A new article by Laura Reiley and Lee Powell in The Washington Post gives us a glimpse inside the Tofurky factory in Hood River, Oregon, where the wheat gluten and silken tofu-based centerpieces of many vegan Thanksgiving tables—7.5 million to date, in fact—are created.
Earlier this year, the original owner of the Tofurky brand, Oregon-based Turtle Island Foods (established in 1980), sold the company to a Japanese firm, Tofurky's longtime tofu supplier, Morinaga Nutritional Foods. The Tofurkys are still made in the Oregon plant, however.
Here are some delicious excerpts from The Washington Post piece, describing the process of making a Tofurky:
A "masa" of 130 pounds of wheat gluten, 56 pounds of silken tofu puree, 23 pounds of canola oil, water and spices and are loaded into an industrial-sized bowl chopper and kneaded for 15 minutes. Workers swing by to test the gluten activation of the mixture: How stretchy are the proteins? Are they forming longer and longer chains and giving the mixture cohesion and elasticity like bread dough being proofed? The churning mass smells yeasty and a lot like bread dough. When the temperature of the mixture reaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit and it has a smooth, elastic texture, it's ready for the next stage. The mixture is dumped into a hopper and whisked away on a wheeled dolly. . .
The masa is loaded into one hopper, the wild rice stuffing into a second . . .
The Tofurky holiday roast stuffing is a mix of wild rice, breadcrumbs, celery, onion, carrot, leek and seasonings . . .
With the stuffing at the center and the masa surrounding it, the portions shoot through a metal tunnel with a little pneumatic puff of noise and into a plastic barrier casing, the ends tied off and clamped . . .
While the extruder machine spits out roasts, workers spot-check uncooked roasts to make sure the ratio of masa to stuffing is correct. Once a whole cart has been filled, workers transport the roasts to the walk-in steam oven. The cooking strategy is low and slow: They steam for about four hours at a little under 300 degrees. Roasts enter the oven a pale cream color and emerge with a deep caramel hue.
The oven door opens with a dramatic plume of steam, and the racks of cooked roasts are rolled out and then whisked into a nearby freezer for eight hours. Many of the roasts are sold in conventional grocery stores just around the holidays as a fresh product; health food stores and vegetarian markets often stock them for a longer window as a frozen package.
Have you ever had a Tofurky? It's been a while for me, but reading this article brought back fond memories of many vegan Friendsgivings from my youth. For some visuals of the process, check out the video, below.
