Transglutaminase, aka Meat Glue

#1

I just read about Meat Glue for the first time this week and as I was eating my steak last night I could tell it had been “glued” together. Does Meat Glue spike insulin? I tried Googling and my non-scientific mind couldn’t understand the studies I found! I’m just wondering if I need to rethink where I’m purchasing my meat.

(jilliangordona) #2

Someone please correct if I am wrong, but since it ends in -ase it is an enzyme, which means it is made from amino acids. To me, that should mean it won’t spike your inslulin anymore than the proteins in the meat you are consuming.

#3

@richard used meat glue in one of his recipes. Don’t ask me which one. Shrimp noodles I think. Lemme look…

(Richard Morris) #4

@jilliangordona is correct, it is an enzyme that bacteria make to enable them to construct simple structures from amino acids. It bonds proteins, specifically the amine end of one molecule (usually lysine) and the acyl end of a glutamine molecule. Once you bring it up to temperature the bond sets and you can make your own structures from proteins - like shrimp meat which is almost all protein.

I am careful when using it because you don’t want to breath the dust in and end up bonding parts of your lungs together. But once you have mixed it and raised the temperature it is very stable and metabolically neutral so it won’t spike your insulin or glucose.