Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food (73 page)
Read Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food Online
Authors: Jeff Potter
Tags: #COOKING / Methods / General
I LOVE THE CHALLENGE OF COOKING WITH CONSTRAINTS.
With allergies, the challenge is to prepare a meal with a certain set of ingredients considered off-limits.
Food allergies are caused by an immune system response to certain types of proteins. In some individuals, the immune system misidentifies certain proteins as harmful and generates a histamine reaction in response to them. Immune reactions can occur within a few minutes to several hours of ingesting the offending food item. Minor reactions include a tingling sensation on the tongue or lips, itchy eyes, runny nose, or skin rashes lasting from a few hours to a day. More extreme reactions include throat constriction, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or coughing. Oh, and death.
If you ever encounter a reaction that involves tongue swelling, throat constriction, or restricted breathing — hallmarks of an anaphylactic reaction — call 911 and get to a hospital
immediately
, because the swelling can increase to the point where it cuts off the airway. Those who know that they have particularly strong allergies will often carry an Epipen, a small pen-sized medical device that auto-injects epinephrine to control the allergic reaction. (The injection buys 15 to 20 minutes of time to get to a hospital for further care.)
Since an allergy is a response to a particular protein in food, not the food itself, and because some types of proteins denature below the temperature at which the foods containing them are cooked, certain allergies apply only to uncooked foods. Your guests will be able to tell you their particular constraints.
When shopping for a meal to cook for someone with an allergy, be sure to read the labels on any packaged goods you consider. Also, be careful if you are reusing components or sauces from previous meals, because things like soy and nuts can show up in unexpected places. When in doubt, pick recipes with fewer ingredients to avoid unexpected surprises.
If you have serious food allergies, consider creating a
chef card
that you can hand to a waiter when dining out. A chef card is a small, index-sized card that communicates your allergies explicitly, quickly, and clearly. One chef I know commented that “they’re very helpful. It’s nice when a customer with allergies gives a server one, so they can bring it in the kitchen and I can read it out to the whole staff.”
Chef Card, courtesy of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network; for a customizable and printable version, see
http://www.foodallergy.org/page/chef-card1
.
Also, check how sensitive your guests are to their allergies. If they are especially sensitive, you will need to be particularly diligent to avoid cross-contamination while working in the kitchen. It’s probably best to avoid using any allergen-containing item in the entire meal, but if a guest has an allergy broad enough that you elect to cook that person a special side dish, you should treat the allergens as you would raw meats: separate them out from the safe foods, and wash
all
items that will come in contact with that side dish (preferably in a dishwasher, as sponges can harbor enough traces to cause cross-contamination).
A friend of mine has learned that cross-contamination of gluten can occur even if she butters her bread and then uses the same knife to slice a pat of butter to drop into a pan; the few micrograms of bread carried back onto the butter knife are enough to trigger an allergic reaction in her child. This is a really extreme case, but do check with your guests about how sensitive their allergies are.
Avoiding cross-contamination can be difficult, because it might occur in many places you’d never think it would. For example, if you’re cooking both rice noodles and regular pasta, the residual gluten left on your strainer after running the regular pasta through it might be enough to contaminate the batch of rice pasta. Selecting your recipes with care can help you avoid some of these problems. Again, everyone reacts differently, so your level of vigilance should be adjusted as necessary to match your guests’ needs.
So, you’ve just found out that someone you’re cooking for is allergic to an ingredient in your favorite family dish. What to do?
This section includes a number of suggestions for ingredient substitutions for the eight most common allergies, based on information from Kristi Winkels’s website, Eating with Food Allergies (
http://www.eatingwithfoodallergies.com
). Visit her website for additional suggestions and recipes tailored to those with allergies.
This list contains many of the common ingredients and foods to avoid, but you should still check any questionable ingredients with your guests.
Ingredients to avoid
Casein, whey, whey solids, buttermilk solids, curds, milk solids, lactalbumin, caseinate, sodium caseinate.
Foods commonly containing dairy
Milk, buttermilk, chocolate (milk and dark), hot chocolate, “nondairy” creamers, baked goods, spreads including butter and many margarines (even some that say “nondairy” on the label), cheeses, yogurts, frozen yogurts, frozen desserts such as ice cream, sherbets, some sorbets, whipped toppings.
