Nut Meat
2 cups gluten 1 cup peanut butter 1/2 cup water 2 teaspoons salt Obtain the gluten as directed in the recipe for Gluten Stew, but do not bake the gluten. Use two cups of the raw gluten. Stir the water and salt with the peanut butter, then with the hands mix the gluten and peanut butter together. Put into a tin can, and steam three hours, or boil in a kettle of water three hours, having the water come part way to the top of the can.
A vegetarian "meat" loaf of wheat gluten and peanut butter, steamed until firm enough to slice and fry. The whole thing hinges on the gluten being raw and elastic when it goes into the mould, so it knits into a single mass rather than a crumbly paste.
- Getting the glutenThe original assumes you will wash a stiff flour-and-water dough under running water until the starch is gone, leaving a rubbery mass. It takes a lot of flour to reach two cups of washed gluten -- wet gluten runs to only about a third of the flour's weight -- so work by volume rather than a fixed conversion, or substitute about 1 1/2 cups of vital wheat gluten hydrated with water to a springy dough and rested 20 minutes.
- Peanut butterPeriod peanut butter was generally little more than ground peanuts, sometimes salted, and not always roasted. Use a natural, unsweetened, unhydrogenated butter, stirred smooth; sweetened supermarket brands will make the loaf taste like a confection.
- MixingWork the salted water into the peanut butter first so it loosens into a paste, then knead it into the gluten by hand as the recipe directs. It will resist at first and look separated; keep working until the mixture looks uniform.
- The tin canA can of this period was tinplate with a soldered side seam, used here simply as a mould; solder of the time often contained lead. Rather than repurposing a food can, use a straight-sided pudding basin, a small loaf tin or a similar tin, greased, filled about two-thirds full to allow for swelling, and covered tightly with foil or a tied cloth.
- SteamingThree hours is not an exaggeration; gluten needs long, gentle, moist heat to set firm instead of springing back like rubber. Keep the water at a bare simmer and top it up, and keep the level partway up the mould as directed so water cannot get in over the rim.
- Cooling before slicingLet the loaf cool completely in its mould, ideally overnight in the refrigerator. Warm, it tears; chilled, it slices cleanly into rounds that brown well in a little oil or go into a stew or gravy.
- SaltTwo teaspoons for this quantity is close to a modern seasoning level rather than a preservative one. This is a fresh food with no keeping qualities: refrigerate and use within three or four days, or slice and freeze.
- YieldAbout 1 1/2 lb of loaf, enough for six to eight servings sliced and fried, or to stand in for the meat in a stew.