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Today we have a few more options than fake steak.
Gluten is made from wheat flour. One bushel of weighs 60 pounds and will make 20 to 25 pounds of gluten. The process involves
converting it to flour then processing it by washing it as a dough under water until all the starch runs off. Raw gluten will
be "cream grey colored with iridescent, coherent rubberlike tenacious, ductile, elastic mass that is slightly pearly"
It squeaks. Ok so it just feels like it should squeak.
The bonus side? It's very low in calories, fat and has no cholesterol but it is also low in vitamins and mineral. That
makes it a must to serve with other dishes to complete your needs. Man truly cannot live by Gluten alone. Sodium varies according
to what broth you use to make the flavor. It's redeeming factor? Protein, baby. LOTS of protein.
4 ounces of Gluten [purchased] stacks up as
157 calories
24 grams protein
0.2 grams fat
16 grams carbs
0 cholesterol
There are several ways to make Gluten. You can use a commercially prepared mix, buy it made or make it from scratch.
An example of the mix is Vital Wheat Gluten which is made by such companies as Arrowhead Mills and made from hard winter
wheat. It is simply already made gluten powdered. You don't knead or wash it and it's fast to make. One cup powder plus one
cup of liquid [broth or water] makes one pound gluten. Knead? One minute. No wash. Add seasoning and broth to it as desired.
It still must be cooked like the other gluten.
The broth varies according to how you want your gluten to taste, that is why you can use one recipe for preparing the
gluten but many for the broth that flavor it. Use the recipe for making it that works best for you and try a variety of broth
recipes. The traditional broth consists of soy sauce or tamari, ginger, garlic, and kombu (seaweed) to make Seitan.
Prepared can be found under the name Seitan. It is ready to eat and cooked with broth to give it flavor. I tend to nibble
it when I am making a dish. It usually comes in a plastic container. You can find it in Asian stores in cans under the names
Mock Duck, Mu Chai Ya or Chai Pow Yu. Canned or prepackaged it makes a fast meal because they provided the broth for you.
Making Gluten:
Your wheat [flour] and water will play a part in what type of Gluten you get.
Hard Water and Hard Flour => high protein/strong gluten [I should be able to use mine for floor tiles in that case...]
Soft water/Soft Flour => Low protein, weak gluten
Too cold water=> low protein, aching hands
Too warm water => while your hands won't ache you will have weak gluten.
Any wheat flour will produce Gluten except self rising. A hard winter wheat as stated above helps the protein level. You
can mix several different types of flour also. Any of them will produce gluten. Stone Ground Whole wheat will add more texture
to the gluten as well as some fiber from the bran you do not lose by washing. Red Duram will create a golden creamy gluten.
Remember protein in wheat varies so will the protein in your gluten.
The idea water temp should be 15C to 20C [or 59 to 68F]. For soft water/flour add sodium chloride to help make it firmer.
Hard water and Hard wheat is the ideal.
Examples are
1 cup unbleached white flour, 1/3 cup water, knead 20 mins, wash 15 minutes yield: 1/3 cup raw gluten
1 cup stone ground whole wheat flour plus 3/8 cup water, knead for 20 minutes, wash 15, Yield: 3/8 cup
You must knead because it develops the gluten. The time doesn't change according to flour type. The difference you will
find is the yield. It takes 15 minutes to wash no matter what the size. Do a tennis ball size one of a cantaloupe size one..
it still takes the 15 minutes to wash and the 20 minutes to knead.
You can ONLY store raw gluten frozen. IT will ferment if not kept cold. If freezing when you thaw briefly rewash immediately.
If you worked the seasoning into it you should cook or freeze immediately or the seasoning will work to the outside and you
will lose them. Freezing makes it more fiberous.
If you use the shortcut method located on the VGR site you can add your choice of herbs and spices or poultry seasoning/chicken
flavor broth powder [Vegetarian or Vegan] or paprika, cayenne, fennel, garlic, and Italian seasoning to get sausage. Try and
experiment with different seasons.
Remember:
Boiled and kept in water it will keep indefinitely if you change the water ever day.
The more you knead the denser the gluten.
Do not try to boil raw gluten that has been seasoned and that includes Vital Wheat Gluten.
You can roast the raw gluten in about 20 minutes using a seasoned broth. You can also tear it into chunks and bake for
10 minutes in hot oven for a crunchy snack.
Sources:
Vegan Handbook's article by Dez Figueira "Cooking with Gluten" edited by Debra Wasserman& Reed Mangels
Seitan the Vegetarian Wheat Meat by Jill Nusinow at http://www.vrg.org/recipes/vjseitan.htm
Seitan at Wikiveg http://www.wikiveg.org/Seitan
Wheat Gluten at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_gluten_(food)
Go to Seitan Recipes
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