Vegetarian Sausage #2

Another attempt at veggie sausages. I reduced the proportion of fat, and introduced Mochiko (sweet rice flour) as an additional source of starch.

Part 1 - Oil emulsion

.75 oz Vital Wheat Gluten
3.75 oz Water
3 oz Safflower Oil

NOTE: The oil must be chilled. Putting it in the freezer for 10 minutes is not enough. Should consider using ice water.

I a mixer, dissolve the wheat gluten in the water. Then fold in the oil and mix until it gets stiff. Set aside in the fridge.

Part 2 - "Meat" and spices

1 oz Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)
3 oz Water
1/2 tsp Tamari
+
2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Caraway Seed
1/2 tsp Grated Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Sugar

Soak the TVP in the water and Tamari. Mix all the spices and then add them to the re-hydrated TVP.

Part 3 - Putting it all together

50 g Vital Wheat Gluten
25 g Mochiko (sweet rice flour)
11 g Corn Starch (1 tbsp)

Put a wide pot with some water, a steamer basket and a lid on medium heat.

Mix wheat gluten, flour and corn starch. The process is the same as vegetarian sausage #1. Fold oil emulsion into meat and spice mix, then  slowly add the flour mix while stirring continuously, until a uniform paste forms.

Cut aluminum foil in 9 inch sections, then shape each "dog" as well as possible with a spatula into a smooth cylinder in top half of the foil sheet. Roll like a sushi roll and crimp the edges.

Steam for 20 minutes.

Vegetarian Sausages #1

This is a very experimental recipe. I am just trying out ideas I got from meatandsausages.com. Here's what I did.

Part 1 - Oil emulsion

1 oz Vital Wheat Gluten
5 oz Water
4 oz Safflower Oil

NOTE: The oil must be chilled. I tried to skip this step and had to chill the mix later.

I a mixer, dissolve the wheat gluten in the water. Then fold in the oil and mix until it gets stiff. Set aside in the fridge.

Part 2 - "Meat" and spices

1 oz Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)
3 oz Water
1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Caraway Seed
1/2 tsp Grated Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika

Soak the TVP in the water. Mix all the spices and then add them to the re-hydrated TVP.

Part 3 - Putting it all together

100 g Vital Wheat Gluten

Fold the oil emulsion and the spiced TVP together. Sprinkle the wheat gluten on top, slowly, while mixing all the time. It should form a sticky dough - or a stiff batter.

Spoon it into aluminum foil to form sausages. Roll like a sushi roll or a cigarette. Crimp the end. Steam for 20 minutes.

Yeast Starter

I have some ale yeast I collected from a bottle of V Cense in 2013. I have since cleaned the yeast with sanitized water and decanting, several times, and have good confidence of having a clean sample.

I am basically making a tiny beer batch, as a test of the real batch I'll be brewing soon, where I'll pitch the yeast cake from this starter.

some ale yeast, preferably in cake form under sanitized water, refrigerated
1.5 liters of water
132 g of light DME
1.5 g of low-alpha hops (Fuggle, 4.75%)
1 g LD Carlson Yeast Nutrient (Urea and diammonium phosphate)

Dissolved DME in warm water and brought to a boil.

Put the hops inside a tea ball and added to wort.

Boil for 30 minutes total, but after 25 minutes add the yeast nutrient.

Should be approx 10 IBU.

Cool it to about 40C, measure the sugar (I had 11.4 Bx, 1.046, probably because water boiled off). Then in fridge to cool it to about 20C - should take a few hours.

I decided to filter the cooled wort through coffee filters to get rid of the particulate from the hops. Maybe adding them wasn't such a good idea after all.

I had one liter of wort, so I added 200 ml to get a lower gravity.It brought it down to 9.4 Bx, or a SG of 1.038.

Oxygenate the wort by shaking it, put it back in the fridge.

When the wort is at 18C, pour away most of the liquid atop the yeast cake from the jar where it's been sitting, swirl the rest and pitch it in the wort. Cover the wort and keep it at room temperature (for me today it's 30C at 4:45 pm).

Two days later, at 10am, it's down to 5 Bx and starting to form a turbidity gradient - put it in the fridge to cold crash.

After 5 hours the top is starting to clear. A sample was 4.8 Bx, which implies a FG of 1.007, 3.7% ABV, apparent attenuation of 81%, which is in line with this type of yeast. The beer smells yeasty and fruity - I'm guessing esters - so the yeast seems suitable for a farmhouse ale.

Basic Seitan #2

1 1/2 cups Wheat Gluten
1/2 cup White Flour
1/3 cup Textured Soy Protein (TSP), re-hydrated in 1/3 cup water
1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1 tsp Powdered Ginger
1 tsp Powdered Mustard
1 tsp Salt for dough
1 tbsp Salt for boil water
1 tsp Annatto Seed (Achiote)
1 tsp (Peanut) Oil

1. Heat Oil and fry Annatto Seed for 1 minute. Cool down.
2. Heat 6 cups water in large saucepan. When it boils, add 1 tbsp Salt.
3. Mix dry ingredients. Add the TSP, and mix well.
4. Drain Annatto Seed into a container with 2 cups of water. 
5. Pour Annatto Oil/water liquid into dry ingredient mix and fold/cut until a moist dough forms. 
6. Put dough on cutting board and cut into 16 pieces.
7. Put pieces in boiling water and boil for 30-40 minutes.
8. Strain pieces and allow to cool down.