How to grind steitan in a meat grinder and what to do with the "meat"?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

SEEING-TO-BELIEVE

Head Chef
Joined
Sep 11, 2021
Messages
1,055
Location
ISRAEL
hi
i've a good meat grinder.
i also have a huge seitan chunk from the shop.


i want to know if there is anything special to know when grinding it?


and what can i do with it later which is not hard to prepare?


i bought this meat grinder for grinding chicken thighs just to later discover that it is not possible to grind it in a home meat grinder without semi freezing it.
i find it bothersome.....


thank you for answering
 
Im not about grinding it, but one thing to know about seitan, is like meat, it wont bind to itself without some kind of additional binder placed in it. So, for example, if you're planning on trying to make a burger, ' meat ball, or something where you want it to tick to itself, you'll need to add something else. If not vegan, eggs should work. I recently made a patty from a recipe where breadcrumbs were added ( and possibly some kind of starch. I forget). It did work well as as ' chopped meat' substitute, like for taco or something like that. I ground mine up by pulsing it in a food processor.
 
I had no idea what seitan was until I just looked it up. But the only thing I saw that used ground was into meatballs, sausages or patties.

Have never seen it nor tasted it before. Have no idea the texture nor how it would grind.

Try a small chunk, season it up and fry?
 
thanks
i think i will make it into some kind of grounded "shawarma" and also add MSG and eat it along with IRAQI KICHRI (rice with red split lentils and a lot of garlic).


as far as i know the African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem are using seitan a lot. they also like nutritional yeast in which called in hebrew "beer yeast"


i like it if made in a good sauce or even in other forms (the seitan)
 
Seitan isn't bad, has a good texture, as mentioned above , doesn't really bind to itself. In my opinion, needs to be heavily spiced to drown out the 'seitan flavor'. Not that the seitan flavor is bad, but it usually overrides the other flavors. Some seitan doesnt have that ' seaitan' taste to it or just less pronounced .

I find asian seiatan to be the best .
 
I’m puzzled by this. What is it your looking for by grinding this? If I was looking for a ground vegan compound, I’d be using something other than wheat gluten (chickpeas, beans, other veggies, etc.).
 
Seitan does have a chewy texture, so might mimic ground meat better. Although I use other products for this purpose, if using for taco, sloppy Joe ...that type of things, the seitan texture will be good, and also wine break down when cooking ( as beans would).

If grinding to to attempt to make a sausage, it is better to actually make the seitan yourself, with sausage like spices in it, and steam it wrapped up in foil. It will come out in one piece , sausage shaped .

Here is a link to seitan sausages. I have never tried the recipes in this link. Its more just to show the process. In addition, I only use foil, not the plastic wrap also,

Seitan ' meat' in most cases is a lot dryer than its meat counterpart, as it doesn't have an fat in it ( or if it does, very little). So it Cookes differently, and chews differently ( if that makes any sense).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTLJxUD_E5k
 
Last edited:
Scott, I think SEE TO BELIEVE is looking for ways in which to utilize the meat grinder.

He bought for a job that he has now has found out doesn't work with it.
So now he is just looking for other uses to, hopefully, minimize the loss of a purchase.
 
Scott, I think SEE TO BELIEVE is looking for ways in which to utilize the meat grinder.

LOL… for vegan: alternate chickpeas, garlic, onion, parsley, and/or cilantro is just one suggestion. Form it into balls or patties and bake or shallow fry.

Seems like there are tons of combos of veggies that would be better than whatever “Seitan” is… but I have never had it so I may be wrong (but it is wheat gluten, right?).
 
When I was a vegetarian, I made ground beef substitute by grinding cooked beans or chick peas in my meat grinder. I would then fry it up with chopped onion as if it was ground beef. I only used in things where fried ground be normally be used, like pasta sauce or sloppy Joes. A lot of people had a hard time believing me that it wasn't meat.
 
i did grounded it and it came really bad
because for one the texture was gone because the pieces were very small


not a good idea to do that...
 
So now you know!
With any new food technique, it´s a question of running it up the flagpole to see if it floats in the breeze.:cool:
 
yes
and its good to have places to discuss these things :)
others will use the information too


anyway,
if i used the wider hole grounding place it would maybe be much better.
but i afraid to give this another try.


also because i discovered yuba which i think will be better for a plant based shawarma too
 
Seitan is a lot like TVP. It has a flavor, but readily accepts other flavors. It is usually pulsed in a food processor to resemble browned, crumbled meat. It can be used to extend ground beef, pork, lamb, and poultry. It's fine in patties, meat loaf, meatballs,, sloppy joes, pasta sauce, chili, etc. Spiced and herb flavored seitan, cooked in turkey broth is good in stuffing/dressing. It can also add body to soups, and chowders. If left in bite-sized chunks, it can mimic chicken, beef, or turkey, and can be used as a filler in homemade sausage.

And just so's ya knows, all meats should be partially frozen to work with a meat grinder. It keeps the fat from homogenizing, giving proper texture to the end result. Hope this helps.

I have made my own seitan, years ago, by grinding wheat, washing away the starch, and bran , (bran made cereal flakes, starch water went to chickens, and isolating the wheat protein (seitan) gave me something to extend meat on limited funds at the time.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
thank you all


about meat or chicken grinding.
i must thaw it well to remove some residues of bone etc from chicken thighs and then i need to make it semi freezed again and only then grind it. i don't bother.
chicken in israel is not cleaned well in most places if not almost all of them.
 
the sausage recipe in the video is interesting
in israel it is not simple to get gluten flour tho
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom