Don't Feed the Bears - Dehumanization Loaf

The first thing I decided to make out of Don't Feed the Bears was Dehumanization Loaf. It was my riskiest choice for the week too. I was worried because it was mostly wheat gluten but the recipe notes said "This is the closest I've come to what I remember meat loaf tasting like". Well, I couldn't resist that could I?

Turns out that my risky choice was also not a good choice. It was, in fact, pretty much a disaster that ended with my husband, Mike, running out for Chinese food.

The first problem we had was that the loaf called for 2 cups of soy sauce/water to be poured over the top. It got pretty full, and despite my instincts yelling at me to stop, I went ahead and poured it all in there. It promptly started oozing liquid over the sides. It continued to drip liquid out into the oven for most of the time that it cooked. I had to keep swapping out cooking sheets underneath it to keep it from all burning into the bottom of the oven.



Next problem. At the end of the 1 1/2 hour cooking time, I pulled it out and checked it and it still looked like raw wheat gluten. My finger mooshed right into it. This was when we decided to go get some chinese food or we wouldn't eat till bedtime. While Mike went out for takeout, I kept baking the loaf. I turned the heat up to 375 and baked it for another hour (might have been another hour and a half). Total cooking time ended up being about 3 hours.




We let it cool some and then put it onto a plate and cut it in half to make sure it was cooked. Thankfully it was. So we cut a small slice and tasted it (since we had already had dinner by this point). My fears were recognized. It was basically baked seitan. I like baked seitan, but not all by itself. Since this was an herby, oniony baked seitan we cut it into cubes, put it into freezer bags, and put it into the freezer. We think it will be good for pot pies.

I guess everyone picks a bad recipe from time to time. I chose this one against by better instincts because I really wanted to test this cookbook by choosing a few that looked like things I'd normally pick and by also picking a couple that looked a bit "out there".