Re: Transglutaminase (AKA meat glue)

To quote roy “you have to be careful dont breath the stuff in and wear gloves” that say’s to me maybe not!

Maybee I am speaking out of Ignorance, I have never used it and Dont plan too, Tail ends of fillets or fish fillets are no ment to be glued together I don’t care how trendy it is do the customer’s know their food is being glued together? Even as a chef eating in a Resaturant I’d question it, Molecular Gastronamy is very Interesting I Agree, but I’ll stick to how food should be…............. natural.

Re: Transglutaminase (AKA meat glue)

technically not a protein extract, actually part of a group of enzymes which sort of unravel the structure of the proteins that they come in contact with by initiating a bond between amines (derivatives if ammonia funnily enough) and glutamine.
And I think you are all correct to be cautious in the use of these chemicals although they have been used in the food production industry for some time now.

Lets just remember how to actually cook before we learn to play with all the fancy modern techniques. I sincerely hope we don’t lose any more of our culinary traditions by rushing too quickly down the modern pathway with blinkers on.

Just had to jump in here, great thread kept well alive with thoughts from all camps.

I personally beleive that the traditional basics should be respected at all times…..

...respected but always questioned, we should always question what we are doing and ask is there perhaps a better way or a purer way, evolution one might suggest.

with a blinkered ‘natural’ approach then perhaps we would not have discovered agar filtration as a purer way of clarifying consomme, omitting the uneccesary need for adding egg protiens, agar itself is a natural seaweed extract and whilst many of the modern day chemicals and hydrocolloids are extracted or fermented using very state of the art techniques, mostly they are all natural.

anyway BTW, Activa transglutaminaise, available in many forms depending on the application, I use EB as the powder is not too fine as to pose a health risk (the SB goes airbourne real quick and you can feel it when you breath in), I use the stuff primarily to get a perfect invisible join when holding fish or meats together to manipulate their shape (see http://esensesplayingwithourfood.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html) sorry don’t know how to put links straight in, just copy into your browser. I agree to some point that fish protiens will do this but it takes 36 hours at a high pressure to achieve (TG takes 6 hours), then when you cook it, more often than not it will pull apart at the seams, TG will not.

doing things like this does not remove the ‘natural’ aspect of food, shaping food is what chefs have done for centuries to enhance presentation etc, this is simply a new technique with a proven product, and also should you work in a cost led kitchen, then your fish trim that ends up in the bin can be glued and remoulded for tuna burgers etc and resold without any quality issues in other outlets within our businesses which cuts down on waste gives better margins and customers an extra choice.

all I am saying is that whilst sceptisism will always exist for the new clever powders on the market, don’t dismiss them as unnatural just accept that the world turns, and we all have a choice to either use them or not as with everything, good luck to those who do use with success, but also as I repeat myself research the stuff first, dont just slap it on and think it will cure all there is a method for use in all items we chefs use and certain rules should never be broken.

As for MSK charging £99, forget it, I buy mine from infusions4chefs at around £65 per KG, MSK are great for leading the way, but they charge incredible prices, you can negotiate discount if you have recipes that interest them. if anyone wants to buy in bulk 10KG or more, the I used to buy from forum food science in redhill when I worked in a high volume place and prices can come down to about £50per KG.

Alex.