Cooking With Gluten Free Recipes
Gluten is a product that is common in a lot of food types. It is most common in wheat but is also present in other grains. Its use in cooking is very important as it binds food together and creates elasticity in foods, especially in baking. Without gluten food can crumble as there is nothing there that can hold it together. Gluten free recipes need suitable substitutes.
It is found in wheat, rye and barley, and although oats may be thought of as being safe they can be contaminated with wheat so care should be taken when sourcing them. It is also a hidden ingredient in some surprising products such as soy sauce, hard sweets and alcoholic drinks that have not been distilled. Anyone suffering from this food intolerance may be diagnosed with coeliac disease.
It takes a lot of care to get all gluten out of a diet as it is also in some cosmetics and medicines. Care should be taken if you prepare foods with gluten in the same kitchen as gluten free food. Wheat flour can actually remain in the air for quite some time, and it is tricky to get all the crumbs out of a toaster.
When you start to cook using gluten free recipes it’s important to bear in mind the purpose of gluten in cooking. Its most important function is to bind food, but it also thickens, adds flavour, can change the texture and absorbs moisture. It is the only ingredient that can do all these things.
Gluten is used to bind food but is also used to add flavour, texture and to thicken. There is not one single substitute that will do all this. Care should be taken when storing the substitutes as they do not tend to have any additives in them and will spoil more quickly than gluten products.
It does not have to be difficult to accommodate someone with coeliacs disease as there are a lot of things that have no gluten in them. These include all meats and fish, and all fruit and vegetables. The meal combinations from these are huge. The difficulty comes when cooking baked goods.
When substituting ingredients in gluten free recipes, corn starch can be used to thicken, as well as potato flour and rice flour. Rice flour is a pretty good substitute for gluten, but will not bind so should be combined with something else. Xanthan gum is good for binding, and can be used in bread and cake recipes. Sorghum flour is a good alternative for baking as it will rise reasonably well.
Gluten Free Let the mixture boil on a medium heat. Again, be sure to consult a doctor before doing anything drastic. This means that a lot of suitable meals can be cooked without the need to try to substitute ingredients. Also published at Cooking With Gluten Free Recipes.
