Soylent: Recipe, High Tomato

Description:

This is my first soylent recipe.  As the name suggests, it is high in tomato.  The flavor is good but not awesome.  The tomato flavor is not easy to detect, nor is the flavor of the basil.  I have tested this recipe for one day, without any issues.

I having been mixing this with enough water to fill three 20fl oz Gatorade bottles (so, with water, I get 60fl oz).  This makes the stuff fairly thick (frozen, it makes a decent ice cream-like substance).  If you want it thinner, add enough water to get 80fl oz total (or just add water to the desired thickness).  It works best if you blend it well.

Ingredient                               Amount (grams)
----------                               --------------
Naturade Total Soy All Natural Powder      105
Soy Lecithin                                15
Whole Grain Oat Flour                      115
Olive Oil                                   30
Brown Sugar                                 70
Dried Basil                                  5
Baking Cocoa Powder                         20
Turmeric                                     5
Flaxseed Meal                               20
Country Fresh Non-fat Powdered Milk         75
Iodized Salt                                 1
Cinnamon Powder                              2
Tomato Powder                               55
Dehydrated Strawberries                      0
Salt Substitute                              0
Dried Parsley                                0
Dried Ginger                                 0

Macronutrients:
 Fat:           67.36 g
 Carbs:        297.87 g
   Fiber:       38.15 g
   Sugar:      151.49 g
 Protein:      100.32 g

Calories
 Fat:          606.22 cal
 Carbs:       1191.48 cal
   Fiber:      152.61 cal
   Sugar:      605.98 cal
 Protein:      401.29 cal
 Total:       2198.98 cal

Nutrient               RDV          Total      Upper Limit
--------               ---          -----      -----------
A                   900.00 ug     2502.54 ug    3000.00 ug
B12                   2.40 ug        6.12 ug        inf ug
B6                    1.30 mg        2.85 mg     100.00 mg
Biotin               30.00 ug      306.25 ug        inf ug
C                    90.00 mg      200.84 mg    2000.00 mg
Calcium            1000.00 mg     2455.45 mg    2500.00 mg
Carb                130.00 g       297.87 g      325.00 g
Choline             550.00 mg      559.56 mg    3500.00 mg
Chromium             35.00 ug      122.50 ug    1900.00 ug
Copper              900.00 ug     2908.58 ug   10000.00 ug
D3                   15.00 ug       15.01 ug     100.00 ug
E                    15.00 mg       32.96 mg    1000.00 mg
Fat                  65.00 g        67.36 g       77.00 g
Fiber                38.00 g        38.15 g         inf g
Folate              400.00 ug      594.20 ug    1000.00 ug
Iodine              150.00 ug      219.80 ug    1100.00 ug
Iron                  8.00 mg       37.29 mg      45.00 mg
K                   120.00 ug      136.66 ug        inf ug
Magnesium           420.00 mg      842.36 mg        inf mg
Manganese             2.30 mg       10.59 mg      11.00 mg
Molybdenum           45.00 ug      136.50 ug    2000.00 ug
Niacin               16.00 mg       28.56 mg      35.00 mg
Pantothenic Acid      5.00 mg       13.09 mg        inf mg
Phosphorus          700.00 mg     2903.96 mg    4000.00 mg
Potassium             4.70 g         4.79 g       18.00 g
Protein              65.00 g       100.32 g      125.00 g
Riboflavin            1.30 mg        3.78 mg        inf mg
Selenium             55.00 ug      118.38 ug     400.00 ug
Sodium                1.50 g         1.56 g        2.30 g
Sugar                 0.00 g       151.49 g         inf g
Thiamin               1.20 mg        3.02 mg        inf mg
Zinc                 11.00 mg       22.55 mg      40.00 mg 

Information:

I have listed all of the ingredients in my current list, even though some are not used in this recipe.  This recipe is quite close to the upper limits for some nutrients (notably manganese), so care should be taken when modifying the recipe or when adding snacks to a daily diet that includes this recipe.

This recipe is fairly low calorie.  I would recommend figuring out your recommended calorie intake based on your weight and height, then adding more calories as recommended in my Documents post.  It might also be worth looking into the effect of fiber on total calories, though current research has not reached any solid conclusions.

This recipe has enough cinnamon to increase insulin sensitivity, but may take up to 40 days to see the full benefits.  Also, a packet of processed stevia sweetener can be added to potentially increase insulin sensitivity.  (This statement has not been reviewed by the FDA etc...)

Soylent: Documentation

This post contains all of my documentation and data sources.  Documentation links can be found at the end of this post.

This post outlines all of the ingredients used in my recipes, as well as branding and sources, where applicable.  Note that unlike Rob, I am publishing brand information.  No one is paying me for this, I am doing it because processing methods can affect nutritional content, and for accuracy reasons I cannot recommend a brand of product for which I do not have reliable nutritional information.  Substitute at your own risk (many food manufacturers are willing to provide more complete nutritional information if asked).  In addition, I want to go over some concerns with some of the nutrients (for instance, how does calcium/iron interaction affect the iron uptake of my recipes).

Ingredients:

Ingredient	Brand	Source
Vanilla Protein Powder	Naturade Total Soy	Walmart/Sam's Club
Country Fresh Milk Powder	Augason Farms	Walmart
Tomato Powder	Augason Farms	Walmart
Dehydrated Strawberries	Augason Farms	Walmart
Whole Grain Oat Flour	Bob's Red Mill	Local Grocery
Soy Lecithin	Bob's Red Mill	Local Grocery
Flaxseed Meal	Bob's Red Mill	Local Grocery
Olive Oil	Any	Local Grocery
Brown Sugar	Any	Local Grocery
Baking Cocoa Powder	Any	Local Grocery
Dried Basil	Any	Local Grocery
Turmeric	Any	Local Grocery
Cinnamon Powder	Any	Local Grocery
Iodized Salt	Any	Local Grocery
Salt Substitute	Morton	Local Grocery

Note that buying in bulk will save significant amounts of money.  Just buying the spices and salt in bulk reduced the costs of my recipes by close to a dollar a meal.

Also, many of the ingredients marked "Local Grocery" are available at Walmart and Sam's Club.  I believe Walmart superstores typically carry Bob's Red Mill products, and I have seen them at Fred Meyer's as well.  The salt substitute does not strictly have to be Morton's, but I would recommend comparing the nutritional information (especially potassium) to make sure whatever you use has enough.  (Morton's has images of their labels on their web site.)  Also, a "Low Sodium" salt is not a good substitute.  You might be able to replace the salt and salt substitute with "Low Sodium" salt, but I suggest carefully comparing sodium and potassium values to make sure the balance is not upset by doing this.

