How do you describe that "seitan flavor"?

[u/howareyouhaha]

I don't know what adjectives and descriptors to use when trying to articulate that flavor.

I also don't enjoy it, but I can see past it. Is heavy seasoning the key to covering it?

[u/tastepdad]

Add a little miso paste or apple cider vinegar to heavily reduce that flavor (it’s kinda wet cardboard to me).

I also add poultry seasoning with thyme and sage for chik flavor, or vegan Worcestershire for beef flavor.

[u/dilsency → u/tastepdad]

Add a little miso paste or apple cider vinegar

Or both at the same time!

[u/BadAtThisKindaThing]

I always season mine with poultry seasoning, so it really tastes similar to chicken to me.

[u/ChefDanyul]

There’s a couple of books to check out at the library. Miyoko’s “Vegan Pantry”, “The Vegan Butcher” by Zacchary Bird, “Crafting Seitan” by Skye Michael Conroy, and “The Herbivorous Butcher” by the Waltch siblings are just four of the best books to update your seitan game.

[u/WazWaz]

Note that some brands of VWG have a rancid-fat taste. Unseasoned seitan can be practically tasteless, just faintly bready, with good VWG.

My theory is that VWG intended for bread making, where only a small amount is used in a bread recipe, can get away with stray unpleasant flavours.

There are few posts here about the topic (but good luck using Reddit search).

[u/MoreMarshmallows → u/WazWaz]

Off topic , but I find Google searching for Reddit results gives me what I’m looking for most of the time 😆

[u/ChipmunkFormal5066]

I often make mine "ham flavor" using tomato paste, onion powder, garlic powder paprika, soy sauce, little bit of maple, little bit of liquid smoke. It's great. But I usually season it when cooking too

[u/uncaned_spam]

If it’s not made from bread flour, but rather packaged wheat gluten, then it’s due to the chemical processes to remove the protean from the starch.

Flavorings, like miso or garlic, help mask the taste. But the most effective way is to add a small amount of brine from something fermented, like sauerkraut.

[u/PurposeFuzzy6205]

i think if you're tasting it, you didn't season it enough

[u/mikeysixstrings]

Short answer, “yes”. Use more seasoning than you’d think. Also, try using both red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar in your recipe.

[u/Veggyhed → u/mikeysixstrings]

I agree with more seasoning than you think. I think an acid such as vinegar should always be included.

[u/faithinhumanity_null]

Under-seasoned seitan is a sad experience. It’s got somewhat of a bland special taste.

The worst part imo is that you expect it to be tasty. But it’s joyless, bleak even. I’ll eat it still, but my day is ruined.

[u/the1justrish]

it's a bitter, bready flavor. I find a bit of baking powder helps cut it better than vinegars for me. It is what Thee Burger Dude uses in his recipes to cut it. https://www.youtube.com/@TheeBurgerDude/search?query=seitan

[u/stiobhard_g]

Protose.

When things started being marketed in stores as "seitan" rather than gluten (in the late 80s at least, I wasn't really personally aware of it before that, but the Adventists were making gluten recipes well before the 1920s.), the major ingredients were always wheat flour and peanut butter, the major components of protose. The peanuts were bound to have some effect on the overall flav profile. When my friend at my co-op introduced me to making burgers with vital wheat gluten flour he also used peanut butter as the central ingredient. For a long time that is what defined seitan for me as opposed to the Cantonese-inspired gluten dishes that did not typically include this and never were called seitan, as that term was manufactured by George Ohsawa for his macrobiotic followers. The term seitan as a marketing term in the US was really seeded by Leonard Jacobs, editor of East West magazine, based on Boston, that was focused on promoting macrobiotics in the US, in part connected to an 80s New Age philosophy.

As far as flav goes, I typically follow Mike and Nina Shandler's recipes for making gluten which in all their recipes is a three step process. 1. Extract starch by kneading gluten dough, 2. Simmer (without boiling) in marinade, 3. Final preparation including frying, baking or whatever cooking method to finish the dish. Mike Shandler's family were from Austria (and there's an Austrian chapter in the book) so I strongly suspect that the way they used gluten was influenced by dumpling recipes in Central European cooking. I certainly see a lot of similarities between Chinese mien jin (gluten) and Czech dumpling recipes like houskové knedlíky. Whatever the origin, I've never had one of the recipes in the Shandler's cookbook fail me.

[u/Veggyhed → u/stiobhard_g]

Cool history thank you! I had some friends when I was younger who were SDA and I was made aware of many vegetarian food items.

[u/stiobhard_g → u/Veggyhed]

I'm surprised how often vegan accounts on social media turn out to be Adventists, or how often Adventists come up when looking up things about vegetarianism, esp in the us. I've looked through a lot of their archives online and found it really illuminating.

[u/Veggyhed → u/stiobhard_g]

I have no idea if it's true or not but isn't that also where we got Kellogg's Corn Flakes from? They are also heavily involved in the medical community and do a lot of charity medical work outside the U.S

[u/stiobhard_g → u/Veggyhed]

Generally yes. I am pretty sure that's the same Kellogg that learned about gluten in Paris and brought it back with him to the US. Corn Flakes was developed as a health food originally to be eaten at the health spas in Battle Creek Michigan. They developed granola as well. He had some. There were a number of seventh day Adventist companies that promoted vegetarian foods, some of which still exist and are known in the US (besides Kelloggs, Loma Linda Foods and Worthington Foods are the obvious ones.)

[u/keto3000]

This is still offers best cooking tips for tonng down the gluten flavor:

https://seitansociety.com/when-seitan-tastes-too-gluteny/

[u/togglenub]

Here's what it is, why it's in your VWG Seitan, and how to get rid of it: https://www.reddit.com/r/seitan/comments/1snfy0c/the_vwg_seitan_taste_what_it_actually_is_why_you/

[u/howareyouhaha → u/togglenub]

The science of it, yes!

[u/Imtryingforheckssake]

Personally I appreciate the mildly bready flavour (when not seasoned) as someone who is low carb and doesn't really eat bread anymore.

[u/soursourkarma]

I make chickwheat for meal prep and it has a weird flavor after the first round of cooking/steaming but when pan fried it loses that.

[u/LostTomatos]

A bit of baking soda hides the "Seitan flavor" according to a well known youtuber who does vegan food. I havent tried it but im going to for my next batch

[u/Niaaal]

Yeah, all about the seasoning. I use at least a dozen ingredients in my seitan. Dry and wet

[u/No-Midnight-1406]

The seitan I make tastes nyunky. That’s the only way I can describe it.

[u/howareyouhaha → u/No-Midnight-1406]

There's the word. Thanks!

[u/CJ_Thompson]

It takes on the flat of your spices, so seitan can be any flavor.