Substitutions
For milk
Soy, rice, potato, almond, oat, hemp, and coconut milk are all possible substitutes for cow’s milk. If you aren’t dealing with a soy allergy as well, soy milk is a good option; it tastes pretty good and, when fortified, contains roughly the same amount of calcium and vitamin D (two important nutrients, especially for children). Rice milk is also often fortified and, like soy milk, can usually be found at the regular grocery store. Potato milk is available in specialty food stores in powder form.
For margarine
When searching for a dairy-free margarine, be sure to examine the product labels carefully and make sure the ingredient list does not contain “milk derivatives.” Also bear in mind that most “light” margarines are not suitable for baking. Look for Earth Balance Light and Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine brands.
For yogurt
If you’re a yogurt fan, check out soy yogurt or coconut milk yogurt. Try using it as a dip for fruit, or buy plain and use it to make a creamy salad dressing.
Ingredients to avoid
Albumin, globulin, lysozyme, livetin, silici albuminate, Simplesse, vitellin, meringue, ingredients containing the word “egg” such as egg white, ingredients that begin with “ovo” (Latin for “egg”).
Foods commonly containing egg
Baked goods (cookies, cakes, muffins, breads, crackers), desserts (custards, puddings, ice creams), battered foods (fish and chicken nuggets), meatballs, meatloaf, pastas, sauces, dressings, soups.
Substitutions
While dishes like omelets and egg salads are out, you can still achieve reasonable results in baked goods. Eggs provide air and leavening in cakes, add structure to breads and cakes, and supply liquid in cookie doughs, cakes, and muffin batters. Determine which functions the egg provides in the baked item and experiment with using one of the following alternatives.
To replace one egg in baking:
Whisk together until foamy: 1½ tablespoons (20g) oil, 1½ tablespoons (22g) warm water, and 1 teaspoon baking powder.
Whisk with water until fluffy; then add to your mixture. This is a great all-purpose egg substitute.
Mix 1 teaspoon (4g) unflavored gelatin with 1 tablespoon (15g) warm water. You should be able to find unflavored gelatins in your grocery store near the flavored gelatin (like Jell-O).
Mix 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons warm water; let sit for 10 minutes. It does have a strong flavor, so does not work as an all-purpose egg replacement, but can be useful in cakes, pumpkin bars, oatmeal applesauce cookies, and muffins.
In some cases, you can use a quarter cup of puréed banana or apple. Experiment!
An allergy to fish does not necessarily mean an allergy to shellfish, and vice versa. However, if you are cooking for someone who has an allergy in either category, the safest approach is to entirely avoid fish and seafood, unless your guest has specifically advised you of allowable food items.
Foods commonly containing fish or shellfish
Anything with fish or seafood, including imitation crab meat, Caesar salad, Caesar dressing, Worcestershire sauce, some pizzas, gelatin (sometimes derived from fish or shellfish bones), some marshmallows, some sauces, antipasto dishes.
Ingredients to avoid
Peanuts, peanut butter, peanut starch, peanut flour, peanut oil, mixed nuts, crushed nuts, hydrolyzed plant protein, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, vegetable oil (if the source isn’t specified), and depending upon the severity of the allergy, anything that states “may contain trace amounts of peanuts.”
Foods commonly containing peanuts
Baked goods, baking mixes, chocolate and chocolate chips (many contain trace amounts of peanuts), candy, snacks, nut butters, cereals, sauces (peanuts are sometimes used as a thickener), Asian food (stir fry, sauces, egg rolls), veggie burgers, marzipan (almond paste).
Substitutions
If you have a dish that calls for peanuts directly, you might be able to substitute something else, such as cashews or sunflower seeds. For peanut butter, you can use soy nut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower butter, if your guest is not allergic to them (true seeds and soy differ from peanuts).
Ingredients to avoid
Almond (butter, pastes such as marzipan, flavoring, extract), brazil nut, cashews (butter, flavoring, extract), chestnuts (water chestnuts are okay as they’re not actually nuts), hazelnuts (filberts), hickory nuts, macadamia nuts (Queensland nut, bush nut, maroochi nut, queen of nuts, bauple nut), pecans, pine nuts, pinon (pignoli), pistachios, walnuts, nut meal, nougat, nut paste, Nutella.
Foods commonly containing nuts
Baked goods, snack foods, Asian foods, pesto, salads, candy. Cross-contamination is a major concern, so inspect packages for statements such as “may contain trace amounts of...”
