APPENDIX

Cooking Around Allergies

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 the person 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, coughing, and possibly death.

• If you ever encounter a reaction that involves tongue swelling, throat constriction, or restricted breathing—hallmarks of an anaphylactic reaction—call emergency services (911 in the US and Canada) and get to a hospital immediately. 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.

• If your guests are especially sensitive, you will need to be particularly diligent to avoid cross-contamination—a few micrograms of bread left on a butter knife can trigger a reaction, as can leftover starches on a strainer from last night’s batch of pasta. It’s best to avoid using any allergen-containing item in the entire meal, but if you elect to cook a special side dish instead, treat the allergens as you would raw meats: separate them 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).

Chef Card

If you have serious food allergies, consider creating a chef card that you can hand to a waiter when dining out for the kitchen staff to review. About the size of an index card, a chef card communicates your allergies explicitly, quickly, and clearly.

Substitutions for Common Allergies

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 the 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.

Dairy Allergies

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, and some sorbets), whipped toppings.

Substitutions

For milk

Soy, rice, potato, almond, cashew, hazelnut, 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.

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.

Egg Allergies

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:

Baking powder, water, and oil

Whisk together until foamy: 1½ tablespoons (20g) oil, 1½ tablespoons (22g) warm water, and 1 teaspoon baking powder.

Unflavored gelatin

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).

Flaxseed meal

Mix 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons warm water; let sit for 10 minutes. It does have a strong flavor, so it doesn’t work as an all-purpose egg replacement, but can be useful in cakes, pumpkin bars, oatmeal applesauce cookies, and muffins.

Fruit purée

In some cases, you can use a quarter cup of puréed banana or apple. Experiment!

Fish/Shellfish Allergies

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.

Peanut Allergies

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).

Tree Nut Allergies

Ingredients to avoid

Almond (butter, pastes such as marzipan, flavoring, extract), Brazil nuts, 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.

Soy Allergies

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!

Wheat Allergies

Wheat allergies are triggered by proteins present in wheat specifically.

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. Individuals with celiac disease must avoid all gluten, regardless of source. 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, doughnuts, 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

Pasta

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.

Flour

Replacing wheat flour is tricky, because it contains gluten, which creates bread’s characteristic elastic structure and texture. It is difficult to duplicate wheat-based baked goods (especially bread) without wheat flour. Some nonwheat flours, such as barley and rye flour, do contain the proteins necessary to form gluten (see page 247).

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 cup 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.

Snacks

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).