Calories:

So far, all of my recipes are fairly low calorie.  The highest calorie one is around 2,200 calories, while the current lowest is around 2,000 calories.  If you need more calories, do not increase how much you make and drink.  As mentioned, many of the nutrients are near their upper limits, and adding more could be harmful.  Instead, there are some "empty calorie" food products you can add, which will increase the calories without increasing the nutrients.

Olive oil contains only small amounts of vitamins K and E and potassium.  As such, you can add a large amount without significantly affecting the nutrition.  Fats add about 9 calories per gram.  For carbs, you can use corn starch and white sugar (brown sugar contains significant nutrients).  When adding carbs, I would suggest adding no more sugar than corn starch, because white sugar is a simpler carb and large amounts could be problematic (in short, a good balance will help avoid blood sugar issues).  The fiber content of the mix should help balance added carbs to some degree as well.  Carbs add about 4 calories per gram.  For protein, you can add some soy protein, but not the soy protein used in my recipes (which contains large amounts of nutrients).  For this, use soy protein that has no added vitamins or minerals.  Like carbs, protein also adds 4 calories per gram.

The strikethrough  text above is under review for replacement.  While cornstarch is a more complex carb than sucrose (white sugar), it actually has a slightly worse glycemic index and almost the same glycemic load as sucrose.  The result has been that around an hour after a "meal," my blood sugar has dropped to 82, which is considered very low for during the day (it is a normal fasting blood sugar).  While the fiber content keeps my blood sugar fairly stable at 82, it is still too low for normal daily activity (in practice, I get a headache from it).  Sources of lower glycemic index carbs include fruits and whole grains (I would avoid corn though).  I increased the oat flour a bit for today, but any more will push the manganese over the upper limit.  The high tomato recipe is probably also better, given that tomato is a fruit, and fruit sugars (fructose) have a low glycemic index.  Another potential solution is to add more soy protein, but a soy protein without added vitamins (Bob's Red Mill soy protein will probably be my choice).  To solve this problem, I am going to find glycemic indices for all of my ingredients, and try to balance that as well.  Once I have a solution, I will remove the strikethrough text and replace it with the new information.  I may also have to revise some of my recipes.

According to this: http://www.nrv.gov.au/disease/macronutrient.htm, protein should account for between 15% and 35% of your calories, fats should provide 20% to 35% of your calories, and carbs should provide 45% to 65% of your calories.  My recipes fit within these guidelines, however, when adding calories, it is probably wise to make sure that the additions do not upset the balance.

Nutrition concerns:

This section includes some safety information, as well as answers to common questions about meal replacement drinks.

I have mentioned this before, but in my recipes, some of the nutrients are near their upper limits.  This means, it would be unwise to add a snack to your diet while using these recipes, unless you adjust the recipes to account for any nutrients the snack contains.  That said, my recipes are (so far) pretty filling, so you should not need a snack while using them.  The nutrients to be most careful of are manganese (I'll go into this more later), calcium, and iron.  Balancing these while getting enough of other nutrients has been difficult, so these three nutrients are near their upper limits.

The first common concern I want to address is the affect of calcium on iron uptake.  In the references section (at the end), I have provided links to my sources.  Research has found that calcium can impede iron uptake.  What this means is that when calcium and iron are eaten together, the calcium has some affect on the digestive tract that prevents it from absorbing as much iron.  Many people have worried that regular use of meal replacement drinks will result in iron deficiency due to this effect.  While this may be possible, the evidence only weakly supports it.

Studies have shown that high amounts of dietary calcium does reduce iron intake in humans.  Some studies have found that this effect plateaus at about 300mg of calcium per day.  In other words, at 300mg of calcium per day, adding more calcium will not increase the effect any further.  Other studies found that people with diets that are already high in calcium are less affected by this.  This implies that a tolerance can be gained to the calcium.  Scientists are not worried that this effect will cause iron deficiency in the bulk of American population, however, recommendations have been issued that pregnant, breastfeeding, or menstruating women should try to consume their calcium in different meals from their iron.

In my recipes, iron is already close to the upper limit.  The calcium is also very high.  Given that the effect does not increase over 300mg of calcium per day, the high magnitude of calcium should make little difference.  None of the studies cited showed more than a 75% reduction in iron intake (and most showed considerably less).  Since the iron in my recipes is well over 32mg, and the recommended daily value is 8mg, a 75% reduction will still leave the total iron over the recommended daily value.  In short, given the high amount of iron in my recipe, there is no concern that the high calcium will result in iron deficiency.

A second concern is the fact that the phytic acid in the oat flour can chelate the iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium in the mixture, making it unavailable to the body.  Since the zinc, calcium, and magnesium are at least close to twice the recommended intake, this is not a concern for them.  This is also true of the iron, with one possible exception: The effect of the calcium and chelation from the phytic acid could potentially reduce iron absorption below the recommended intake.  That said, evidently vitamin C reduces this effect on iron, and the 75% reduction from calcium is the highest observed reduction.  In other studies, no more than 60% reduction was observed.  In addition, since most Amercians get enough calcium already, it is likely that the tolerance effect that was observed will further reduce the affect of calcium on iron uptake.  In conclusion, while it is possible that calcium and phytic acid could gang up on the iron enough to be a problem, it is extremely unlikely due to the high volume of iron in my recipes.

Now, I want to go over a few safety things again.  My recipes may contain ingredients that people with certain allergies or health conditions should avoid.  I am trying to have enough variety that anyone can find at least one recipe that they can use, however, I cannot promise that I will be successful.  Those with food allergies are responsible for checking labels to make sure no allergens that will affect them are present.  For health conditions, the biggest thing to be careful of is the potassium chloride salt substitute, which can be toxic to people with certain kidney issues.  If you are not sure, consult your doctor before trying this.  It would probably be a bad idea to take vitamin supplements while using these recipes as well, because of how close they are to the upper limits for some nutrients (and, really you should not need vitamin supplements, since all of my recipes cover all known essential nutrients).  People with unusual dietary or nutritional needs should also consult a doctor before trying this.  (This includes pregnant women, people older than 70 years old, and people with diabetes.)  Also, don't use my recipes for children, unless they specifically state that they are for children (I do plan on making some, but I am still testing the adult versions).

I said I would mention manganese again.  According to some sources, food sources of manganese do not count against the upper limit.  In theory, this means that if the manganese goes over the upper limit, but is mostly from food sources, no symptoms of toxicity will occur.  That said, I do not think it is worth the risk if it can be avoided.

