• @NathanUp
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    2 years ago

    Also, turns out it’s pretty easy to make the stuff at home; I do it all the time with a recipe I developed based on Modernist Pantry’s. I worked it out to $0.22 / oz, $3.45 / lb, or 20 burgers at: $0.87 each, not including added seasonings. Happy to post if anyone wants it.

    • DessalinesA
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      22 years ago

      I’d like that! I do the same, every 2 weeks or so making either vegan chicken or vegan steak, and using that in recipes. Obvi since its much cheaper, you can make huge batches.

      • @NathanUp
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        32 years ago

        Here’s mine. A note on this; the methylcellulose quantity for the protein blend can be a little fiddly. I have one tablespoon that seems to work perfectly, and another that seems to dispense less. If you are unsure about this, I’d recommend trying to fry a small portion of the hydrated protein mixture in a pan, and add more methylcellulose, if necessary, before mixing in the fat. You can always add more later, but you’ll lose the texture in the fat with too much mixing.


        Pretend Beef Burger Meat

        Yields: ~4lbs

        Ingredients: Marbling Fat

        Ingredient Amt.
        Water .25 Cup + 3 Tbsp
        Methylcellulose HV 1 Tsp
        Refined Coconut Oil, Melted 1.25 Cup + 2 Tbsp

        Method: Marbling Fat

        1. Blend together water and methylcellulose
        2. Season if you like (Salt, MSG, and maybe a touch of liquid smoke)
        3. Slowly emulsify coconut oil into mixture (Blender or food processor with emulsifying disk really helps here)
        4. Separate finished fat into four equally sized portions ( I use half quart deli containers)
        5. Refrigerate until solid

        Ingredients: Protein Blend

        Ingredient Amt.
        TVP 4 Cup
        Beet Powder 1 Tbsp
        Cocoa Powder 1Tbsp + 1Tsp
        Nutritional Yeast 6Tbsp
        Faba Bean Protein 1 Cup
        Methylcellulose HV 5 Tbsp + 1 Tsp
        Water 6 Cup
        Liquid Aminos / Soy Sauce 4 Tbsp

        Method: Protein Blend

        1. Mix dry ingredients
        2. Season to taste ( I use black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, MSG & salt)
        3. Mix wet ingredients
        4. Combine all
        5. Let sit in fridge overnight
        6. Grate 1/2 container of marbling fat into protein blend and mix well (food processor is best, if you have it, as this will keep the temperature low while grating)
        7. Grate remaining 1/2 of marbling fat into protein blend and fold in gently

        Works for burgers, meatballs, meatloaf, sausages, et cetera. To keep from sticking to burger presses, meat-ball tongs, etc, dip the tools in water between uses.

        • DessalinesA
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          12 years ago

          That looks pretty legit, I’ve never heard of Methylcellulose, I’ll have to look that up.

      • @NathanUp
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        22 years ago

        What recipes do you use?

        • DessalinesA
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          42 years ago

          I’ve refined these a bit, but here’s the base recipes. The main special ingredient is vital wheat gluten, which you can tune to make the consistency you want.

          • Vegan Chicken . The main difference with this one is I use chickpeas instead of jackfruit as the base, still works well.
          • Vegan Steak
    • @k_o_tM
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      22 years ago

      that’s pretty cool :)

      do you by any chance know how to make something like this? i tried this once when i was in europe, and iirc it had relatively few ingredients, still tasted great

      • @NathanUp
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        32 years ago

        saucestash does something like this, but it looks pretty tedious. Modernist Pantry has a recipe for nuggets using wheat protein that I haven’t tried yet, but I expect the texture will be quite different. That said, if I recall, the recipe calls for transglutaminase, which may create more of a cohesive, natural texture.

        • @k_o_tM
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          22 years ago

          ty :)

          this does indeed seem somewhat complicated, prolly more so bc it’s hard to produce in a large quantity, but i’d definitely try making this

          i’ve seen a local version of this, which only uses soy powder or something equally trivial, so maybe there’s an easier way to do this 🤔