Substitutions
Working around nut allergies can be tricky. As with peanut allergies, your best bet is to select recipes that don’t rely on nuts. In salads and snacks, you can use seeds, such as sunflower, pumpkin, or sesame seeds. Sunflower butter can replace nut butters.
Sesame seed allergies are not uncommon, so check with your guest on this substitution.
Ingredients to avoid
Hydrolyzed soy protein, miso, shoyu sauce, soy-anything, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, soy sauce, soybean, soybean granules, soybean curd, tempeh, textured vegetable protein (“TVP”), tofu.
Foods commonly containing soy
Baby foods, baked goods (cakes, cookies, muffins, breads), baking mixes, breakfast cereals, packaged dinners like spaghetti or macaroni and cheese, canned tuna packed in oil, margarine, shortening, vegetable oil and anything with vegetable oil in it, snack foods (including crackers, chips, pretzels), nondairy creamers, vitamin supplements.
Substitutions
There are no good substitutes for items like tofu and soy sauce, so choose recipes that don’t directly rely on soy-based products. Note that soy is used in an amazing number of commercial products — often in places that you wouldn’t suspect, such as pasta sauce — so read labels carefully!
Note that a wheat allergy is
not
the same as a gluten intolerance. Wheat allergy is often confused with celiac disease (gluten intolerance), which is an autoimmune disorder in which the small intestine reacts to the ingestion of gluten. Still, celiac disease is often easier to explain as a severe allergy so that people unfamiliar with the details of it understand the importance of handling food for those with it.
Wheat allergies are triggered by proteins present in wheat specifically, not the gluten. Unlike those who have wheat allergies, individuals with celiac disease must avoid
all
gluten, regardless of source. Be careful to avoid cross-contamination: even a knife used to butter toast might contain sufficient trace amounts of gluten to cause problems, so make sure to carefully wash and rinse utensils, dishes, and hands when cooking for someone with gluten intolerance. For more information on celiac disease, visit
http://www.celiac.org
.
Ingredients to avoid
Wheat (bran, germ, starch), bulgur, flour (graham, durham, enriched), gluten, modified food starch, malt, spelt, vegetable gums, semolina, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, starch, natural flavoring.
Foods commonly containing wheat
Breads (bagels, muffins, rolls, donuts, pancakes), desserts (cakes, cookies, baking mixes, pies), snacks (crackers, chips, cereals), most commercial soups including broths, pastas (noodles, packaged dinners containing pasta), condiments (soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salad dressings, barbeque sauces, marinades, glazes, some vinegars), beverages (beer, nonalcoholic beer, ale, root beer, instant chocolate drink mixes), meats (frozen meats that are packaged with broth, lunch meats, hot dogs), gravies and sauces (most likely thickened with wheat flour), flour tortillas, tabbouleh (salad dish), pilafs.
Substitutions
Replacing wheat flour is tricky, because it contains gluten, which creates bread’s characteristic elastic structure and texture. It is difficult to duplicate wheat baked goods (especially bread) without wheat flour. Some nonwheat flours, such as barley and rye flour, do contain the proteins necessary to form gluten.NotePeople with a wheat allergy can usually tolerate those flours while people with celiac disease cannot.
Rice flour and rye flour are easy to find. Check your regular grocery store. You can use either in place of wheat flour in some recipes (substituting at a 1:1 ratio). Tapioca starch, potato starch (use ⅝ cups per 1 cup of wheat flour, a 0.625:1 ratio), potato flour, and sorghum flour can also be used.You can achieve better results by blending several flours together. For an all-purpose flour mix, combine ¾ cups (120g) white rice flour, ¼ cup (30g) potato starch (not potato flour!), 2 tablespoons (15g) tapioca starch (also called tapioca flour), and, optionally, ¼ teaspoon (1g) xanthan gum.
Luckily, there are great alternatives to wheat pasta! Pasta also comes in rice, corn, and quinoa varieties. Take care to not overcook these types of pasta, because they can get mushy and fall apart easily, and remember to make sure the colander is really clean if you’ve previously used it for wheat pasta.
If your guest is more sensitive or has celiac disease, be sure to double-check with the manufacturer about shared manufacturing lines and cross-contamination. Rice cakes, rice crackers, popcorn, and corn and potato chips make for excellent wheat-free snacks (but are not necessarily gluten-free).