Non-essential nutrients:

Rob's formula contains a number of non-essential nutrients that have some evidence that they are beneficial.  These include lycopene, omega-3 oils, lutein, alpha-carotene, vanadium, creatine, CoQ10, and MSM (a sulfur supplement).  I want to discuss how these play into my recipes.

First, the creatine and CoQ10 are already produced in the body.  Athletes sometimes use these as supplements because they help promote muscle growth, but the average person produces plenty without supplementation.  To my knowledge, none of my ingredients provide these, but they do not need to for a vast majority of people (even athletes do not need these, they use them to augment natural muscle growth).

Next, many of my ingredients naturally provide some of these.  For instance, the tomato powder contains lycopene and MSM.  Most plants contain vanadium, especially the oat flour.  The flaxseed meal contains a large amount of omega-3 oils.  Lutein is found in most plants and especially in leafy green vegetables, which would include the basil in my recipes.  Similarly, alpha-carotene is found in dark green vegetables, which would include basil.  Many of the above nutrients are found in multiple sources in my ingredients.  Since no recommended daily values have been established, there is no way to determine if sufficient amounts are provided, but since these are currently considered non-essential nutrients, the fact that they are provided at all is good.

In conclusion, all of the above non-essential nutrients that may be of value to the average person are well covered by the ingredients in my recipes.  That said, I still do not recommend that these recipes be used as the sole nutritional intake for long periods of time.  It is fairly likely that there are some essential trace nutrients that we are not yet aware of, which my recipes may be lacking.  As such, eating "normal" foods regularly (at least 2 days a week) is still a good idea to avoid possible malnutrition.

Non-nutrient ingredients:

Unlike Rob, I do not plan on including ginseng or ginkgo.  This is partially because they either have potentially harmful side effects or the benefits are not well proven.  Also, I have no intention of adding stimulants.  The improved nutrition of my recipes should be a good enough energy boost.  That said, there are some non-nutrient ingredients I may include for nutritional reasons.

One of the normal ingredients in my recipes is cinnamon.  Besides providing some useful nutrients, it has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects that can be beneficial to people with allergies or problems like asthma.  It turns out that it has another, fairly strong, beneficial effect.  Studies have shown that cinnamon has a strong effect on increasing insulin sensitivity.  This is very useful for people with type 2 diabetes, as well as those with pre-diabetes (according to some doctors, this group includes most Americans).  The best effects have been shown for 3 grams of cinnamon daily, so some of my future recipes will have this (my recently finished 5th recipe has 3 grams of cinnamon).

Another ingredient I will add to the list, but only as optional, is stevia.  Actually, this will be one of the refined stevia powders like Truvia or Purevia.  Real powdered stevia leaves have some nutrients that may cause problems with my recipes.  Now, before discussing the benefits, I want to point out that some degree of toxicity has been found when consuming large amounts of stevia.  As such, I would recommend against adding more than one packet (a single serving) to my recipes.  Stevia will not be listed in the normal ingredient list of any recipe, because the refined powders have no nutritional value, so adding refined stevia will not push anything over its upper limit.  Now, the reason someone might want to add stevia is the same as cinnamon.  Stevia has been shown to increase cell response to insulin.  Unlike artificial sweeteners, this effect is not due to taste (the sweet taste tends to trigger insulin production, even for artificial and low calorie sweeteners).  Like cinnamon stevia increases insulin sensitivity, which will help keep a lower and more stable blood sugar level.

This insulin sensitivity thing is a big deal.  What typically causes type 2 diabetes is chronically high blood sugar, which is common in Americans due their sugar rich diets (which is why many doctors argue that most Americans have pre-diabetes).  Increasing insulin sensitivity will result in a lower average blood sugar level.  This, in turn, will help prevent or treat type 2 diabetes.  This can be an extremely good thing.  Note, however, that if you already have blood sugar issues, you should consult your doctor before making any dramatic changes to your diet (including drinking soylent or adding cinnamon or stevia).

The turmeric was also added primarily for its strong anti-inflammatory effect (it has been theorized that the common use of turmeric is responsible for the low cancer rate in India).

Disclaimer:

So maybe I know a lot about this, because I have spent a lot of time researching over the last few weeks.  By no means does this make me an expert.  As I have said before, I am a computer scientist, not a nutritionist or food scientist.  I make no claims regarding my recipes, and I take no responsibility for any harm they might cause.  Your health is your own responsibility.  Please use the information I provide responsibly and carefully.

Nutritional information:

The documents in this file, except the Naturade one, were sent as attachments directly from the producers:
https://sites.google.com/site/rybecarethdar/nutrition.zip

Not all of my ingredients have complete nutritional information from the manufacturer (especially spices and generic ingredients).  For holes in data, most of my information came from nutritiondata.self.com.  For the dehydrated strawberries, I had to estimate many values by scaling values for raw strawberries from nutritiondata.self.com.  The molybdenum in the basil and oats was not available from nutritiondata.self.com either, so my information on that comes from wholefoodcatalog.info.

There is now a spreadsheet with the known nutritional information in the zip file.  Note that I converted all measurements to weight, including IU units for vitamins A, D, and E.  While I think the D and E are accurate, it is possible that the A is not (the conversions depend on the specific molecule, and vitamin A has many different molecular forms).  I do not consider this an issue, since my recipes certainly have enough vitamin A, and there is no known upper limit.  So regardless of accuracy, they have enough, but not a toxic amount.

Research:

Nutritional recommendations (these are the ones I used for my recipes):
http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Nutrition/SummaryDRIs/~/media/Files/Activity%20Files/Nutrition/DRIs/5_Summary%20Table%20Tables%201-4.pdf

These are the FDA guidelines:
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm064928.htm

Recommended intake for macronutrients (from Australia):
http://www.nrv.gov.au/disease/macronutrient.htm

Iron calcium interaction:
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FNRR%2FNRR13_02%2FS0954422400000706a.pdf&code=be4f8c5fd8629c03a22b52fd9ff5084a
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/68/1/96.full.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1600930
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/53/1/106.abstract
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/68/1/3.full.pdf

Insulin sensitivity enhancers (cinnamon and stevia):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14633804
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23140911


Other:
For most of the other stuff, I used Wikipedia as an initial reference and then looked up more specific information based on what I learned there.

Soylent: Introduction

While most readers probably got here through a Google search, and thus already know what soylent (not green) is, I still feel that I should introduce this project.  I also would like to mention a few things here regarding nutrition and safety.

