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... ::)
I've gotta try that. Seitan is always hit and miss with me. And I tried baking once but didn't really like it. I think getting it really thin as you did in the video would make the texture much more agreeable than boiling. I've also used boiled seitan dredged in flour and cracker crumbs to make a sort of fake chicken fry which was good.
Your doggie stole the show, by the way. So cute!
Luck you for having such a cool boyfriend.......and a nice looking dog.
I liked the video. I will try that for sure.
Very cool! Tell him thanks for the video. Was great.
my seitan is always like a wet rag just after boiling it. I used to use it right away and wonder how I could make it tougher and less wet. Then I realized that if I refridgerate it after taking it out of the liquid, they firm up to the consistency of rubbery chicken (yeah, not quite maybe). It's much better that way.
I still have to try freezing it.
I also know seitan dries out quickly, almost all the recipes I've seen for baked seitan either wrap it in foil or cover it in some kind of brine or sauce. I would try baking it in some liquid and tossing it every once in a while to keep the pieces/balls/loaf from drying out and getting hard. Maybe if you baked it in a covered casserole dish it would help, since that would keep the moisture from evaporating too much.
I have to qualify this by saying I think the gluten I can get here in S. Spain isn't as good as what y'all have there, but...I've made it boiled and baked and prefer the texture of the baked. When I boiled mine it swelled HUGE and had the consistency of a pencil eraser. And since I didn't realise that you have to flavour it somehow before cooking, the mixture as well as the broth...frankly, the air in front of my face had more flavour.
How long did you boil it? The recipes I have call for like an hour to two hours. Maybe it wasn't done?
I have bought commercially-prepared seitan and it was damp and heavy, and had the texture and taste of plasticine. Not worth the money.
the box of wheat gluten says use the broth of your your choice, so I just used veggie broth as the recipe I was eventually going to use it in (Veganomicon's kale and brussel spout conconction), so it came out pretty good. This was my first time making seitan from scratch like this.
I still have half a box left of the gluetn and am wondering what the cooks here use when they make seitan?
i prefer it baked or fried. the boiled kind never did much for me.
i just mix gluten in with whatever seasonings i want and use a liquid to compliment that and either fry it or wrap it up is foil and bake it.
also, mixed gluten dishes are good, such as the chickpea cutlets, etc.
Thanks. I didn't know you could make them that way. Usually I buy ready-made seitan.
Make chickpea cutlets!!!! If you like seitan you will love them!
I tried them for the first time on Friday and they ARE delicious. Make sure your measurements are kind of precise... too many breadcrumbs and it will be difficult to form the patties.
Thanks. I gather that's a recipe here, or is it Veganomicon??
can you freeze seitan? i mean, when it defrosts, is the texture at all different? lemme know if ya know, cause i kinda don't want to waste a batch if it turns out that it will be gross.
Freezes just fine and doesn't change texture or anything. I freeze it in some cooking liquid because I find it gets freezerburned otherwise.
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=11870.0
ah yes, thank you.
Specifically, I've long wanted to be able to make sandwiches for lunch using seitan, but too-thick seitan weirds me out sometimes. I even find the faux deli meat slices too thick. Back in the day when I ate "real" lunchmeat I'd always get it sliced "as thin as possible."
Soooo, in lieu of getting a heavy duty slicer, I was thinking of getting a mandoline to use for sliciing seitan. I've never had one before and am not sure if this would be a good idea. Any thoughts? If you have a mandoline, do you like it? Can it make really really thin slices?
i can test that out for you today. i as well like my seitan crisp and thin. mmm
i can test that out for you today. i as well like my seitan crisp and thin. mmm
sweeeeet!
I have a salad shooter, which works great for seitan pepperoni.
http://www.saladshooter.com/
the salad shooter looks pretty cool! i like how you could shoot out grated potatoes for hash browns.
Oh man MD! I never thought to make seitan that would fit in my salad shooter. You are BRILLIANT!
Here's my re-post of a great way to "bake" seitan. I've been using this recipe from Vegan Vittles for years:
From Vegan Vittles: Seitan Salami, Pepperonni & Pastrami,
Dry Ingredients
1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (I've left it out and it's fine with out it)
Salami & Pepperoni Seasaonings:
1 Tbl. paprika
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. of dry mustard
1/4 t. onion granules
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
Pastrami Seasonings:
2 Tbl.paprika
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. black pepper
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
1/8 t. ground allspice
Liquid Ingredients:
3/4 cup water
4 Tbl. tomato paste
2 Tbl. soy sauce
2 Tbl. olive oil (I double that amount)
3 cloves garlic pressed
1 t. salt
Place the gluten, NY, and the seasonings you are using in a large mixing bowl and stir.
Place the water, tomato paste, soy sauce, olive oil, and salt in a med. mixing bowl and whisk together. Pour into dry mixture and mix thoughly. If there is still flour around the edges mix a "tiny" amount of water (drips).
Now knead the gluten in the mixing bowl for a minute.
Form the gluten into one long log. Wrap the log in tin foil tightly and twist the ends.
Bake at 350.
Salami and Pastrami for 1 1/2 hours
Pepperoni for 60 minutes.
Unwrap the seitan and transfer to a cooling rack. When completey cool wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for several hours before eating
Have a few beers, glasses of wine, shots, or any other cocktail of choice while waiting (my own additional advice).
ENJOY!
-dave
I made the seitan pastrami...but used it for pepperoni. :o It started out that I wanted pastrami on rye bread...so I made both. At first the pastrami tasted sort of like spaghetti'os flavored ginger cookie ??? but after it set in the fridge for a few days it tasted way better. So I made pizza for the guys and put it on like pepperoni. DH (omni) loved it. He also loved it in sandwiches. I will try the actual pepperoni recipe later.
http://vegweb.com/gallery/albums/userpics/88096/thumb_0912081819a_0001.jpg
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