kourtney
47 posts
Apr 13, 2005
6:56 AM
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I made neatballs for the first time. They tasted great, but for some reason the gluten was stringy. For the liquid, I used a mixture of 2 Tb. sake and water to make up the rest. I also added a bit of marmite to give them a beefier flavour. None of the liquid was hot, although I may have stirred it more than I should have. I formed and baked the neatballs an hour after I combined the ingredients, then simmered them for 20 minutes in a slightly thinned tomato sauce the next day.
Any ideas what I did wrong?
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Søren
153 posts
Apr 13, 2005
8:52 AM
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Hi Val, I've had that "stringy" problem too, even when the mixture was thoroughly cooled. I'd suggest you try giving it a few whirls in the food processor, not mincing it totally, but to avoid the gluten forming into strings.
Søren
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Debbie
653 posts
Apr 13, 2005
9:01 AM
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That's interesting? I have never used alcohol with seitan before. But I don't think that could be it. Is your kitchen warm?
I sometimes put the liquid and/or the dry mixture in the fridge first before mixing the two together. Although, none of them is HOT but slightly warm temperature cause the seitan flour to be stringy. I have a warm kitchen living in southern calif. where most of the time my kitchen is 70F and above (in summer can go up to upper 80s). So I use ice cold water when making seitan in summer time. I think I experienced the stringy seitan a couple times to find out that even slightly warm temp. water, made it stringy.
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
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kourtney
48 posts
Apr 13, 2005
9:47 AM
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Thanks, Debbie, I'll try using chilled liquid next time. My kitchen's not warm -- it's early spring here, so it's probably 65 degrees or so in my apartment -- but I just used tap water so it might have been more room temperature than cold.
As to using alcohol, the neatballs recipe says it's okay to sub wine for some of the water, so I figured sake would be okay too.
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Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
923 posts
Apr 13, 2005
10:21 AM
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You know, I wonder if sometimes different brands of gluten are different. Why don't you try using just a little less gluten next time and see what happens? I have never had this problem, but wonder if it could be the gluten powder.
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"To look like a goddess, eat like a peasant." Karen Andres
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kourtney
49 posts
Apr 13, 2005
1:44 PM
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Should I substitute flour for the gluten I leave out? The mixture was quite moist as it was.
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Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
924 posts
Apr 13, 2005
5:23 PM
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you could try that, but I'm just thinking out loud! Maybe experiment with 1/4 of the recipe, so you don't mess up a whole recipe (just in case!).
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"To look like a goddess, eat like a peasant." Karen Andres
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