Vegans: Can be used to make seitan, a fantastic meat replacement. Online wholefood companies such as Buy Wholefoods Online love to stock ingredients such as vital wheat gluten to make great ingredients easily accessible to the public. Kao fu is available in fresh, frozen, dehydrated, and canned forms. Packed on premises that handles nuts (including peanuts), seeds, cereals, soya & products containing gluten. The initial product, imported from Japan in 1969 was a very salty seasoning, the color of soy sauce, sold in a small glass jar or plastic pouch, to be used as a seasoning for brown rice. It is the most commonly available type of fu in Japanese supermarkets. Some types of wheat gluten have a chewy or stringy texture that resembles meat more than other substitutes. All worked for years to popularize these pioneering products at the Erewhon retail store, and developed a trademark on the Wheatmeat name.

There are three primary Chinese forms of wheat gluten. You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to utilize the functionality of this website. Baked spongy gluten (traditional 烤麩; simplified 烤麸; pinyin: kǎo fū) is similar in texture to a sponge, kao fu (sometimes labeled in English as "bran puff") is made by leavening raw gluten, and then baking or steaming it. ", Michelle Tsai, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty, Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes, Thirty-nine Reasons Why I Am a Vegetarian, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wheat_gluten_(food)&oldid=983763332, Articles needing additional references from November 2011, All articles needing additional references, Articles containing traditional Chinese-language text, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 October 2020, at 03:11.

Wheat gluten is also called seitan (UK: /ˈseɪtæn/, US: /-tɑːn/; Japanese: セイタン), mianjin (Chinese: 麵筋), milgogi (Korean: 밀고기), wheat meat, gluten meat, vital wheat gluten or simply gluten. It may also be used as an ingredient in wagashi, Japanese confectionery.

It is a powerful flour that can quickly transform your baking skills particularly with bread, cakes, muffins and pastries.

It improves the rise of the raw dough and also improves the texture and chewiness of the final product.

[13], "seitan" redirects here. The people most responsible for this change are Nik and Joanne Amartseff, who invented Tan Pups in 1972 and John Weissman, who in 1974 invented Wheatmeat (first meatballs then cutlets made of seitan) in Boston. The meaning of the word "seitan" has undergone a gradual evolution. View All Personal Care & Alternative Therapies, Organic Seitan Pieces in Ginger & Soya Sauce (Biona) 350g, Use to help to bind ingredients together in baking, Make your own Seitan - an easy way to make a vegan meat substitute, Combine with other flours - recommended use is 1 tablespoon for each 2 cups of flour.
In the United States, the Seventh-day Adventists promoted the consumption of wheat gluten beginning in the late 19th century. The gluten is then dried and ground back into a powder. Seitan, a neologism of Japanese origin, is a food made from wheat gluten in the macrobiotic system of cooking and health, as formulated by the Japanese-born philosopher George Ohsawa (1893–1966). By the 1830s, Western doctors were recommending wheat gluten in diets for diabetics. Gluten flour can also be used to develop Seitan - a fantastic meat alternative for vegans and vegetarians. When it comes to bread making, vital wheat gluten is great for flour replacements such as rye which can often lack in gluten ingredients.

First a dough is made by hydrating the flour, then the dough is kneaded under running water to remove the starch from the dough, leaving only the gluten. [5], The word seitan is of Japanese origin and was coined in 1961 by George Ohsawa, a Japanese advocate of the macrobiotic diet, to refer to a wheat gluten product created by Ohsawa's student Kiyoshi Mokutani. Popular shapes include autumn-colored maple leaves and bunnies. European and International Shipping Rates.

Since the mid-20th century, wheat gluten (usually called seitan) has been increasingly adopted by vegetarians in Western nations as a meat alternative. In Vietnam, wheat gluten is called mì căng or mì căn, and is prepared in a similar fashion to Chinese miàn jīn. Earn 4 points for every pound spent. One story attributes the invention of imitation meat to chefs who made it for Chinese emperors who, traditionally, observed a week of vegetarianism each year. Wheat gluten is often used instead of meat in Asian, vegetarian, Buddhist, and macrobiotic cuisines. Each 100 points is worth £1.00! If you like organic whole foods, shop our organic vital wheat gluten. Yaki-fu is typically added to miso soup and sukiyaki, where it absorbs some of the broth and acquires a fine texture that is lighter and fluffier than its Chinese equivalent. We are one of the leading UK suppliers of whole foods and can ship our products almost anywhere in the UK and Europe with a reliable and efficient postage service.

