My first try with transglutaminase (aka "meat glue")!

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Amazon only had meat glue in kg bags. But following some links, I found some in 50g bags for $13 at Transglutaminase (Meat Glue) .

Some of the more rational things that occur to me are bonding the bacon wrapping onto scallops or filets so that they stay put during cooking and cutting. I could also imagine creating meat tubes to be stuffed that would stay connected as tubes during cooking or binding a protein filler to the tube to treat it as one piece. Some of the less rational and more Robot Chicken like thoughts would be like making everyone happy by gluing chicken drumsticks onto the sides of a beef roast.

That's where I bought mine. And the ideas you list are all good ones, ones I'm planning on trying (well, except the Robot Chicken!:ROFLMAO:). I've heard of RM being used to "glue" chicken skin onto salmon. I want to laminate some chicken and pork to make a "Chorkwhich".:chef:

I'll try to get a picture of the result. It stuck pretty good in some places, not as well in other. In retrospect I think I made 2 errors. First, I went a bit too light on the stuff; it's supposed to be sprinkled on at around 1% weight of the product. Looking at some videos I see now I was a bit too timid! Second I think it would be more consistent a roll if I'd cut all into lengthwise strips and bundled it.

Still, not bad for a first attempt. I'll try to snap some pics later this evening.
 
Rob I'd like to see an analysis of whether what you got was worth the trouble. People have been rolling flank steaks and tying with string for eons (well, centuries at least) with good results. Why would glue be better than string?
 
Well, flank was simply on sale, so that's what I used. The difference between tying and using the enzyme is that the former merely holds it while you roast it- the latter makes it essentially one piece, allowing you to use it any way you like. For example, slicing it into thin medallions before cooking.
 
Slicing into medallions before cooking is a novel concept. I'll be interested in reading your experience when you report back.

Just don't do it when there's thunderstorm-y weather! :) If one of them things comes alive... :eek:
 
Okay, here's a picture of the roll, cut in half. I plan to sous vide one half @ 130 F. You can see that I didn't quite get it rolled completely tight- probably would have worked better to make strips first. Oh well, next time.

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Okay, here's a picture of the roll, cut in half. I plan to sous vide one half @ 130 F. You can see that I didn't quite get it rolled completely tight- probably would have worked better to make strips first. Oh well, next time.

Thank you for the picture! It looks just fine.
 
Meat Glue Secret - YouTube

kudos for the effort, but for me, personally, I don't think I could get into it.

Awww, what a groaner!:wacko: That fluff piece is one of the oldest propaganda hatchet jobs still slogging thru the interwebz Zombie Style!:bash: It's almost entirely fiction and the few true parts are completely irrelevant to the home cook.

I'm not trying to perpetrate fraud on people expecting a "whole muscle"- I'm making dinner at home! Please keep the police out of my dining room!:rolleyes::ROFLMAO:
 
Okay, here's a picture of the roll, cut in half. I plan to sous vide one half @ 130 F. You can see that I didn't quite get it rolled completely tight- probably would have worked better to make strips first. Oh well, next time.

scaled.php


Rob, if you cut a filet off that roll and cook it to medium rare perfection, it's still going to be flank steak, right? No one is going to 'mis-steak' it for a filet mignon.
 
Rob, if you cut a filet off that roll and cook it to medium rare perfection, it's still going to be flank steak, right? No one is going to 'mis-steak' it for a filet mignon.

"Mis-steak"! Have you no shame!:ROFLMAO: Of course you're right. It's just flank steak. As other posters have mentioned, you could just roll it and tie it with butcher's string. But once bonded, free of the need to tie it, I can do other things with it.

Flank arguably has better flavor than filet. It's just tough to deal with a steak that's so thin. But with sous vide I can cook it til it's very tender yet still medium rare. And now I can use a different form factor.

My goal isn't to freak people out with "Franken-meat"!:ROFLMAO: It's just to explore how we can use science to bend food more into the "Platonic Ideal" of a dish. To create that concept that we have in our mind that food must be "convinced" to attain!;)
 
Looks good Rob. Please do keep us updated on how the experiments go.

You may also consider doing all the work in a chamber you can incinerate if they become to aggressive and try to take over the world. :LOL:
 
Meat Glue Secret - YouTube

kudos for the effort, but for me, personally, I don't think I could get into it.

Awww, what a groaner!:wacko: That fluff piece is one of the oldest propaganda hatchet jobs still slogging thru the interwebz Zombie Style!:bash: It's almost entirely fiction and the few true parts are completely irrelevant to the home cook.

I'm not trying to perpetrate fraud on people expecting a "whole muscle"- I'm making dinner at home! Please keep the police out of my dining room!:rolleyes::ROFLMAO:

Here is a video of putting a steak together with meat glue made out of stew meat. Yahoo news today.
I had no idea it was a clotting agent from pigs and cows blood.
take a look.
Is Your Prime Steak Held Together By 'Meat Glue?' - Yahoo! News


Be careful with the "fluff" pieces, lol.
 
The video says something about how gluing meat together is putting the most likely bacteria ridden parts (stew meat) from the outside into the inside of the 'glued steak'. The problem is that using this glue isn't regulated in restaurants and impossible to know if it is being used in a cooked steak. For a glued steak, the inside should be cooked thoroughly. No more ordering rare or medium rare, to be safe.

I'm just not going to eat steak out anymore--at least boneless filet mignon.

I predict a public outcry on glued steaks in the near future, with truth in advertising and it can be called 'coagulated steak'.
Monsieur: Woood you care for zee coagulated filet?
Customer: WE WE:LOL::LOL:
 
It was more interesting when it was transglutaminase eh? :LOL:

Less unappealing. I can't imagine myself having any application for this stuff.

Blissful brings up some good points about gluing bacteria laden parts inside a steak where it might not get safely cooked.


I'm waiting for somebody to start gluing together pink slime. :D
 
Less unappealing. I can't imagine myself having any application for this stuff.
I was thinking applying bacon to meat, might be a good application.

Blissful brings up some good points about gluing bacteria laden parts inside a steak where it might not get safely cooked.
Thanks though I just learned about that in the video/news thing.

I'm waiting for somebody to start gluing together pink slime. :D
:LOL::LOL::LOL:

It kind of reminds me of blood sausage--we've got clotting agents from pig and cow blood mixed with meat. ???
 
That's an interesting idea about applying bacon to meat (I presume like a fillet mignon or something). I've tried fillets the supermarket wrapped with bacon and tied with string and didn't find any way to sufficiently cook the bacon without overdoing the steak. Perhaps I should have put more effort into browning the edge of the fillet. I never went to the effort of repeating the experiment.

I'm not particularly fond of the idea of any products with the word "blood" in them. Yes I'm probably missing something... I'm reminded of Asian markets where it appears you can buy the blood separately presumably if you have some recipe that calls for blood as an ingredient. Again, this idea does not sound particularly attractive to me.
 
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