Working with Gluten Water

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By Kellene Bishop

Don't pour your gluten water down the drain! Photo c/o godsdirectcontact.org

As the last article in our wheat meat series, I wanted to share with you some ideas about how to use the milky water you get when making wheat meat. This watery substance, known as gluten water, has a great deal of vitamins and minerals in it. So any time you can use it in a dish, you’re dramatically improving the nutrition of that dish. This water will only keep for about 24- 48 hours. (I recommend refrigerating it if you’re not going to use it right away.) After that it begins to ferment, much like a yeast starter for bread.

After making my wheat meat, I like to pour the gluten water in a jar and let it settle for about 2 hours. What settles to the very bottom is bran. This bran is a great source of trace minerals and vitamins such as potassium and phosphorous. It’s great roughage for your digestive system as well. You can use this bran as a cereal or in your favorite batters. I even have used it successfully in my fruit smoothies. The bran portion will keep for about 4 to 6 days in the refrigerator. But you can freeze it. (Sorry, I don’t know of any other way to preserve it, so it won’t do you much good in an emergency unless you’re using it the same day that you make it.)

To make a bran cereal, simply add a pinch of salt, a pinch of honey powder, a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of cinnamon, and enough water to thin the bran substance so that it is pourable onto an oiled cookie sheet. I bake mine in the solar oven for about 2 hours. But you can bake it at 300 degrees F for only 20-25 minutes. Yup. You’ll have HOMEMADE bran cereal! Also, here’s a GREAT recipe for bran muffins that you can make with the raw bran as well!

 

 

2 C. of raw bran
1 C. shortening
2 1/2 C. sugar
4 eggs
1 quart buttermilk
5 C. flour
5 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. salt
3 C. crushed bran flakes

Bran Muffins photo c/o meals.com

Big B Bran Muffins

 

 

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and milk. Add bran. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix in bran flakes. (Yes,  you can use a pre-made cereal for your flakes)
Bake in greased muffin pans.  375 degrees for 20 minutes.
Put in air tight container and store in fridge for up to one week.

Above the bran layer, you will see a distinct color difference of a milky substance. This layer settles between the water and the bran. This is your gluten starch aka gluten water. To extract this for use in sauces, casseroles, stews, etc, simply pour off the water slowly.  Then pour off the gluten water into a separate container. I like to use this instead of cornstarch to thicken sauces, gravies, and stews. I also like to put this in my smoothies as well since it’s so nutritious. To make a gravy, I just add 4-5 tablespoons of the gluten water to 2 cups of whatever liquid I’m using. 6-7 tablespoons will thicken a family-sized stew. You can also use this successfully when making ice cream from scratch. 

LeArta Moulton’s book, “The Amazing Wheat Book” is essentially my Bible when it comes to working with the bran and the gluten water. I love her pizza dough and cracker recipes!

Pizza Dough—by LeArta Moulton

2 cups starch/gluten water
2 cups flour (whole wheat, of course)
4 t. cream of tartar
1 t. soda
1 t. salt
5 T. oil
Mix all ingredients, adding oil last.

Spread dough with hands or rolling pin on pizza or baking sheet. Makes four 12-inch crusts. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes or until the dough is set but not browned. Garnish with your favorite toppings. Bake until heated through. (Be sure not to make the crust too thick, otherwise it will be tough.)

To make crackers, you can take the exact same recipe as above, but spread the dough thinly on a large cookie sheet, about ¼ inch thick or less. Instead of putting the salt in the dough, I like to sprinkle it on top. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and then score with the tines of a fork. Bake for an additional 10 minutes then turn over the cracker and bake and additional 5 minutes. I love topping these with parmesan cheese and garlic salt!

Wheat Meat Series

Part I: Discovering Wheat Meat

Part II: Preparing Wheat Meat

Part III: Great Wheat Meat Recipes

Part IV: Working with Gluten Water

Copyright 2009 Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.  All rights reserved.  You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.

Subscribe to Preparedness Pro today and never miss a thing!

 

Preparing Wheat Meat

This blog has moved. Please visit us at www.preparednesspro.com.

By Kellene Bishop

Italian "Wheat Meat" Dish by notonlypizza.com

Wheat Gluten, commonly called “wheat meat” or Seitan, is a great staple to your food storage. As I addressed some of the whys and wherefores of “wheat meat” yesterday, today I’m going to share with you HOW to create your own wheat gluten. Just to get your imagination going here, you can make countless WONDERFUL dishes with “wheat meat” in place of your traditional fare. “Meatballs,” “ground chicken or beef,” “steak slices,” “ham,” “sausage”, etc., can all be deliciously created from your wheat storage. 

12 cups of whole wheat flour will yield about four cups of raw gluten, varying slightly based on the quality of your wheat and its protein content. Hard red wheat or wheat from cold climates will produce the most amount of gluten. Four cups of raw gluten will then bake into about nine cups of ground gluten which is equivalent to about three lbs. of cooked hamburger, 150 “meatballs”, or 20 “steak slices.”

