Basic Wheat Meat

Ingredients
10 c Flour*
5 c Cold water (approximate)

*Use wheat flour for beef and other red meats; white flour for chicken, shrimp, or other light meats.

Mixing
Combine flour and water in mixer. Using dough hook, knead for 5 minutes. It should be the consistency of bread dough.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a towel to keep the dough from drying out and let rest in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes. If desired it can be covered with cool water and left in the fridge overnight.

Washing
After the dough has rested, divide into 1/4ths and work with one portion at a time, keeping the remainder covered as you work. Place a piece of the dough in a strainer which is placed in a large bowl of cold water. While keeping the dough immersed at all times, stretch and compress the dough to wash out the bran and starch. The volume of the dough will diminish considerably during this process but keep your dough in one lump. In a few minutes of working your dough, it will begin to resemble over chewed bubblegum in texture. Kind of like pulling apart a well chewed piece of Hubba Bubba :)

Rinse the now rubbery glob of gluten in a fresh bowl of clean water and leave it under water while you repeat the process with the remaining 3 pieces of dough. This is a picture of all my dough completely washed.


You should NOT throw out the water you used to wash your dough. Instead, pour it into a gallon+ pitcher and place in the fridge overnight. If it is allowed to sit it will divide into 3 distinct layers. The top layer of clear water can then be poured off and used to water houseplants, pets, or used to mix your powdered milk, or make bread with it, etc. In this picture you can see mine has not yet completely separated.

The second layer is starch. It can be used to thicken gravies, stews, sauces, etc. Just use 4-7 Tbls of raw starch for every 2 cups of liquid in your recipe. Be aware, however, that the starch will only remain good for about 2 days in your fridge. To store it longer, place in the freezer.

The final layer is bran. Rinse the bran using a strainer and cheese cloth. It will stay good, when well rinsed, 4-6 days in the fridge. To keep it longer you need to freeze it or powder it. I used it immediately to make bran muffins, but you can also use bran to make bran flakes for cold cereal.

So, in your bowl with clean water, you now have your raw wheat meat, or gluten, which can be used to make ground beef, roasts, chicken chunks, shrimp, etc. depending on how you prepare it. Look for other recipe posts of mine to find more recipes for the preparation of specific meats.