In strip form, it can be packed to be eaten right out of the package as a high-protein snack.

Sanitarium Foods, a company affiliated with John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium, advertised wheat gluten in 1882. Wheat gluten has been documented in China since the 6th century. This type of gluten has a dense texture and ranges from off-white to light greenish grey in color. The process removes all other ingredients except the gluten and has very little starch content remaining. When used as an additive in baking, its purpose is to add elasticity to flours that would otherwise be low in gluten, such as whole wheat flour or rye. If you like organic whole foods, shop our organic vital wheat gluten. high-protein flour, high-gluten flour, or gluten flour). Vital wheat gluten is a fantastic natural protein source found in wheat and is a powerful flour that is almost pure gluten. In Asia, it is commonly found on the menus of restaurants catering primarily to Buddhist customers who do not eat meat. [12], The powdered form of wheat gluten (vital wheat gluten), is made by hydrating hard wheat flour to activate the gluten and then processing the hydrated mass to remove the starch, leaving only the gluten.

The process removes all other ingredients except the gluten and has very little starch content remaining.

Seitan produced from wheat flour is a longer process.

It may be shaped and colored in a variety of ways, using ingredients such as mugwort. Depending on its method of preparation and ingredients used, both fresh and preserved miàn jīn can be used to simulate pork, poultry, beef, or even seafood.


With that said, vital wheat gluten can also be used when making Seitan (say-tan), a versatile meat substitute for vegans and vegetarians.

[12], Seitan may be made from vital wheat gluten or from hard wheat flour (a.k.a. Outside macrobiotic circles, these terms are virtually unknown in Japan, and they do not typically appear in Japanese dictionaries.

Buying this product will earn you 16 WholeFoodsRewards Loyalty points. It was imported to the West in 1969 by the American company Erewhon.[5].

When this sausage-shaped gluten is thickly sliced into medallions, the resulting form is called miàn lún (麵輪, literally "gluten wheels").

Mock duck is a common use for wheat gluten. Wheat gluten from China adulterated by melamine was blamed as the cause of the 2007 pet food recalls. By using wheat gluten, you can easily increase the gluten content of the bake - try using part wheat gluten alongside your favourite flour for the perfect bake. Shop our range of vital wheat gluten flour including organic vital wheat gluten - perfect for organic baking.

If you like organic whole foods, shop our, View All Personal Care & Alternative Therapies, An indispensable ingredient for making bread, cakes, tarts and pastries, A natural and very effective raising agent, helping your bread to fill out perfectly and evenly. [12], Wheat gluten is used both as a protein source and binding ingredient in pet foods. These are often stuffed with meat or tofu mixtures and served as a dish called "gluten meatballs" (面筋肉丸, Miàn jīn roù wán) or "gluten stuffed with meat" (面筋塞肉, miàn jīn saī roù).

[5] It has historically been popular in the cuisines of China, Japan and other East and Southeast Asian nations. Wheat gluten is also used in many vegetarian products in various countries, for example by The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, a vegan African-American religious sect that operates a chain of restaurants, to produce vegetarian sandwiches. It has very little starch content and is a fantastic ingredient to make dough very elasticated, resulting in perfect bakes time and time again.

Wheat gluten first appeared during the 6th century as an ingredient for Chinese noodles. Save money onfuture purchases! Steamed gluten (蒸麵筋, zhēng miàn jīn), is raw gluten that has been wrapped around itself to form a long sausage shape which is then steamed. You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to utilize the functionality of this website.

Especially useful for baking with whole wheat grains and ‘alternative’ flours, Great for ensuring any recipes with lots of seeds, nuts or fruit stay firmly held together, Use wheat gluten to make Seitan – a simple and easy to make tasty vegetarian meat substitute - Try our, Recommended use is 1 tablespoon for every 2 cups of flour. John Imison wrote an English-language definition of wheat gluten in his Elements of Science and Art published in 1803. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is said to have been coined by Ohsawa in the early 1960s, but its etymology is uncertain. A powdered form of wheat gluten is produced and sold as an additive for baking or used to make seitan. They are frequently paired with xiang gu (black mushrooms). Oil-fried gluten (油麵筋, yóu miàn jīn) is raw gluten that has been torn into small bits, and then deep-fried into small puffy balls of around 3–5 cm (1–2 in) in diameter and sold as "imitation abalone".

Dry baked (yaki-fu 焼き麩 or sukiyaki-fu すき焼き麩) is gluten leavened with baking powder and baked into long bread-like sticks. Buy vital wheat gluten online in a range of sizes including bulk options depending on your requirements.