From scratch Gluten

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

A thousand years back, when I was in my 20's, I wanted to learn to make everything from scratch. We were renting a house in Neuman Lake Wa., and out in the sticks. We raised cornish-cross chickens, which gave us both large , meaty chickens,and plenty of eggs, geese, and an Angora goat. We also had a good wheat grinder, and a drum full of wheat. I purchased a how to book, and in it were directions for using the raw wheat grains in different ways. As we had a wheat grinder, it was time to go to work. The wheat was ground into flour and placed in a 10 gallon plastic tub. Eater was added to make a thin slurry. his was then worked by hand until the gluten, starh and bran became separated. The glute, was removed and washed in cold water. The rest was poured through a fine-mesh sieve, which captured the bran. This was spread onto a cookie sheet and dried, the broken to make bran flakes. The starch water was fed to the chickens.

The gluten was dried and crumbled to make bite-sized nuggets. We found that this could be cooked with flavorings to make very tasty dishes. We usually crumbled it further and added it to ground beeg, or ground pork, to extend the meat. It also could be used like firm tofu.

If you really want to be self-sufficient, this treatment of wheat is a handy skill to learn. Then, I re-joined the U.S. Navy, and never used those skills again. Even so, I still remember how to do it. Don't know why I'm posting this. It just struck me as something I wanted to share.

Oh, but Andy M., I guess I didn't really make the gluten from scratch, as I didn't first create the universe.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[pepperhead212]

I made gluten years ago, though not from whole grain flour. I used bread four, even though the recipe called for AP, since it has more gluten. I found it in a Chinese CB, and a dough was made, then kneaded under water, resulting in that "starchy water" you mention (at least they did something with it - I had no use for it). This was poured off, then clean water was added, and it was repeated, I think 4 or 5 times, until the water was clear. the rubbery mass was cut into pieces, and simmered, or used in various things, like stir-fries, similar to tofu, as you noted. Another thing I made way back when I knew one of those vegetarian ladies.