Soylent (not green) is a food replacement drink.  The original viable soylent was invented by Rob Rhinehart, a computer programmer who was tired of spending so much time preparing extremely unhealthy food (it was all he could afford).  The idea with soylent is that it fulfils all nutritional needs, without causing any nutrition toxicity, in the form of an easy to mix drink.  According to Rob, his soylent is "delicious," but not everyone who has tasted it agrees.  Rob's soylent is made primarily from very basic ingredients, including vitamin and mineral powders, and pure carbs, proteins, and oils.  The problem with this is that the people in the U.S. who need the benefits of soylent the most cannot afford the ingredients.

Rob found that his soylent costs approximately $1.50 per meal.  Even food stamp recipients can typically afford this, except for one problem: You cannot buy vitamin and mineral supplements on  food stamps.  In addition, while maltodextrin (the primary carb in Rob's recipe) is food stamp eligible (it is a food after all), stores that accept food stamps do not sell it.  As such, Rob's recipe is not food stamp friendly.  Likewise, many other good recipes I have found also include several ingredients (vitamin pills and such) that are not food stamp eligible.

As mentioned above, the people that need it the most cannot afford the ingredients.  This is because the people that need it the most are food stamp recipients, who do get enough benefits to afford it, but cannot buy the ingredients on their food stamps.  Most food stamp recipients in the U.S. also have jobs, so they do not get the full benefits.  The result is that their jobs pay only enough for rent and a few non-food necessities, and they are forced to buy all of their food on food stamps.  Since they do not get the full benefits, they cannot afford healthy food and end up eating high carb, low protein foods that have very low nutritional value (typically corn or refined grain based foods).  The result is that this "supplemental nutrition assistance program" (SNAP) does not actually do anything for nutrition.  Instead it provides only energy with very little nutritional value.  At $1.50 a meal, soylent would be an excellent way of stretching food stamp money a little further, while also dramatically improving nutrition.

Now, let me introduce my project: I am developing recipes for food stamp friendly soylent.  Instead of pure vitamin and mineral powders, I am using an enriched soy protein product and a number of common food products that are high in various nutrients.  All of the ingredients can be bought on food stamps (my family is currently on food stamps; I have tested this by actually buying the ingredients on food stamps).  Furthermore, I am putting a good deal of effort into making sure that my ingredients will be available in any part of the U.S. (most come from Walmart and Sam's Club; those that do not are either commonly available anywhere, or are Bob's Red Mill products that are carried by many stores).  My goal is to give food stamp recipients an option for a healthier lifestyle, without having to spend money that is needed for other necessities.


Now that the introduction is over, I would like to discuss safety.  I am not a nutritionist or any kind of food scientist.  Like Rob, I am a computer programmer.  I happen to be very good at doing research, so I do know a great deal about nutrition (mostly from doing this project).  I have tried to keep track of most of my data sources, and I intend on posting links to them all (or at least directions to find them) in a future post.

Nutrition is not a well understood topic.  The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has set some guidelines for good nutrition based on what we know.  This is where the FDA gets their nutrition recommendations.  The IOM has also set some guidelines for tolerable upper intake limits for nutrients that can become toxic in large amounts.  Note however, that all of this information is incomplete and based only on what we currently know.  Experimentally, it has been found to be accurate, however some nutrients do not have known upper limits and for others, solid recommended values have not been determined (for these, "adequate intake" is used).  My soylent recipes are based on this information.  So, based on what we currently know, my soylent recipes should be suitable as long term food replacements.  That said, because there is so much we do not know, I cannot recommend actually trying to replace food entirely with my recipes.  What I can recommend is eating real food meals at least two full days a week.  While my recipes are actually made primarily from real food ingredients (mostly in powdered form), there may be micronutrients that we are not aware of, that are necessary to the human body, which my recipes do not provide.  For normal food, these nutrients would be provided by a varied diet.  So even when replacing most food with a food replacement, variety is important.  This can be satisfied by including some real foods in your diet.

Another concern here is vitamin and mineral toxicity.  A number of vitamins and minerals are known to be toxic in large amounts.  Due to balance issues, some of my recipes approach the IOM tolerable upper intake limits.  If you only eat soylent, with nothing else, this should not be a problem.  However, if you are eating three meals of soylent, and then decide to eat a chocolate bar that same day, you will probably exceed the upper limit for calcium and manganese, if you used a recipe that is very high in calcium and manganese.  If you drink primarily Gatorade, you may go over on sodium if, on an especially hot day, you drink more than three 20fl oz bottles.  Now, if you know you are going to have some snack during the day, you can either find a soylent recipe that will balance properly with that snack, or you can adjust the recipe for that day, such that you will not exceed any limits.  For instance, if you plan on drinking a lot of Gatorade, you can reduce or eliminate the salt from the recipe for that day.  Note, however, that this should be handled very carefully, as the typical label does not list many of the potentially toxic nutrients (I emailed various companies and asked for more complete nutritional information).  When I start posting recipes, I will do my best to point out where each recipe gets close to the upper limits.  The things you should be most aware of are manganese, calcium, iron, and sodium.  I have found it difficult to get enough potassium without going over on calcium or manganese (note, however, that I have started using a small amount of potassium chloride salt substitute to make up the difference; I'll discuss this in a moment).  As such, most of my recipes are a bit close on those.  In addition, the iron in most recipes is a little high.  Note that due to an affect of calcium that can reduce iron uptake, this is not a high risk, but it is still important to avoid putting it over.  Lastly, most Americans already get far too much sodium.  My recipes put sodium right at the minimum.  Unfortunately, sodium has a fairly small range between the lower and upper limits, so it does not take much to push it over.  This can be easily mitigated, by leaving out the salt in the recipe (many of the ingredients provide small amounts of sodium, so leaving out the salt is unlikely to make you sick, unless you subsist entirely on soylent).

The moral of this story is, be careful.  I have no certifications, degrees, or anything else qualifying me to make any claims on my recipes, and I take no responsibilities for any harm that is caused by use or misuse of these recipes.  Your health is entirely your responsibility.  There are some ingredients in my recipes that may be unsuitable for certain people.  I have tried to introduce sufficient variety that there will be something for everyone, but no promises.  Some of my recipes include common allergens, for instance, freeze dried strawberries are included in some recipes.  In addition, other ingredients may be unsuitable for people with certain health conditions.  For instance, potassium chloride salt substitute is potentially toxic to people with kidney problems (as well as a range of other health conditions).  It is your responsibility to make sure that you avoid ingredients you are allergic to and that you avoid ingredients that will interfere with health problems.  (Incidentally, if you are already on a potassium supplement, make sure that it is not going to put you over.  If the supplement will put you over, you should probably discuss the use of soylent with a doctor.)

I will be posting calories and a breakdown of nutritional information for each recipe (each recipe will have its own post, which will include any concern or other things to keep in mind).  Keep in mind that some of the ingredients do not have full nutritional information available.  I have done my best to get missing information from other sources (which I will disclose), but where information is missing, care should be taken.  Most of my recipes are between 2,200 calories and 2,400 calories, so far.  If you need more calories, use corn starch and white sugar for carbs (we want to avoid putting any nutrients over their upper limit), soy protein (not one with additional nutrient supplements) for protein, and olive or canola oil for fat.  Later I will post the nutritional information for each of my ingredients.  I'll give a little more information in increasing calories correctly there.

Note also, that my recipes are based on the nutritional recommendations for men between 31 and 50 years old.  Since women in this age range have lower needs for most nutrients, the recipes should be suitable for women in this age range as well. The default recipes will cover most adults, but I plan to also create some recipes for children, since children have dramatically different requirements.  I'll check the upper limits for different adult age ranges before posting any recipes, and I will mention when they are exceeded for any age range or gender (or, I will alter the recipes to remove any problems).


Now I want to go over some "administrative" stuff.  First, the current price range, locally, for my recipes $2.84 a meal, to $1.81 a meal, when ingredients are bought in normal retail size packages.  When some ingredients (mostly spices and herbs) are bought in bulk, the prices range from $2.48 a meal, to $1.38 a meal.  In bulk, that puts the low end cheaper than Rob's $1.50 a meal.  If other ingredients are also bought in bulk, the prices should be even cheaper.  Keep in mind though, cost will vary with region, so it may be more or less expensive depending on where you live.

Next, technically, my recipes are vegetarian, but not vegan.  The only non-plant product used is powdered milk.  Note that if you want to replace the milk with a non-animal substitute, you will probably need to adjust the recipe, since the nutrient profile will be different (I actually did consider a non-animal milk substitute, however it was not high enough in potassium and some other nutrients).  I do not plan on developing a vegan recipe, because my goal is to help food stamp recipients, not vegans.

Unlike Rob, I will be specifying brands for the products.  This is, unfortunately, essential, because processing methods can impact nutrition profile.  So oat flour from one company will probably have slightly different nutrition than oat flour from another.  The only ingredients I won't specify brands for will be cocoa powder and the spices and herbs.  If you want to use a different brand, I would suggest requesting complete nutritional information for that brand, and then doing the math to make sure you are within the limits for nutrition.

Lastly, all of my measurements are in grams.  I know it would be easier with volume measurement, but this is not a good idea.  First, most of my recipes call for 1 gram of salt.  This is less than an eighth of a teaspoon and thus would be extremely difficult to accurately measure volumetrically.  Second, volume measure is inherently imprecise.  This poses a problem both for nutrients close to the lower and upper limits.  For instance, with volume measure, if your basil gets too packed, you will end up with too much manganese, while if it is too loose, you will not have enough vitamin K.  The milk powder is also especially easy to get too packed (a calcium problem) or too loose (a potassium problem).  Measuring by weight is just plain necessary to avoid a large number of problems.  Grams are used because most products are measured in grams, and grams are much more precise than ounces.  Since food scales are cheap (a quick Google search for "food scale" turned up many results for less than $10), and nearly all food scales include gram measurements, I don't think this is a problem, even for people on food stamps.  If you get a digital scale, try to get one that has at least one decimal place for the grams scale, and then measure ingredients as close to exact as possible (especially for ingredients with very small amounts; 0.1g of salt is a pretty big difference for sodium).


That should be enough information for introducing my topic.  I will publish a documents post in the near future, with all of the known nutritional information (and sources) for all of my ingredients (this will be a living document; if I add ingredients for new recipes, I will add their information).  I will also have a section with links to research that I used for certain assumptions.

Now, I have a question:  Yesterday, I realized that some people might like a recipe book for this.  Now, this project is entirely open source.  I intend to fully disclose all information that I have access to, including recipes and nutritional information for them.  Everything will be posted to my blog for free public use (besides that, food recipes cannot be protected by copyright or patent, so once they are public knowledge, they are freely usable).  That said, if there is interest in a recipe book, I am willing to design and publish one.  If this happens, I will probably self publish through lulu.com.  I will do my best to keep the price as low as possible, but if I do the work to design the book, I will want to have at least a small profit margin.  My goal is to have the price be $10.00 or less, but since I have not looked at lulu's cost breakdown recently, I won't make any promises.

So, if you are interested in a physical cookbook for my soylent recipes, please leave a comment saying so.  Note that I review comments before approving them, and if the comment is just a cookbook request, I will not approve it (to avoid clutter), but I will count it.  If I get enough interest to justify the work, I will make the cookbook and post a link to where you can buy it, when it is finished.  (If I have a lot of comments with other questions, I may also not approve them, but respond with a new post on the subject of the questions.)

Forge: Aluminum Casting

I have experimented with aluminum casting with the 12 quart forge twice now.  Both times I ran into problems.

This forge is suitable for melting aluminum, perhaps more suitable than it is for forging iron.  Even with regular charcoal fuel (not pellets), it gets hot enough to melt aluminum fairly quickly.  The problem is containing the molten metal.  Many sources online suggest cast iron, which works very well.  The problem is that it is difficult to find cast iron in any form other than skillets.  So, the first time I did this, I used a small cast iron skillet.  Unfortunately, it gets too hot to hold the handle.  So, I put a piece of rebar through the hold in the handle, and used that to hold it.  This was not very stable, and in the end, it spilled around half a cup of liquid aluminum in the forge.  As expected, this ruined the forge and required severe damage to the refractory to remove.  I eventually repaired the forge.  The next try, I used a stainless steel cup from a thrift store.  I put holes through the top rim and put bolts in it, to support the cup over the forge and to give my tongs a place to grab the cup.  Unfortunately, the stainless steel corroded through after around 30 minutes.  As before, molten metal spilled in the forge and now it is broken again.  A nearby hardware store is selling a cast iron pot that is around 8 inches in diameter.  Once I have enough money, I plan on buying one and using it.  That should handle the heat better than the cup and be more stable than the skillet.

Besides the two disasters, I learned some other things about casting aluminum.  First, a mini muffin tin makes a really good ingot mold for aluminum.  I now have somewhere around 12 mini muffin shaped aluminum ingots.  The second time around, I also tried to make 3 castings.  These mostly failed.  I learned some things.  First, you cannot cast aluminum in open top molds.  This allows it to cool to quickly, which causes warping due to shrinkage of the metal as it cools.  Instead, the mold should have sprues (tubes) that extend up from the casting.  The metal is poured into these sprues until both the casting mold and the sprues are filled.  If the sprues are large enough, then they will provide additional metal to the casting as it shrinks, eliminating warping.  The molten metal in the sprues will also help the casting cool more slowly, which will result in a higher quality casting.  These are well known metal casting techniques (which I was already familiar with).  Laziness in metal casting does not pay.

