Russian companies are reported to be increasingly using a food additive that is banned in the country—"meat glue" or transglutaminase—to cut production costs.

smuglord rofl how do those sanctions taste ruzzians??

Transglutaminase was also banned by the European Union in 2010

It has been banned for use in food production in Russia since 2020

It is still permitted for use in the United States.

grillman

  • culpritus [any]
    ·
    4 months ago

    from the wiki page:

    Transglutaminase is also used in molecular gastronomy to meld new textures with existing tastes. Besides these mainstream uses, transglutaminase has been used to create some unusual foods. British chef Heston Blumenthal is credited with the introduction of transglutaminase into modern cooking.

    Wylie Dufresne, chef of New York's avant-garde restaurant wd~50, was introduced to transglutaminase by Blumenthal, and invented a "pasta" made from over 95% shrimp thanks to transglutaminase.

    • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      99% of molecular cuisine "chefs" are just unimaginative hacks and nerds who think putting a science experiment without any reference to the signifiers of food, territory and taste on a plate is the height of cuisine.

      These people looked at what Ferran Adrià was doing and missed the point entirely, and this is just one of the examples.

      Fuck molecular cuisine, it should've died in 2009.

      • Flyberius [comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        I know a guy who used to be a driver for Heston and he told me Heston's secret to the perfect steak. It's was the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Cook the steak for seventeen seconds per side and flip some arbitrary amount of times.

        So basically, cooking a steak the way anyone else would, but while being really pedantic about meaningless specifics like the exact number of seconds to cook per side

        • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          God I can't stand those "the perfect way to do X". It's the ultimate objectification of an inherently relational experience, the one of making, tasting and sharing food.

          • Flyberius [comrade/them]
            ·
            4 months ago

            Entirely agree. I bet Heston's steak is mid at best. My dad cooked the best steak

    • Egon
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      deleted by creator

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
      ·
      4 months ago

      invented a "pasta" made from over 95% shrimp thanks to transglutaminase.

      I feel like that's just worse in every way than just cooking the shrimp normally and serving them with real pasta. Even if it wasn't the big shrimp but like the really tiny bug sized ones I imagine you'd be better off making like little cubes of krill loaf and frying that in butter and lemon with lots of garlic and ginger and serving that with pasta in some kind of strong aioli.