January 30, 2008beer brats!yesterday was my first attempt to make beer brats with seitan. it was a failure from my perspective because they didn't tasted like brats. they were good, and we're still eating them, but they need some serious tweaking. here's what i did: i started with julie hasson's spicy italian vegetarian sausage recipe, and i adjusted all the herbs and spices so they'd be more appropriate for beer brats. aren't they beautiful?  and then i swapped 1 1/2 cups of the water with a 12 oz bottle of beer. i chose deschutes brewery's jubelale, one of my very favorite local seasonal beers. next time, i will probably use a lighter beer, like a hefeweizen.  after mixing everything together, i rolled the mixture into foil logs and baked them for 90 minutes on 350, cooled them on the sheet, and then put them into the fridge until that evening. for the first tasting, i just cut the brats into slices and tasted them with mustard. it was obvious right away that the main problem was the texture; the brats were almost spongy. the flavor was great! but the texture was all wrong. i'm pretty sure that i should have let the beer go flat before combining it with the wheat gluten mixture. the foam obviously started a reaction that puffed up the dough and created air holes in the dough.  later, i ate the brats with sierra nevada porter mustard and sauerkraut on a toasted bun, and of course it tasted delicious! you could put my big toe in a hot dog bun with mustard and sauerkraut and it would be heavenly!  so, i will be trying this again eventually with a light beer and letting it go completely flat before i do the mixture, so i get all of flavor without affecting the texture of the seitan. onward!
posted by joanna @ 1:04 PM
12 Comments:
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yum! carry on, vegan warrior!
I look forward to hearing how your next attempt goes. I've been toying with the sausage recipe too, and I was going to try using cider as the liquid, so I'm glad you already did the test for me - I'm assuming it would have the same spongifying effect that the beer did. With water, the texture was great. Stay strong. I want beer brats.
i've been meaning to try them but haven't yet. what did you think about the fennel? i want beer brats, too, and i was thinking i'd sub it out for caraway. do i see some in your mix there? spice details!
and did you bake vs. steam for density?
anyway, they look super yummy. i miss sierra porter mustard something awful!
Those look amaaaaaaaazing. I'm sorry they didn't turn out exactly the way you wanted...but I'd still take one any day!
And I like the name of the beer.
Oh man... the moment I saw the the pics I just *knew* I was going to have dogs/brats with sauerkraut tonight. I can't think of a single thing that trumps that, especially for a super bowl party.
Those look amazing. I can't wait to see the finished perfected product! *drools in anticipation*
If you perfect turning them into beer brats, please let us know! I subbed the fennel for caraway in mine and they were amazing.
im excited to watch these progress. sounds right up my alley.
i just bought your cook book today at herbivore and decided to stop by and tell you how excited i am to whip up a few of these recipes for a relaxing sunday at home with my husband! we rarely get time off together, he's a PHd student and I work full time so i'm excited to try a few quick meals that give me more time for eating and cuddling!
These look so amazing! Thank you so much for sharing with us. (I love your blog by the way & all your great recipes!)
Cheers,
Shellyfish
Oh, these look great! My husband is from Germany and although he's practically veg (he was making veggie burgers long before I met him)..sometimes he has bratwurst cravings so I'll be eager to try this recipe! He's always up for having a veg version of wurst. Have you ever heard of currywurst? It's just basically brats with a curry ketchup..you can buy the curry ketchup in Germany quite easily but not here in Massachusetts so we just mix curry powder into organic ketchup..it's pretty good. I'd skip the sauerkraut though or serve it on the side.
THose brats look awesome!!!
Wow! Vegan brats.... who would have thought? Being that I am part German that was a staple in my home growing up, I can almost remember what they taste like... I'd be really interested in learning how things go. Keep us posted please!