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... ::)
it's a meat replacement that is made out of wheat flour, almost like bread, but it is boiled or kneaded under water. the water removes all the starch so that only the wheat protein is left. i have not tried it, actually, but i know that you can make it yourself with special flour or buy it pre-packaged in a store.
(if i am getting something wrong, someone please correct me)
i would really like to try seitan also, i've read so much about it but i'm never sure what to do with it, or if is should even buy it. is it better to make it at home? if someone knows more about this than i do,l please help me and Lotus42!
I bought some ready made from the healthfood store and was underwhelmed. It may be because all this is new, here in Spain, and we don't have the variety you do...but at $4 for half a pound I expected something better. I have also bought Asian "mock chicken" or "duck" in cans, and found it very visually convincing (it looks just like poultry meat, to the point of being out-grossing) but the taste was bland. I finally threw it in some chilli.
I've made my own a couple times using an amalgamation of several recipes I found on the net, and using gluten (I can't justify all that water for rinsing my own in this drought-ridden region), with varied success. It's a question of practice, I think). I Have learned that at least my gluten doesn't absorb any flavour from the boiling water, so it's best to season the gluten with whatever before I start.
Now, will someone PLEASE answer my question on freezing seitan that is a little further down the board? Everyone views and the one person who contributed to the thread also wanted to know! ::)
I just made seitan for the first time last week, and I can't believe I have been living my life without it.... It was so easy to made, had a great taste, and a unique texture. A really nice change from tempeh and tofu... I used this recipe here:
http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=112
*I cut the recipe in half since I was just cooking for myself, and it still made quite a bit. After it was done I just put it in a non-stick pan with a little olive oil and sauted until golden-brown... It would be great in a stir-fry as well. I will be making it again today with BBQ sauce cause I think that would be amazing...
I found this description when I googled seitan:
Ah ha! Found this too:
Another fabulous thing about this food is the nutritional facts:
From the back of Vital Wheat Gluten package:
Serving size: 1/4 cup
Calories: 120
Total Fat: 0.5g
Sat. Fat: 0
Cholesterol: 0
Sodium: 9 mg.
Total Carb: 6g
Fiber: 0
Sugar: 0
Protein: 23g
*Of course these are going to vary depending on how you choose to prepare it, but there is a ton of protein here with relatively low calories, carbs, and fat (if you are into watching that kind of thing!)
Hope this helps you all, as you can see I am in love with this new food and want to share it with everyone! I even made it for my mom (who eats lots of meat and thinks I am weird cause I don't) and she loved it!
Happy cooking! 8)
I just read a Seitan recipe and then I realized that soy and gluten mock meat products are never really combined.
I want to try seitan at some point (hopefully sooner rather than later), and now I'm wondering if it would work to knead textured soy protein crumbles into the dough before boiling... Might give it a unique texture and might enhance the amino acid profile.
Any thoughts?
I've got a recipe at home that uses both gluten and tvp to make the mock meat. I don't remember if it came from this site (I couldn't find it if it did) or where I got it from. But it's in my big binder that I keep all the recipes that I've printed out, both tried and untried ones, so I'll find it and post the link or the recipe if it's not on the page. I won't get home after 5 pm Central time but I'd thought I'd let you know that somethings coming.
I live in Hood River, OR which is the headquarters of Tofurkey, and I just recently look at the ingerdients of some of the products. Tofurkey combines tofu and wheat gluten which makes for a pretty accurate meat substitute. Although, I haven't tried it at home, their Italian sausage mockery is pretty tasty and it doesn't include a long list of over-processed product.
I looked and couldn't find that recipe. :-\ I'll look again later. I may have misfiled it or overlooked it.
Yes, I will let you know if it's any good (process-wise and taste-wise). I'm actually thinking that if you knead the little crumbles into the gluten dough before you boil it, it wouldn't fall apart and you wouldn't need to rehydrate it beforehand, but I don't know the consistency of uncooked gluten dough yet (because I've never tried making seitan). It might be too tough...
Thanks for looking, TinTexas. I looked on VegWeb and couldn't really find anything either. I think if I try it I would do it by gut-feeling rather than recipe, since I pretty much know what I have in mind.
So Tofurky uses a combination? Hmm, I like the texture of their sausages, not too uniform, and not too soybean-y.
I've tried making seitan three times (two times from scratch from whole wheat flour and one time from just gluten flour) and each time it comes out gross and chewy like rubber. I really want to try it but each time I make it it's worse. I don't know what I'm doing wrong or maybe I just don't like it. Can anybody help me or give me a fullproof recipe they love? Thanks! :D
Here is the Seitan recipe I have been using for a few years now. It's from Vegan Vittles (Farm Sanctuary sent it to me when I adopted a pig...really...well more like "sponsored a pig"...I have his picture on my desk in my studio...I just wanted to share that) ::)
First I think one of the reasons why your seitan is coming our "rubbery" and too chewy is that you are letting it boil too rapidly (if you are boiling it).
Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten (1 box)
1/2 teaspoon garlic granules
1/2 teaspoon onion granules
Liquid Ingredients:
1 cup of water or vegetable broth (I use un-chicken broth if I am making unchicken cutlets).
you can use 1/2 a cup of tomato juice and 1/2 cup of water if you want a "beefier" flavor
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 table spoon olive oil
Simmering Broth:
10 cups water of vegetable broth (or un-chicken broth) or a combo of water and broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
(I like to add fresh garlic into the broth as well)
Add the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix (I also add different spices depending on the flavor I am going for...I never really measure anything)
Add the liquid ingredients and mix well. If you need more water add only a tiny bit at a time. Same with vital wheat gluten, do not try to add any other type of flour.
Knead the gluten in the bowl for about a minute. What I do after is decide if I want to shape cutlets, or make 1 big "roast' or slice into a few sections....up to you. Remember that it will get about 1 1/2 times bigger then it is in its current form.
Place the gluten into the broth...DO NOT LET IT GET TO A RAPID BOIL!!!!!
Keep it boiling very gently (this is the key to it not being too chewy).
gently boil for 1 hour.
Store it in some broth if you are not using all the Seitan at once. I also like to use the left over broth to make mashed potatoes or couscous, boil fresh veggies in it, etc.
Now, slice it, dice it, fry it, bread it, bake it w/ BBQ sauce, or make a stir fry...it works! It took me a few times to get it right, but if I did it, you can!
Hope this helps!
-dave
PS...DO NOT LET IT RAPIDLY BOIL (I wanted to repeat that again) ;)
Thanks, Dave, I too am having trouble learning this stuff...maybe if I try enough versions it'll work someday. I pride myself on my good cooking abilities so this is turning into a real obsession.
Thanks so much Dave. I've been needing some help with this. This recipe sounds great and I really like the little input you put. Thant really makes a difference when you don't know what your doing (like me!). I definitely feel your pain Yabbitgirl. I thought I could cook until I tried seitan! Well, I can't wait to try the recipe!!!! Thanks a bunch! 8)
Dave's recipe is very easy and tasty. Pay attention to the instruction about the rapid boil. I used this version the second time I made it and it was wonderful. I did add a bit of liquid smoke to the dough (and I'm ignoring the other thread about liquid smoke; I just gave up smoking and I think I'd put my body into shock if I removed all carcinogens at once :D teehee)
I also took a tip (from Sharway, I believe) and whizzed everthing in the blender and didn't knead it much after that.
Ditto what Davedrum said.
But adding to that. Use cold broth or water to the gluten, let it rest about 1/2 hour. Then put into cold broth and bring up to a simmer for 1 hour.
Mine never comes out rubbery and not super chewy.
I really appreciate you all responding in such short time. Thnks so much! I'm definitely going to try out this recipe and use the advice from NUTDRAGON and J.R. ;D
Thanks for the link to Ellen's Kitchen, baypuppy--I surfed around and enjoyed learing about "stinky tofu"--not something I'm going to try very soon! ;D
I think you might actually be over kneeding or cooking it.
Dry ingredients
* 1 1/2 C instant gluten flour (vital wheat gluten)
* 1/4 C nutritional yeast flakes (optional; adds a deeper flavor and vitamin B-12)
* 1/2 t garlic granules (optional; can vary amount)
* 1/2 t onion granules (optional; can vary amount)
* Desired herbs & spices (optional)
Liquid ingredients
* 1 C water, vegetable broth, tomato juice, or a combination (the juice adds a "beefier" flavor)
* 3 T soy sauce
* 1 T olive oil (optional)
Simmering broth
* 10 C water or vegetable broth
* 1/2 C soy sauce (optional)
Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Combine liquid ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Pour into dry ingredients, mix well. If there is still flour around the edges, add a small amount of additional water.
Knead the gluten directly in the mixing bowl for about a minute. Slice the gluten into 3 relatively equal pieces, and set aside.
Place the ingredients for the simmering broth into a 4 1/2 quart saucepan or Dutch oven, add the gluten pieces, and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer with pot partially covered for 1 hr. Maintain the heat so that the liquid barely simmers, and turn the gluten over during cooking. Let cool in broth uncovered.
Transfer to storage containers, adding enough of the broth to keep seitan immersed. Seal containers tightly and store in the refrigerator up to ten days or in the freezer for up to six months. To extend the life of fresh or defrosted seitan, boil it in its soy sauce broth for 10 min., 2 times a week.
Thats the first recipe I used and Ive never had overly chewy seitan (Ive made it a toal of three times though)
Hey nutdragon,
(off topic) but is that the Easter Raika? Is she still the same color? ;D
Hey nutdragon,
(off topic) but is that the Easter Raika? Is she still the same color? ;D
yep, she's still the color she was born with, but we're having dinner with friends tomorrow night and she'll likely get dyed then. She loves being the EasterPuppy ;D
Thanks Davedrum! I tried the recipe finally and the texture came out softer but it had a feeling that I was eating chicken fat (eww!) Maybe I just don't like seitan. My mom liked it though! She said it reminded her of bacalaou frito (fried cod fish). Maybe I'm still doing something wrong. I don't know. But your recipe did come out better than any other I tried. Is there any more tips that you can give me? Or maybe I just don't like seitan? Help! Is that the texture I'm supposed to get? (I breaded and fried the boiled seitan pieces)
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