I will post more on this once I have time to repair the forge again.  I am considering building a dedicated smelter.  These can be designed to be spill tolerant.  If I do this, I will be using propane to fuel it, instead of charcoal.

Lord Rybec

Sulfurless Black Powder

In my last post, 2 years ago, I said I might write about this.  Since it has been so long, I feel like I owe it to you to make good on that threat.

First, I have only ever read about this technique for making black powder in one place (I no longer recall the source).  This is superior to any other technique I know of, and supposedly it was used around Civil War times for making the highest grades of military gunpowder.  I will describe the use of this process for making sulfurless black powder, because this is what I make with it.  The original purpose of the sulfur in black powder was to make it ignite easily with a spark.  I am using this for rocketry, where I don't need it to ignite so easily, so there is no reason that I need the sulfur.  In addition, sulfur is the most expensive and difficult to obtain ingredient, and leaving it out makes the gunpowder less volatile and thus much safer to handle.  The side effect is that the rockets are extremely difficult to ignite without commercial rocket igniters (like the ones that come with Estes rocket engines).

To begin, we need our ingredients.  Traditional black powder is made from charcoal, saltpetre (potassium nitrate), and sulfur.  As we are leaving out the sulfur, we only need the charcoal and potassium nitrate.  Now, note that we cannot just use a bag of charcoal briquettes from the store.  These typically contain bits of unburnt wood and some oils to make them light more easily.  These will ruin the gunpowder.  In one of my earlier posts, I explained how to make charcoal, but I will briefly go over it again.

Charcoal is made by burning wood without oxygen.  This is easily done by placing pieces of wood in a metal container that is not quite air tight, and then placing this in a very hot fire for a while.  As the container heats up, it will vent volatile gasses (which will ignite if they are near the flames).  Once these gasses have stopped venting entirely, the charcoal is probably done.

The potassium nitrate may be more difficult to find.  I actually had great difficulty finding it initially.  One likely place to find it is a store that sells meat processing supplies, as it was traditionally used to cure meat.  Many of these places sell more modern curing chemicals though, instead of potassium nitrate.  Conveniently though, it turns out that the powdered stump remover sold in most hardware stores is typically pure potassium nitrate.  Before buying it though, ask for an MSDS for it.  This will list the ingredients.  Some stump removers have one or two additional chemicals which happen to be poisonous and which would probably produce toxic smoke when burned.  Only use it for gunpowder if the only ingredient listed is potassium nitrate (I use Spectracide, but I would recommend getting the MSDS even if you do get this brand, just to be safe).

Now, you need to grind the charcoal to be incredibly fine.  I don't know how fine they got it for traditional gunpowder, but the finer you get it, the more efficiently it will burn and the more power you will get out of it.  The best way to do this is with a ball mill.  Since most people do not have easy access to this kind of equipment, I will tell you how to make your own.  Buy a small rock tumbler (don't get one of those tiny plastic ones that comes with those cheap educational kit though; get a 3 lb. one at least).  Also buy a couple packs of glass marbles.  If there are any marbles with unusual surface textures, remove those, as they could break (I also removed some cool looking ones that I wanted to keep).  From the rest, measure out around 2 lbs. (if your tumbler is bigger than 3 lbs. adjust this accordingly; don't put in more than 2/3 the maximum weight of the tumbler).  These marbles will be the balls for your makeshift ball mill.  Place these in the drum of the tumbler, and then fill it the rest of the way with charcoal (it works best if the charcoal is already crushed up a bit).  It might be a good idea to check the weight at this point, to make sure you are not exceeding the maximum weight.  If you are, remove some charcoal and/or some marbles.   Now, run the rock tumbler for a while.  The time required will depend on the size of the tumbler and the hardness of the charcoal.  I used fir for the charcoal (supposedly hardwoods are better) and it took only a day before most of the charcoal was an extremely fine powder.  Next time, I will probably run it for two days, because there were still a few small chunks left (though, running this through a fine sieve would easily remove those).

You will need a third ingredient.  Get some of the highest percentage rubbing alcohol you can find.  I used 97%, but I have only seen it a few times.  Make sure you get enough.  I don't know exactly how much this is, but one cup of gunpowder needs more than a 1 pint bottle of alcohol.  Put the alcohol in the freezer the night before you want to make the gunpowder.

Once the charcoal is finely powdered (mine was finer than powdered sugar), you are ready to make the black powder.  According to Wikipedia on sulfurless black powder, "They typically contain 70.5 parts of saltpetre and 29.5 parts of charcoal."  This should be by weight.  Measure out the amounts of each that you need before starting.  According to the Wikipedia page on potassium nitrate, the saturation point of potassium nitrate in water at boiling is 2460 g/L.  This is 2460 grams of potassium nitrate for each liter of water.  Since you are probably not using grams and liters, use Google to convert the units for you (entering "2460 g/L to oz/gallon" gives you "328.475119 oz / US gallon").  Use this to figure out how much water you need, then add few extra tablespoons to that.  Put the water in a pan, add the potassium nitrate, then heat the water to boiling.  If you did your math right, once the water gets close to boiling, all of the potassium nitrate will have dissolved.  Now, let it boil and watch it carefully.  When potassium nitrate crystals start to appear in the water (not just at the edges), pour all of the charcoal powder in and stir it in.  Right before you do this, take the alcohol out of the freezer and pour it all into a large bowl (it needs to fit all of the gunpowder in there as well).  My charcoal did not want to mix in well.  If this happens, just keep stirring until it does.  Leave the burner on while you do this (don't worry, the gun powder will not ignite; besides the fact that it is wet, without the sulfur, it is extremely difficult to ignite, even with an open flame).  Once the mixture has turned into a black paste, with all of the charcoal mixed in, turn off the burner, and pour the mixture into the chilled alcohol.  This is the part I always have problems with.  The first time I did it, it went fine, but the second time, I did not have enough alcohol, and I poured the powder too fast.  For this to work properly, the alcohol needs to remain chilled (if you don't have enough, the hot mixture will warm it up).  Also, if you pour too fast, you will end up with a pile of the mixture at the bottom, where the middle is insulated from the cold by the outside.  The fast cooling is essential for optimum quality.

Leave the mixture in the alcohol until it has cooled completely.  It should now be fairly solid, though easy to break.  Pour the alcohol off and save it (you can reuse the alcohol several times, even if it is dirty from the previous batch).  Break up the chunks of black powder (don't crush them into fine powder though), and place them somewhere they can finish drying.  In a warm climate this should only take a day (give it more time in a cold climate).  I don't know how long it will take in a humid climate.

