Companion - Braised Gluten Seitan Tidbits, 10 oz. Can (Pack of 6)

Very tasty meat-like veggie bits. Have purchased before. One negative was that they shipped the cans in a plastic bag which allowed the cans to get very beat up. I was afraid the insides would have been exposed but so far has been ok. The cans were beat up very badly - just about smashed! Need to ship in a box!

Raised as a vegetarian, I became very familiar with soy and soy analog meat alternatives. Some are acceptable, some are good, some are freaks of nature, and some are downright hideous. These little tidbits are some of the best alternatives I have found over the past 50 years. These are not rubbery in texture which can be very offputting to some – – myself included. Seasonings/flavorings are absorbed very well. From the same manufacturer, one version gets billed as duck, another braised seitan. I'm here to tell you: any similarity to duck is purely coincidental. The taste is pleasant enough, but it's clearly not duck. A longtime friend of mine that was a missionary to Thailand had a stellar recipe for "shamburgers". She was very specific that soy products from the far east were "far better when you can get them. Otherwise one has to make do with domestic soy products". I will second that notion as well. Disclaimers and apologetics out of the way there are positives that outweigh the negatives. As mentioned earlier, it does accept flavorings well. BRAISING can be rewarding--provided that it is done slowly and pieces are weighted. STEWS/SOUPS: They stand up well when making sauerbraten, goulash or other stews requiring beef. CRUMBLED: Put them through a food processor to use as "crumbles". MARINATING: When marinated, these cannot go as long as recipes using beef or chicken. Times must be adjusted and the "how long" question is best learned through painful flops and failures! AS BROTH: Gently boiled in a beef broth using a mirepoix and other herbs can serve to intensify their flavor. It is also possible TO FREEZE these little gems in their cooking broth. Given the price point, these appear to be more expensive than domestic products but once out of the can the actual volume is larger than it might otherwise appear from the weight and size shown on the label. These little "coins" have been a staple in my pantry for the last 50 years. And if soy products render one given to passing methane gas into the atmosphere, get acquainted with Bean-O--also available on Amazon.

I have used this vege meat for 50 yrs. Why would I stop now. Great in stir fries

Very tasty especially in like a stir fry type dish. Do not like the fat content.

Good

I've ordered these once before and found they had a good flavor and texture, but are overpriced for the size of the can. Nevertheless, I reordered them recently and they came in totally damaged. The seller packaged 6 loose cans in a paper envelope. There's no way they couldn't come in massively dented (which they were!). Of course, as a food item, they're not eligible for return. Amazon took care of the refund, however, but I am leery of ordering again because of the ridiculous manner that it was shipped.

Astound your friends and bewilder your enemies. And turn them into your friends. This stuff is great and so unique. Eat it in a stew. Balance a can of it on your head. Then eat it in a stew. Tasty. Protein-rich. Dare I say indispensable? I dare.

I bought this for the first time after reading the reviews. I deep fried it using an egg dip prior to dusting with flour "orange chicken'. According to the reviews this 'should' have had the consistency of meat, chicken etc. What it was like was a deep fried empty bag of nothing. It was a soft shell, for lack of a better word, with air inside. I have been deep frying for years, decades really...tempura, panko, tofu, frying with out without cornstarch , have deep fried most vegetables that grow and many different meat, fish and fowl products, I don't necessarily eat all I fry but my deep fried food addict friends love the stuff. It was a complete waste of money. I have cooked strip and chunk seitan before and wanted something with a long shelf life while while unopened. This was not user error. The only error was buyers error.