For my meat loving readers, a good way to introduce “wheat meat” into your diet is to add it to your ground beef/chicken dishes at present. Start with half meat and half gluten. (This works well to indoctrinate not only into the meal, but also into the digestive system if you’re not already eating wheat.) Being married to a major meat eater, I’m confident that you’ll easily be able to go to a ¼ meat to ¾ gluten ratio in no time, with little or no resistance. And then of course move on to full fledged meals with the “wheat meat” as your only source. The nice part about “wheat meat” is that it doesn’t have a definitive taste or color. It readily takes on the appearance and flavors of what you cook with it.

Keep in mind that I’m not writing about using commercial wheat gluten.  You prepare commercial wheat gluten differently than when you use your own whole wheat/flour. The last thing I want to do is put one more thing on your list to store, such as commercial gluten. Good news is that storing commercial gluten is not necessary if you’ve got a good supply of wheat. Your flour contains raw gluten. All you have to do is extract it from the flour. Fortunately, that takes very little effort on your part. 

Photo c/o Herbi Ditl

To begin preparing your “wheat meat”, simply mix 12 cups of whole wheat flour (you can use white flour as well, but you won’t get as much gluten) with 7 cups of water. You can do this in a mixer, or you can do it by hand. If you use a mixer, this process will only take you about 5 to 10 minutes. The consistency you want to end up with is flexible. It’s going to look a lot like your bread dough does before being completely kneaded. You don’t want dry, or watery. You want it to look a bit rubbery. You can adjust the amounts of flour or water after your initial mixing in order to get the consistency you need. When you’re finished mixing this together, set it aside and cover the surface with plastic wrap or a towel to ensure that it doesn’t dry out. Let it rest for about 20-30 minutes. If you have to ignore it longer than that, then I would refrigerate it.

Now, place your dough in a colander/strainer over an empty bowl in the sink. I prefer a metal colander. For about 5 to 7 minutes, run lukewarm water over your dough. You want a slow flow on your water and you want to be sure that you have a bowl underneath your strainer to collect the water. (There are a whole lot of uses for this precious mineral/vitamin rich water. So don’t throw it out.) As the water is running you want to continue squeezing the dough and working with it in order to squeeze out all of the starch. You will know that you’re done squeezing the dough when the water coming through the strainer is no longer coming out a milky color. Rather it will be clear. As you’re working with the dough, you will begin to create a rubbery ball. Continue to work the gluten into a ball as the starch separates from the gluten. Your final ball won’t look very beautiful. It won’t look like a ball of bread dough because it doesn’t have any air in it. It will simply be a dense, rubbery ball of gluten mass. (Sound appetizing yet? Don’t worry. It gets better, I promise!) Here’s one thing I do want to share that I had to learn the hard way. Just before your dough is the right ball consistency when you’re rinsing it, it gets a bit stringy. It’s easy to think that you’ve messed up. But actually this is just the “storm before the rainbow.” Once the stringy-ness occurs, you’ll know you’re close to being finished with perfect gluten! Once you’ve got your ball of gluten, you’ve done the “hard work.”

Cutting your wheat glutten into pieces. Photo c/o toptrailchef.com

What you want to do at this point is to cook the gluten prior to adding it into your preferred dish. There are two ways to cook your gluten at this point—steaming it and simmering/boiling it. 

The steam method is ideal for shaping your gluten into familiar shapes and textures. You simply form it into the shape that you want by hand, or wrap it in cheesecloth, and then place it in a vegetable oil-sprayed steamer. (Just like the instrument you would use to steam your vegetables in.) You can cook the entire ball of “meat” this way, or you can shape it into smaller portions. Place the steamer in a pot of boiling water and steam your gluten for about 30 minutes.

Boiling "Wheat Meat". Photo c/o toptrailchef.com

The boiling method is also easy and it adds extra flavor to your “meat.” In this instance I prefer to cut my gluten into smaller pieces so as to season them well.  Simply drop your strips or pieces of gluten into a pot of boiling, flavored broth. Simmer for about 30 minutes. It will just about double in size in this method. You can simply use a broth made with bouillon cubes, or you can create your own. Here’s my favorite broth to start out with.

• 10 cups of water
• About a cup of soy sauce or Braggs Amino Liquids
• 2 bay leaves
• A t. of garlic powder
• A t. of onion powder

Slice your gluten into small pieces, about the size of chicken nuggets. Place them in the hot water and continue to simmer for about 30 minutes.

"Wheat Meat" Stir Fly photo c/o when-mia-cooks.blogspot.com

From this point you’ll discover the fun of creating “meat” out of “wheat”. You can now chop, grind, slice, steam, marinade, sauté, smoke, BBQ, or fry your “wheat meat”. The “trick” is all in how you prepare it visually and how you season it. It’s that simple—REALLY! (You can store your “wheat meat” in the fridge for the same amount of time that you would “regular” meat.) You’re now ready to cook the gluten as you would any of your other protein sources. I like to fry it in a bit of oil or butter until it’s golden brown on both sides, and then add a bit of BBQ sauce and let it simmer for a few minutes. It tastes like tender chicken or beef. I also like to grind up my steamed “meat” and use it instead of ground beef or chicken in my meatloaf, soup, burger, casserole, or chili recipes. I especially like how the “ground sausage” turns out.

I also like to bread it with Panko bread crumbs, salt and pepper, and then serve a yummy, brown gravy over my “wheat meat”, just like chicken fried steak.

I also enjoy sprinkling slices of Monterey Steak Seasoning on it and then grilling it. It’s even better after I let the “wheat meat” marinade in a steak marinade first. 

Dang. I’m getting hungry. I’m going to sign off for now and go make some “wheat meat” for myself. I’ll share some detailed recipes for “wheat meat” with you on Monday, and I’ll also share some great ways to use the left over starch water with you next week as well! In the meantime, give this a try by making your own “wheat meat” this weekend. 

Wheat Meat Series

Part I: Discovering Wheat Meat

Part II: Preparing Wheat Meat

Part III: Great Wheat Meat Recipes

Part IV: Working with Gluten Water

Copyright 2009 Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.  All rights reserved.  You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.

Subscribe to Preparedness Pro today and never miss a thing!

 

Discovering Wheat Meat

This blog has moved. Please visit us at www.preparednesspro.com.

By Kellene Bishop

Wheat meat photo c/o delectable-victuals.blogspot.com

To some hardcore carnivores, the idea of eating wheat gluten may sound like a form of vicious torture. But I can assure you from experience and experimentation that when it’s prepared properly you won’t be offended. (Unless you’re one of the unlucky few who are gluten intolerant.)

Many years ago I willingly decided to cut down on meat in my diet. Not because of some of the most obvious reasons that other health fanatics do, but simply because I was trying to cut down on the fat in my diet. It got easier with time to the point that I ended up trying wheat gluten in a typically meaty Chinese dish. It was so yummy. If I could prepare wheat gluten this way in my home, I was sure to be hooked!

Why am I talking about “wheat meat” on Preparedness Pro? There are actually several great reasons.

“Wheat Meat” Benefit #1: Cost. As you may recall, I got pretty darn excited about buying my ground beef for only .78 cents a pound last month. However, if you consider that 9 cups of wheat gluten is equivalent to 3 pounds of hamburger, “wheat meat” may be a much more attractive protein purchase for food storage needs. Considering that I just paid just over $10 for a 50 pound bag of hard red wheat, I think you can see that “wheat meat” is a much better bang for your buck. It’s a lost less expensive than beef, pork, and chicken!

“Wheat Meat” Benefit #2: Shelf-Life. As you already are aware, wheat has a very, very long shelf-life. Unfortunately your cans of chicken and beef, as well as your bacon bits, do not.

“Wheat Meat” Benefit #3: Time. Remember what I say about conserving your own physical energy during an emergency? Preparation and energy times required for wheat gluten and regular meat are very comparable 

“Wheat Meat” Benefit #4: Nutrition. As you know, purchasing organic poultry and beef is more expensive than “the regular stuff.” Yet the regular meat fare is indeed loaded with pesticides, fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics, steroids, dyes, and tranquilizers. (Yum. You’re salivating already for some KFC, aren’t you?) Today’s beef also contains 6 times more fat than it did in the 1950’s. The quality keeps going downhill unless you want to pay premium prices. Wheat gluten, however, has none of these toxins in them. “Wheat meat” is actually an excellent source of protein and 8 amino acids. (Be sure you supplement your “wheat meat” intake with foods containing Lysine in order to get complete protein nutrition.) It also contains vital vitamins and minerals. Traditional meat requires the use of vital calcium in your body. Whereas consuming fruits and vegetables (which is what wheat gluten is absorbed as) leads to calcium absorption for the strength of your body. It also has no cholesterol.

“Wheat Meat” Benefit #5: Physical Energy. Your body requires more physical energy to digest regular meat than it does wheat gluten. The standard American diet requires the body to use 80 percent of its energy resources to digest food during several cycles of the day. However, “wheat meat” requires significantly less, thus giving your more energy for your other activities of the day.

“Wheat Meat” Benefit #6: Taste. Not to be misconstrued with tofu, “wheat meat” successfully takes on a variety of tastes and textures based on simple seasonings. It’s VERY satisfying whether it’s in a ground, sliced, or shredded form. I have been amazed to discover that I’m eating “wheat meat” rather than a piece of tender steak in a fajita. It’s also great in sweet dishes like puddings and candies as well.

So, until tomorrow when I share with you how you can easily make your own “wheat meat”, be mulling this concept over. Your body and your wallet may thank you.

• Part I: Discovering Wheat Meat
• Part II: Preparing Wheat Meat
• Part III: Great Wheat Meat Recipes
• Part IV: Working with Gluten Water

Copyright 2009 Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.  All rights reserved.  You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.

Subscribe to Preparedness Pro today and never miss a thing!