Basuragomi's journal

[basuragomi]

Lentofu v1.1c

Lentofu v1.1c is based on meat glue (bacterial transglutaminase) as a binder.

I took some concentrate, sifted in a few grams of meat glue and "chicken" (hydrolyzed yeast) flavouring, then let it set. It set into a very soft gel. It was too soft to press or even handle. I ended up decanting the supernatant and mixing it up to add more meat glue (about 1.5% by mass in the raw concentrate), which gave it a yogurt-like texture (before and after):


I let it set again and then froze the mass. After thawing, it had hardened considerably. The ice crystals had also split it up into a giant fractured mess:


The best way I can describe the texture is "glorp" - it was soft and squishy, but with well-defined edges. I wasn't very optimistic about the texture here. It handled like a champ though, I pressed out a lot of water and fried it.



It actually tasted really good with a great texture! The freezing gave it meat-like fibres, and it firmed up as it cooked:



The WAF was relatively high. The previous front-runner, v1.1b AKA Soylent Pink, was described as "bottom tier chicken nuggets," while v1.1c AKA meat glue got the review "overcooked chicken breast."

The results were actually so in line with my original goal that if I stopped now, I would be happy. I do want to try multiple freezing-gluing rounds however.

I also tried precipitating albumin out of the whey for vegan egg whites. I had acquired a lot of salt so just dumped it in, which should force some albumin out of solution. It worked, but had really low recovery. I think I should try adding ethanol and trying again at freezing temperatures, but it's a lot of work.

The new regrind equipment means that my dregs are finer than ever and can now serve as flour. I'm going to try making brownies or quickbread with it instead of the usual breakfast porridge.

[mountainFrugal]

Your gif reminds me of Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I cannot un-see it. https://turtlepedia.fandom.com/wiki/Krang

Really cool project. The texture in the last photo is looking pretty good!

[guitarplayer]

@mountainFrugal this is seriously funny what you wrote! DW and I laughed out loud for a bit.

@basuragomi, the way you describe v1.1c and by how it looks, I wonder if it would have similar texture to chicken of the woods. It is a delicious edible wild mushroom that grows on deciduous trees, a yellow one.

[basuragomi]

@mountainFrugal - you're not alone, the colour and wobbliness of the raw stuff kept reminding me of fresh brains as I was making it. This is probably one of those "don't visit the sausage factory" kinds of products.

@guitarplayer - I've come across chicken of the woods quite a bit but unfortunately have not yet had the opportunity to cook it. I'd imagine lentofu is a bit softer than a typical fungus. I actually was looking into growing mushrooms but their poor protein content is what put me off.

Lentofu v1.2 - protein chips

I've been thinking about how to popularize/commercialize my lentofu research for a while now and this seemed like a really promising approach, targeting backpackers for what seems to be niche but unfulfilled demand for ready-to-eat ultralight protein.

Lentofu v1.2 is very elegant in its simplicity. I previously observed that dried lentofu formed a skin, getting hard and dark while looking surprisingly meat-like. I tried to focus on that, making a shelf-stable protein chip rather than a high water content protein loaf.

The process is simple: make some concentrate, mix in flavouring, cook until its dehydrated. It forms crunchy chips, if you get the conditions just right. I tried two different heating profiles but the cooler profile left the chips relatively raw - not tasty! The hotter profile scorched a bit around the edges, but I have a plan to deal with that.





The chips are very crispy and taste like pure umami but have a habit of sticking to your teeth. You can also let them sit in your mouth and rehydrate. It's basically pure protein jerky. I made a plain version and an "everything bagel" version. The response from the designated guinea pigs was so good that I took it around to my family and friends as well for more feedback. I got a surprisingly positive response.

The value proposition: It's extremely lightweight, ~90% protein and very little moisture. 1/3rd the price of jerky but more shelf-stable, cheaper than chicken breast on a per-gram of protein basis, and vegan. It isn't as cheap as protein powder but tastes better, is crunchy, ready-to-eat and can be packaged in convenient chip form.

I'm over a year into this project, and so far I've tried to make the following from my lentil derivatives:

- Heat-set gel (v0.1)
- Guar-mix gel (v1.0)
- Starch-set gel (I called this v2.0 for some reason)
- Chocolate egg-replacement muffins
- Angel food cake
- Alginate gel (v1.1a)
- Souffle
- Soylent pink (v1.1b)
- Meat glue (v1.1c)
- Chips (v1.2)

I'd say the only real successes here were the muffins, meat glue and chips, the latter two I'm continuing work on.

I have yet to try: bacterial rennet (provisionally v1.1d) and gluten. I think rennet would probably work well.

[NewBlood]

Hi Basuragomi,
Your experiments are very interesting. Your chips remind me of tempeh chips (https://www.trulygourmet.co/en/tempeh-chips/).
I have an Indonesian friend who brings those back regularly, and they're delicious (not sure how much MSG they add to it, I don't even care).
I wonder if you could use a similar process with lentils.
Apologies if I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to do, but I didn't see any mention of tempeh in your journal, so thought it might be of interest.

Edited to add: the link above is just a website I found that seemed to have a good description, not a source I've tried.

[basuragomi]

Thanks @NewBlood. I've had tempeh before but previously had trouble getting soybeans. The local stores carry it now so I might revisit things. It would be a good introduction to dealing with fungus. I've moved away from soy in general because it's hard to get the protein out alone and the okara is so annoying to deal with.

The two things that jump out to me about that link are that 1) the soybean to (what seems like) starch ratio is pretty low, and 2) it looks like prawn chips. I'm not sure how much it's a tempeh chip (i.e. is the whole mass fermented?) versus being a chip with tempeh mix-ins.

Because my chips don't have any starch in them and the heat-set gel it forms isn't very strong, I'm not sure if they'll puff up the same way. But I'll try! If nothing else, this would be a really good use for the floury dregs, maybe with some nutritional yeast thrown in.

[NewBlood]

From my limited understanding, per my friend's description because I had never had tempeh before and didn't know what it was, the whole thing is tempeh. The white stuff in between the beans is the fungus. I assume you can make it more or less "bean-concentrated"?
(https://www.shutterstock.com/image-phot ... 2038337360)

[basuragomi]

@NewBlood, turns out the protein chips are phenomenally sensitive to heat. No way I can fry them without them instantly charring. The starch chips taste fine but I think it's the wrong kind of starch in lentils as they don't really puff up.

February 2023 update



Naps taken: 9

Portraits drawn: 17

Busy month, fewer naps. I won a scholarship for getting the highest grades in the department! I also visited Calgary properly for the first time which is why my expenses were relatively high the last two months. Of course, it was -30 the whole week.

I made red cabbage pad thai using my veggie noodle pad thai recipe, which looked pretty funky:

[NewBlood]

Ah bummer! Thanks for reporting back!
(Just FYI, I wouldn't describe the tempeh chips as puffy. they're thin and crispy).