Once it is dry, you can pack it into rocket tubes to make engines.  This powder will not make a good explosive, and don't bother trying to use it in an old gun.  The lack of sulfur makes it so difficult to light that even an open flame may take half a minute to light it.  Really, it is not very good for anything but confined burns like in model rocket engines.  Given that this process was originally used for making powder intended for guns, it would probably work fine for a more traditional gunpowder mixture that includes sulfur.

Now, I want to talk about why this produces such high quality black powder.  Black powder is a oxidizer/fuel mixture.  The charcoal is the fuel and the potassium nitrate is the oxidizer.  The efficiency of the powder depends on how well the burning charcoal can get the oxygen from the potassium nitrate.  Two things will improve this.  First, the smaller the particles, the more surface area they have and the better the oxygen can transfer.  Second, the more intimately the ingredients are mixed, the better oxygen can be transferred.  Milling the charcoal with the ball mill will get those particles very small.  We could stop there and mill the potassium nitrate in with the charcoal (this is the common way most rocket enthusiasts make black powder now).  Potassium nitrate dissolves in water though, which gives us another option.  What we did above was to supersaturate the water with potassium nitrate.  This means that we increased the amount of potassium nitrate that the water could hold by heating the water, then we dissolved the maximum amount in it.  As the water cools, the potassium nitrate will start to crystallize out.  The faster the water cools, the smaller the crystals will be.  In addition, crystals tend to form first around rough spots.  The charcoal is very porous and thus has an enormous amount of rough spots.  So, when we poured the mixture into the chilled alcohol, the potassium nitrate formed extremely small (microscopic) crystals all over the rough charcoal particles.  This is about the most intimate mixture you can get without rearranging individual molecules.  This means that the mixture will burn almost completely (coarser mixtures will have a lot of partially burned particles), which means we maximize the energy output.  This creates an extremely efficient rocket fuel when we use it to make sulfurless black powder.

I hope this is useful to someone.  Like I said, I have only seen this technique described once.  I have not been able to find any information about it since.  Because I know the chemistry behind it, I know that it works.  By publishing this information, I may be preventing this from becoming a lost art.

Lord Rybec

Turmeric Ink

Interesting experiment I did yesterday, though probably not one that will end up in my book. It is interesting enough that I thought I should write about it here though.

I don't know if I have mentioned it yet, but one of the subjects that will be in my book is soap making. This requires lye. My problem was that I need some means of measuring the concentration of lye in solution. So, I started looking up how to make acid/base indicators. On a page I found on a totally unrelated subject, they had a note at the end pointing out that turmeric turns red when exposed to a base. It did not take long before I knew a whole lot about curcumin, the chemical in turmeric that gives it the yellow color (and that turns red in a base).

So, it turns out that this chemical is not water soluble (or at least, not significantly), but it is soluble in alcohol. I happened to have some 91% rubbing alcohol (for making black powder, which I may write about in the future) around, so I put some turmeric in a small cup of the rubbing alcohol. The liquid turned yellow (ie, clear yellow, after the turmeric powder settled to the bottom). I messed around with this solution by mixing a bit with some baking soda, and also with some of the lye that I made for making soap. It turned pretty dark red.

So, next I made a larger batch and soaked some small squares of paper it in, to make indicator strips. I set the paper squares on some wax paper to dry and then decided to play with the leftovers. I poured just a little bit of lye into the white ceramic container that the solution was in, and the liquid turned blood red, literally (it was actually mildly disconcerting).

Well, I wanted to see how it would handle on paper, as ink (you know the whole "signed in blood" thing). Well, I discovered that this red solution bleeds out on the paper quite quickly (due to the alcohol). Not all of the solution had turned red, but since both parts were mixed, the yellow portion was not obvious. When the solution bleed out into the paper though, the yellow flowed better, thus the red spot had a yellow "halo" around it (I suspect the water in the lye solution made the red flow through the paper slower than the yellow part that was mostly in alcohol). Also, over time the red spot turned mostly yellow. Now, it is possible that this is partially because the lye concentration was reduced as it was absorbed into the paper. However, the largest effect comes from acid in the paper partially or entirely neutralizing the lye. Experiments with acid free paper actually confirmed both of these. The red ink immediately becomes orange, telling me that the affect on lye concentration had some effect, but it did not turn entirely yellow (or become more yellow over time), telling me that the acid in the other paper was also playing a large part. My solution to this will be to add stronger lye to make more of the ink red and to counter the dilution of the lye as it soaks into the paper (the lye is in a water solution, so I don't want to add enough to affect the solubility of the chemical, so stronger lye means more base with less water). First though, I will have to evaporate down my lye to increase the concentration.

Ok, so next I wondered how easy this would be to use in a printer cartridge. I had a black cartridge that had recently run out, as well as a replacement waiting to be installed, so I figured that if it damaged the cartridge, it would be no great loss. So, I cleaned out the cartridge (with water, since the HP black ink is not alcohol soluble, but is water soluble) and refilled it with another batch of the ink (carefully strained so that the turmeric particles would not block the jets). Besides the fact that my homemade plug is not very good, so air leaks into the cartridge, causing smearing from too high of ink flow, it actually worked pretty well. Ironically, printing from my Windows XP computer uses color ink for gray-scale, even when set for black only, so gray-scale gradients did not use the cartridge properly, but my Linux computer worked perfectly when set to use black only.

There are a lot of cool uses for this ink. If you got the concentration right, it would probably make a fine replacement for yellow printer ink (assuming your prints would not be exposed to alkaline environments). A better application though, is security. First, if you put a basic solution on the print, this ink will turn red (or pink, if the ink volume is not very high). Acid will turn it back yellow. Second, evidently, this chemical fluoresces under black light. Printed at a low volume, you could essentially use this ink to make security "watermarks" that could be authenticated using a black light and simple chemical tests. I have also seen suggestions for using this as highlighter ink, which would probably work extremely well at the right concentration.

Since most of the above applications are not currently important to me, what I have now is a cartridge that allows me to print acid/base indicator paper which I can cut into strips for use in my experiments. (This is actually pretty cool, since the printer should be able to always get the same ink volume, once I fix my plug, and also uses a lot less solution per strip.)

A big note here: This stuff is messy. There are few things that it will not stain (it did not stain the ceramic sink, but other smooth surfaces did stain). Since it is not water soluble, it will only wash off extremely smooth surfaces (and, with a lot of pressure and the rough side of the dish washing pad). You can soak your sponge or rag with alcohol and it will wash off most smooth surfaces this way, but may still leave light stains. If the stains are slightly orange to red, you can wash with vinegar to turn it yellow (less visible), but exposure to a base should turn it red. Oh, and I would not expect this to wash out of clothes easily. And, if you do the printer thing, if the jets clog when you don't use it for a while, try cleaning with alcohol, since water will not help much.

I do not know the long term effects of using an alcohol based ink in inkjet cartridges. Also, since I did this yesterday, I don't know if this ink will decay or discolor over time. As of now, this is extremely experimental.

Lord Rybec

Publish Post

Plastics, continued

I've managed to do a lot more work and gather a lot more information on plastics since my last post. Here is what I have learned:

The ideal method for making the casein (milk protein) plastic uses 2% milk. 1% works also, but may require some blending to get the majority of it dissolved. Just heat the milk to simmering and then add some vinegar. I forget the exact amount, but if you don't add enough to totally separate it within one minute, just add a little more (see my previous post on plastics for ideal measurements).

If you do not add some baking soda to dissolve it a little bit (don't add too much, or you get glue; again, fairly exact measurements should be in the previous plastics post), it will be very difficult to mold. Once the stuff is dissolved into a very thick goo, you can let it sit for a bit to make it less sticky (this also allows the vinegar/baking soda reaction to finish). I found that it is easiest to work with if you let it sit for around 10 minutes (in a humid climate, it might need more), then work it with wet hands. You should definitely knead it, to get the bubbles produced by the vinegar/baking soda reaction out (bubbles will weaken it). Since it tends to warp a lot when drying, the best use is to make a flat sheet of plastic (put weight on it while drying, but make sure it gets enough air for it to dry; good luck). At 1-1.5mm thick it is brittle enough to break easily, but strong enough to use as a guitar pick (I am not good enough to "rock out", so it may not handle more active playing). At .5cm thick, it is still brittle, but much harder to break. Much thicker takes a very long time to dry (I have a piece that is almost 1cm thick that is still not dry after 5 days). If you prevent the surface from drying for too long, it can mold (I was cycling between weight that restricted air access with open air drying with no weight), but it can easily be sanded off once it is dry.

Casein plastic is extremely easy to shape and cut with a Dremel tool. It is reasonable to assume that it could be shaped with a CNC grinding machine. With a Dremel, you can etch artwork into the surface of the pieces.

If you have a good coffee grinder (that you do not intend on using for coffee ever again), you can grind cardboard into a fluffy powdery substance (similar in texture to cellulose insulation; also, avoid breathing the dust). If you mix this with the plastic before shaping and drying it, it will be many times stronger and far less brittle. You will need to add some water when mixing, but only add as much as you need to keep it moldable (otherwise it will take too long to dry). You will need to add quite a bit of the ground paper fiber to get the strength indicated above, but even a little should make a difference. (I used cardboard from cereal boxes. It was a little lumpy, but worked fine. I also happen to know that corrugated cardboard grinds really well.) Using longer cellulose fibers should work even better (things like cotton or hemp should perform far better than the paper fiber).

Note that adding the baking soda makes this plastic mildly water soluble. You can fix this by soaking it in vinegar for a few minutes, after it is dry (you might be able to do this wet as well, but I have not tried it). Don't leave the paper plastic composite in vinegar for too long, because the paper wicks the vinegar in deep, and bubbles will form within the plastic from the reaction. After this, you have to let it dry again (a few hours or so). This makes it water resistant. More than a few minutes exposure to water will still soften the plastic (and it will probably warp while drying), but it will not make the surface slimy or make the plastic dissolve.


I also tried making plastic from wheat gluten (yes, that is the thing that some people are allergic too; I am not sure how exposure to the skin would affect someone with such and allergy, so be careful if you are one of those people). I extracted the gluten manually. First, I mixed white (not bleached) flour with water (you can use whole wheat flour, but it takes longer as there is more fiber to get out). You want enough flour that you end up with a thick doughy mixture. It should not be significantly sticky (if it is, keep kneading in more flour until it is not). Once it is kneaded out well, make a ball and put it into a bowl of water that entirely covers the ball of dough. You can refrigerate this, but you do not have to. After several hours, you begin kneading it again, in the water this time. You will notice the water turns milky (this is wheat starch and other non-gluten wheat products). The surface will start to become loose pieces that are slightly sticky and extremely stretchy. This is the gluten. It sticks to itself well, so if pieces come off, just stick them back on. When the water becomes really white, dump it out (you can actually collect this and evaporate the water to get wheat starch) and put new water in (or, if you have a fairly large bowl, you can run the water while kneading). Eventually, the ball will no longer make the water white when kneaded or squeezed hard. At this point, you have fairly pure gluten. This gluten can be kneaded into a ball and then flattened and dried. It tends to shrink a lot when drying and thus warps a lot like casein, and so should be treated similarly when drying. This should work with reconstituted gluten powder that can be bought at the store, but I have not tried it yet.

A good note here is that gluten reacts oppositely to ph levels as casein. In other words, if you soak it in a little vinegar, it will dissolve, while a base (like baking soda) will return it to the rubbery insoluble that it started as. I have a few experimental applications for this property that I will discuss in a future post.

This plastic is also fairly hard, but brittle. I have not tried making a piece thicker than 1.5mm, but that thin piece worked fine as a guitar pick. The color is translucent, dark brown, as opposed to the opaque ivory color of casein. The gluten plastic also held a lot of air bubbles. I don't know if these are removable without the use of a vacuum jar or similar vacuum device. This plastic is naturally water resistant, but like the vinegar processed casein, it will still become soft with more than brief exposure to water. It is also easily workable with a Dremel, or similar rotary tool.


My next experiment with plastic is a fairly common bioplastic (the above are also technically bioplastics, though you would probably not find them on a list). It is made from starch, vinegar, and glycerin. The vinegar breaks down the part of the starch that is not a good polymer, so that it can become a good polymer. The glycerine makes if flexible. The amount of glycerine determines the flexibility, so a harder plastic can be made with less, or a more flexible with more. See: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Potato-Plastic!/ Note that this is a good application for the starch removed from the wheat gluten.

Starch is easy to obtain, as is vinegar. Glycerin is a bit harder to find. So I have gone to efforts to determine how to make it. In short, you make lye from wood ashes. With lye, fat/oil, and salt, you make soap. The byproduct is glycerin (which is sometimes mixed into the soap, but not for this application). An interesting note is that if you add the right amount of methanol to the lye, you will get biodiesel instead of soap, still with a by product of glycerin. So, instructions for making biodiesel will be in my book as well.

Lord Rybec