and things like this will help that. From his point of view it is purely economic (he is facing disability retirement) but hey, any start is a good one. Now if I could just get him to eat things with leaves and roots... ::)
Seitan is just a huge chunk of gluten, which is an inflammatory that a large percentage of the world reacts poorly to. You could merely be sensitive to it as many are.
I don't get gassy, but I cramp up if I eat too much (4oz or so is my threshold). I have to be real careful with it or I pay dearly with pain. If you ate all of it, you may want to decrease your serving next time and see how you fare.
I feel like i get seitan stuck in my intestines (sort of like a "frog in the throat"...but in my bowels. ;D) if i eat too much for a few days. But its not w/ the commercially made seitan, its my homemade "sausage" style that does it to me.
I get GAS-SEH when I eat too much (just about any) TVP and kind of when I eat seitan. Beans are fine for me, though, so I eat them now, instead. Go figure.
Oh yeah! TVP too! Maybe I am just a ridiculously gassy person? Haha. I totally thought more people would post in agreement on the flatulent effects of seitan! I thought everyone would be like, "Oh man, oh man! That stuff makes me fart my brains out!" I am truly surprised.
Maybe we all just don't realize it and think it's random gassyness. I will pay special attention after the next time I have seitan.
we can all eat lots of seitan right before driving to CT together.
That is NOT a good idea!
I've tried several times to make baked seitan strips. I always mix all of the liquid ingredients and spices together before adding the wheat gluten, but they have come out like breadsticks every time. Any ideas about what I might be doing wrong?
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try adding some smashed beans and see if it makes a difference. I've tried several different recipes, so something about my method must be wrong. I have always had success with steaming and then baking seitan roasts, but it is pretty time consuming.
I think if you are going to straight up bake cutlets you should make them more like Veganomicon's Chickpea cutlets or seitan cutlets.
Also make sure your wet ingredients are cool. Hot liquid activates the gluten and that makes it bready.
I always simmer seitan. But I use my seitan for stir fries and meatloaves so it always becomes a good constancy. A lot of time the seitan doesn't firm up good until it is cooled slowly, and it is time consuming but worth it. My roommate always tells me I'm doing it wrong, but I have been making my own seitan for 5 years and this is the best way it has ever come out for me. Plus, he cooks way different than me, I stir fry stuff in nonstick pans and then sorta steam it with some water or broth, he fries everything with high heat safflower oil. ick.
I've made so so seitan on several occasions, and while its good... its nothing like what I want to get. I like the texture of the stuff you get at the store...
I know you can't match it straight on, but I don't know what they do!
And I tried wrapping it in a cheesecloth once and that did not work! It stuck to the cloth.... haha...
and it always pops out of foil (too tightly wrapped, I know)
So far baking has gotten me the best results, when wrapped right.
I haven't tried steaming it yet, but hope to.
And when I fried it, the middle stayed gooey! yuck!
Well teade, you need to get a job at WhiteWave or another place that makes seitan and spy on their technique. Then report back to your fellow vegwebers!
hahaha.... :( lol
I'm on it. I'll sneak in with a secret camera and live feed to vegwebbers, just gotta move to Denver..? ;)b
I bet they boil it for like 5 days!! But it looks like by their ingredients they add both soy flour and garbanzo bean flour... hmmm... time to experiment? Too bad I don't have either of those. Next shopping trip, I'll get some!
I heard a slow cooker was good too though... hmmm....
Hey to the folks
I've seen a couple different recipes oh the different ways to make seitan. Boil it, bake it. From what i understand baking it gives it a more pepperoni like consistency , which is not what im looking for. I want to bread it and bake it and use in a recipe that originally calls for chicken and I'm not sure which way to go. Is there a making seitan for the first time thread somewhere? Thanks.
Dreena Burton and Brianna Clark Grogan have awesome blogs that address this issue ;)b
I was wondering, do you have to boil seitan, for people like frying it, do you have to boil it? and if you do, what can u use it for ?
Seitan can be cooked in many ways including simmering it (you never want to BOIL seitan because it will get brainy), dry baking it, baking it in liquid, and steaming it. Once you've got it cooked, then you could slice it and fry it. I wouldn't just fry up a piece of raw seitan though.
you can fry seitan without boiling it first, but it doesnt grow too much. you get more out of it if you simmer it.
I made seitan cutlets for the first time the other day, and for now I'm storing them in the broth, but I want to freeze some/slice some up for samwiches so I can get the big bowl out of Sean's fridge. Problem is, I don't want to throw all the broth away!
It's this (http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7545.0) recipe, so the broth is dark with nice soft onions in it. Originally I thought French onion soup, but the cheeze I have (FYH Monterey Jack) gets too liquid-y when it melts. What should I do with it? There's probably about 2-3 cups.
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