Wylie on Meat Glue

I found out about meat glue from Heston Blumenthal—and it was Heston, or someone at his restaurant, the Fat Duck [in Bray], who coined the term “meat glue.” Chris Young, who was working as Heston’s research scientist at around the time we opened wd~50, brought me some and told me I might find it interesting. I did. In fact, we went bananas with it. I don’t think there’s anyone who uses as much meat glue as we do.

The basics, quickly: meat glue is an enzyme called transglutaminase. When it comes into contact with certain amino acids—specifically lysine and glutamine—it forms covalent bonds that act like a glue. Virtually all fish, meat and poultry contain enough lysine and glutamine for that reaction to take place.