Transglutaminase Bacon Spirals

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***IMPORTANT NOTE: Some sections of this video are sped up due to time restrictions. They are sped up around 600%.***

In the following video you will see us making a transglutaminase bacon roll and then slicing it so that we end up having bacon spirals.

Transglutaminase is an enzyme that binds proteins together and can therefore be used to bind meat together for both commercial and restaurant applications. There are also variations of transglutaminase for dairy applications as well. The Ajinomoto Company manufacturers and markets transglutaminase under the name Activa. There are multiple different variations of this product.

Once the bacon spirals were complete we added them to our finished dinner product of the night. This was a cheeseburger served with fresh mozzarella (made in another video), bacon tomato jam and bacon spirals on a Jalapeno White Cheddar Roll.

Recipe for TG Bacon Spirals:

Ingredients:
Activa GS, as needed
1 lb. Bacon -- Thick Cut (less binding needed)

Tools:
Shaker container
Rubber Gloves
Plastic Wrap
Something to set bacon on (sheet pan)

Method:
1. Place strips of bacon on sheet pan.
2. Sprinkle them to coat lightly with TG.
3. Once coated, lift one slice and gently tap away extra TG.
4. Roll slice up in a spiral shape like a jelly roll with TG on inside.
5. Get next piece of bacon, tap away extra TG carefully and place adjacent previous seam and begin to spiral around with TG on inside. When you line up the seams for best final product: Line up the fatty side of the new piece of bacon with the meaty side of the previous spiral.
6. Continue this process until all bacon is used up.


Music: "Hot Pants Breakdown" by the Greyboy All-Stars, from their "LIVE" album

Concept, Writing, Direction, and Production: Rob and Jason
Camera: Rob, utilizing an HD CANON Vixia HF100
On-Screen Demonstrations: Rob and Jason
Video Editing: Rob
Voice-Over Written and Recorded: Jason
Recipe Development: Jason

Enjoy this video as well as our many other videos!

www.youtube.com/procrastinationpics

I'd also like to thank my new found spice haven at My Spice Sage. High quality spices at really cheap prices!

Check them out at www.myspicesage.com

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• molecular gastronomy
• molecular cooking
• cheeseburger
• mozzarella
• homemade cheese
• how to make cheese
• tomato
• roasted tomato jam
• bacon
• transglutaminase
• meat glue
• Activa
• Ajinomoto
• Willpowder
• white cheddar
• jalapeno
• my spice sage
• dos equis xx amber
• woot
• woot wine
• woot shirt
• bread
• roll
• homemade bread
• how to make bread
• hamburger roll
• Canon Vixia HF100
• HD video
• Greyboy All-Stars

[ProcrastinationPics]

Also, to those of you that feel that TG is so dangerous and toxic.

1 - Isn't everything? If you eat too much butter at once it will kill you? Too much fresh nutmeg and you will have the most horrible hallucinations of you life. Too much water and you get hydronatremia.

2 - TG is in many things we eat, just labeled as "enzyme" so you don't know its there in the first place. Examples of this would be frozen/processed chicken nuggets and patties.

Please do not comment unless you know facts.

[ProcrastinationPics]

Hi uberathlete.

Thanks for the question.

I'm not absolutely positive about the answer to this as I haven't tried it myself, but my guess would be No. I say this because the Activa works by binding the meat proteins together. Thus, I don't think binding to just a fat layer would work. If you were to trim off enough fat to expose some proteinaceous fibers then you would have much better luck.

[ProcrastinationPics]

We learned here that we used about 10x the amount of TG that was needed and therefore ended up with a salty product. A little goes a long way in the TG world!

[MrFoodieGuy]

Awesome!

[madthrasher86]

ill eat it

[Guffmeister]

@ddnguyen278 I agree, but typically ground meat it thoroughly cooked, killing all the bacteria. If you took ground meat, made it into a burger and slow cooked it at 60 degrees C for 2 hours then I'd issue the same warning, but typically people don't do that. Glued meat looks, feels and tastes like a proper lump of meat, so people try and cook it like that, but what I'm saying is just be careful. I'm not anti-TG, I actually use it myself, but you must not get complacent when trying new techniques

[ddnguyen278]

@uberathlete There is another video about meat glue, the chef using it states that the only limitation on gluing is that the substance must contain proteins. So as long as the fat layer has protein, ie collagen, blood vessels, muscle, etc.. it will glue.

[ddnguyen278]

@Guffmeister Ground meat (beef,lamb,pork,etc..) has 1 million times the surface area of something like re-glued meat and probably 1 million times the bacteria load and people eat tons of it just fine. The bacteria angle is overblown, people are afraid of the new, esp when it has large words like Transglutaminase the same enzyme found in meat and blood anyways..

[Guffmeister]

@ProcrastinationPics

I think the reason it's considered dangerous isn't the TG itself, but the fact that by layering meat in this way you are introducing a higher population of bacteria from contact into the meat than there would be from just a solid lump. Considering this, then it is much more dangerous, and cooking glued meat rare, or slow cooking it sous-vide for example is much more likely to result in food poisoning. While you're correct that TG itself is safe, you shouldn't be careless.

[uberathlete]

I have a question. Can activa glue a piece of pork skin to a pure fat layer? If for example I have a piece of pork belly with a thick layer of fat under the skin. If I cut off the skin then cut off a bit of the fat layer, can I glue back the skin to the remaining layer of fat? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

[ggrammajudy99901]

Really!  REALLY!!!!!!!