Nutritive proteins are provided. In some embodiments the nutritive proteins comprise at least one of a level of a) a ratio of branch chain amino acid residues to total amino acid residues present in the nutritive protein equal to or greater than the ratio of branch chain amino acid residues to total amino acid residues present in whey protein; b) a ratio of leucine residues to total amino acid residues present in the nutritive protein equal to or greater than the ratio of leucine residues to total amino acid residues present in whey protein; and c) a ratio of essential amino acid residues to total amino acid residues present in the nutritive protein equal to or greater than the ratio of essential amino acid residues to total amino acid residues present in whey protein. Also provided are nucleic acids encoding the proteins, recombinant microorganisms that make the proteins, methods of making the proteins using recombinant microorganisms, compositions that comprise the proteins, and methods of using the proteins, among other things.