I've been getting into the whole soy thing recently, and have been
reading about textured protein. Where do you go about buying some
textured protein? Do they carry it at your average neighborhood
grocery, or should I look toward an organic food store?

mydaj > wrote:
> I've been getting into the whole soy thing recently, and have been
> reading about textured protein. Where do you go about buying some
> textured protein? Do they carry it at your average neighborhood
> grocery, or should I look toward an organic food store?

Some organic food stores carry the ADM brand of TVP. Also available in bulk
at some restaurant food suppliers.

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Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled War on Terror Veterans and
their families:
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Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !

"mydaj" > wrote in message...
> I've been getting into the whole soy thing recently, and have been
> reading about textured protein. Where do you go about buying some
> textured protein? Do they carry it at your average neighborhood
> grocery, or should I look toward an organic food store?

I thought I remembered GNC carrying it, but when I asked for it they
just looked at me blankly. I finally found it at an organic food
market. But be careful when choosing brands... I think it was Red
Mill brand, and it was packaged as two distinct products - "textured
VEGETABLE protein" for about $2.50 and "textured SOY protein" for $5.
If you aren't aware, the two are absolutely identical. When I was a
kid "soy" was practically a naughty word, something only used as
cattle feed (yet I still remember the soyburgers they fed us in
elementary school). Therefore, "vegetable" replaced "soybean" and
if you look at any bottle of "vegetable oil" on the supermarket
shelf you will discover it to be soybean oil, yet not a SINGLE brand
labels its soybean oil as such. But oddly, the "vegetable" protein
relabeled as "soy" is suddenly worth twice as much now that soy is
the latest fad...

I've been experimenting with soy too lately. It takes a LOT of
experimentation, as there is some magical critical point you can
replace meat/grain with soy before you notice it, but past that
critical point it becomes pretty gross. I'm pretty sure you can get
away with up to 25% TSP in hamburgers, and maybe 15%-25% soy flour
for wheat flour (but for bread you need to add wheat gluten to
compensate for the missing gluten). The positive attributes of soy
include that soy flour holds more moisture than wheat flour, so you
can add a bit to breadings/batters so the final product is jucier
(I tried mixing a bit with Shake-N-Bake and it was deelicious).

Also, I personally think that for some recipes it helps to toast the
soy first, either textured protein or flour. You'll have to try it
to decide whether the toasted nutty flavor is harmonious with your
recipe...

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 08:59:17 -0500, mydaj > wrote:

>I've been getting into the whole soy thing recently, and have been
>reading about textured protein. Where do you go about buying some
>textured protein? Do they carry it at your average neighborhood
>grocery, or should I look toward an organic food store?

Some years ago, while doing some extended backcountry travel, I bought
quite a lot of the various dried, freeze-dried, and otherwise
processed lightweight food stuffs. My impression of TVP was that it
could be usefully simulated by dropping a few of those yellow
compressed synthetic sponges, that they sell in the HEB, into a
blender for 10-30 seconds.

To my taste, they were without redeeming qualities and passed through
one's digestive track entirely intact. ...And the sponges were
comparably priced and nicer colors.

Yes, YMMV, but for me, never, never again. It is vile stuff.

> On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 08:59:17 -0500, mydaj > wrote:
>
> >I've been getting into the whole soy thing recently, and have been
> >reading about textured protein. Where do you go about buying some
> >textured protein? Do they carry it at your average neighborhood
> >grocery, or should I look toward an organic food store?
>
Do a Google or Amazon search for "TVP cookbook".

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled War on Terror Veterans and
their families:
http://saluteheroes.org/ & http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !