Suggestions for thickners?

[Kisseslikepearls]

My good firends and myself have a tradition of cooking the birthday person's favorite meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There's 4 of us, so this works out pretty well!!!

I drew breakfast this year and the request was for Chipped Beef on Toast (also known as "creamed"). The recipe is 8oz dried beef, 4T flour and 4 cups milk, stick of butter and salt/pepper to taste. Any ideas on how to de-carb this? I'll forgo the toast that you spoon this mix over, of course.

I've heard of "thick not starch" (???) but have never used it and the xan and gaur gums are out, i won't have access to a blender. Any suggestions/hints? If i use the 'not starch' product would I need to disolve it into cold water first? Would I need to chance the amt of thickener? Or is this like splenda to sugar measuring-wise?

[not2late]

Re: Suggestions for thickners?

My good firends and myself have a tradition of cooking the birthday person's favorite meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There's 4 of us, so this works out pretty well!!!

I drew breakfast this year and the request was for Chipped Beef on Toast (also known as "creamed"). The recipe is 8oz dried beef, 4T flour and 4 cups milk, stick of butter and salt/pepper to taste. Any ideas on how to de-carb this? I'll forgo the toast that you spoon this mix over, of course.

I've heard of "thick not starch" (???) but have never used it and the xan and gaur gums are out, i won't have access to a blender. Any suggestions/hints? If i use the 'not starch' product would I need to disolve it into cold water first? Would I need to chance the amt of thickener? Or is this like splenda to sugar measuring-wise?

I'm not a fan of the gum-based thickeners like Thick Not Thin or xanthum gum because they give the food a very slimy texture that I find unpalatable.

So for my gravies, etc. I tend to cook lower carb aromatic veggies with the stock, like celery, some onion, etc. I cook them until they are very soft and have given their flavor to the stock. Traditionally, you would strain out these veggies and throw them away. I put them into a blender with some of the stock and puree it until it's liquidized. Then I return that mixture to the gravy and give it a boil--and sometimes it's so thick I need to thin it out with water or more stock.

For your specific recipe of creammed chip beef, I suggest doing a test run with a smaller portion. I would substitute heavy cream for the milk. Put the heavy cream in a pan and reduce it by half. The cream will thicken as it reduces. Then I would add a couple ounces of cream cheese to that hot, reduced cream. The cream cheese will further thicken the sauce.

[scott123]

Re: Suggestions for thickners?

Carbquik does a good job of thickening sauces, although the flavor is not quite as neutral as regular flour. You also have to cook the sauce for quite some time at a very low temp for the carbquik to reach it's full thickening potential.

Btw, you want to be careful when working with cream cheese thickened sauces as the cream cheese has a tendency to curdle if you bring it to a boil. It also has a tendency to curdle if you put it in the fridge overnight. If you're gentle with it, though, and eat it all at one sitting, cream cheese works pretty well.