Gluten-free Kitchens...

[wonkabar]

Hi! My 3 year old son has been on a gluten-free diet since March and is doing soooooooo well on it! We couldn't be happier. I know that he's 100% gluten-free in terms of food and "products". I call whoever I need to. If I'm not sure about something I simply won't use it; the alternative isn't pleasant for any of us!

The only thing I know isn't 100% gluten-free is my kitchen. We are extremely careful about cc with utensils, plates/bowls, cups...there's no double dipping going on !! I go through utensils like they're going out of style! When we use the toaster oven or grill we always use foil, and I bake with either cupcake papers or parchment paper. I just stopped using wooden spoons after reading some posts...thanks! But, I don't use dedicated cookware, cooking utensils or cutting boards. I have calphalon cookware and either use metal or the black plastic/teflon cooking utensils. I use very HOT water to wash the calphalon as it can't go in the dishwasher, and everything else is essentially hand washed and then put in the dishwasher. Also, I have tons of Pampered Chef stuff. Do the baking stones absorb gluten? What about the plastic baby/toddler plates and bowls? Are they safe, or is cc an issue when they're scratched up? Is there anything I'm missing??? I'm sure I am; there is a major learning curve to all of this! Any kitchen tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

--Kristy

[AndreaB]

Kristy,

I'm sorry I can't help you. I'm new to all of this. My whole family is going gluten free as my son seems to react to the slightest thing with soy or gluten/wheat.

[flagbabyds]

luckily we remoldeled right after i got out of the hospital finally witht he celiac diagnosis, i have my own fridge counter drawers cupboard and everything, so we just got all new cookware and keep it in my drawer so if anyone else is every cooking for me then they know what to use for me, that was also the way for the baby sitters they knew that i could have anything out of my fridge/cupboard or anything on my side of the counter, and this worked well so they were not asking my older sisters all the tiem if they knew if what they were trying to feed me is/is not gluten-free

[aikiducky]

Kristy, to me it sounds like you're doing a really good job already, especially since you say your son is doing well.

Pauliina

[gfp]

All I can say is try as you might you will never stop cross contamination. I have tried it and failed and I am used to working in labs with lethal substances.

I remember cooking pasta one day for a friend while I made mine gluten-free ... seperate spoons and all.

While eating my pasta I found a spirili in my fusilli and it was too late.

I have no idea how it was transferred all I can say is accidents happen regardless of care.

I can give you 1001 potential risks which are all tiny by themselves ... what if one of his friends is over and makes a sandwich and touches a knife to the butter? What if he sleepwalks?

On contamination, the water temperature is irrelevant. Gluten is not alive, its not going to be killed by bleach or hot water. If you even use the same dishwasher you will contaminate the plates. If you use the same pan scrub or dishcloth you contaminate.

The only sure way is to have a 100% gluten-free kitchen..... and I suspect you are beginning to realise this.

You can try all you want with foil in the oven etc. but in the end crumbs are crumbs... and the best way is for the whole family to be gluten-free. Sorry but that is a fact. What you do to deviate from that has risk.. and each thing is a small extra risk. The problem is cooking is something we do several times a day, thousands of times a year and mostly on semi-autopilot. Sooner or later an error will happen. We all take risks everyday, from crossing the street to being hit by lightening ... however the most important thing is to be aware of the risks and make our decisions based on that.

I'm just saying it the way it is. ... even if you decide to buy a new set of pans/bowls and dishcloths you are aware.... buy color coded ones for instance and you control the risks.

[VydorScope]

Hi! My 3 year old son has been on a gluten-free diet since March and is doing soooooooo well on it! We couldn't be happier. I know that he's 100% gluten-free in terms of food and "products". I call whoever I need to. If I'm not sure about something I simply won't use it; the alternative isn't pleasant for any of us!

The only thing I know isn't 100% gluten-free is my kitchen. We are extremely careful about cc with utensils, plates/bowls, cups...there's no double dipping going on !! I go through utensils like they're going out of style! When we use the toaster oven or grill we always use foil, and I bake with either cupcake papers or parchment paper. I just stopped using wooden spoons after reading some posts...thanks! But, I don't use dedicated cookware, cooking utensils or cutting boards. I have calphalon cookware and either use metal or the black plastic/teflon cooking utensils. I use very HOT water to wash the calphalon as it can't go in the dishwasher, and everything else is essentially hand washed and then put in the dishwasher. Also, I have tons of Pampered Chef stuff. Do the baking stones absorb gluten? What about the plastic baby/toddler plates and bowls? Are they safe, or is cc an issue when they're scratched up? Is there anything I'm missing??? I'm sure I am; there is a major learning curve to all of this! Any kitchen tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

--Kristy

Kristy,

Your non-pours cook wear, utensils, and etc will be fine. Stuff like tupperware that gets cuts and groves and nick and dings in it over time can be problematic. Same is true for teflon pots where the coating is wearing off. Also you have to worry about using flour/etc durring cooking since it very easliy gets air born. I would also say use paper towels on your counters to keep the gluten-free stuff off it. Scrubbing your pots/pans/etc is normaly suffucient. Gluten is a simple protein and is easy to remove from non-porus surfaces. You also have to worry about your child getting in the kitchen unattended and getting food he should not. It will happen. Childern can be devious!

MANY MANY ppl here on this forum have non-gluten-free kitchens and do fine. Life is a serius of risks, and you have to decide which ones to accept, and which ones to aviod. EVERY product you buy, reguardless of the gluten free labling has a chance to be contimanated, you can not aviod the CC risk, you can only move it around to where you feel comfortable.

That being siad, we made our house gluten-free for simplicty, and only our son has celiac disease.

[kabowman]

I am the only one in the house (of 5) that is gluten-free. I do NOT have a gluten free kitchen - what I do have is my own personal gluten-free pantry which is very nice - the new house we just moved into about a year ago had two pantries - and my own gluten-free shelf in the 'fridge.

I too go through tons of utensils - better to wash than take a chance. I also clean my counters all the time but I use a rag which I clean non-stop.

You should probably have a separate toaster for gluten-free stuff. I don't know about the baking stoneware but I refused to use it at my sister-in-laws over Thanksgiving because I was concerned. She found me a glass one I could use. If he is sensitive and is not showing symptoms, maybe you don't need to worry. I didn't replace our teflon pots until I started to notice a trend of being glutened whenever I used them. Now I have my own pot and most of our pans are dedicated. I don't worry about stainless steel - those can be shared.

I do have my own pizza pan...don't want to ruin my treat of pizza with getting sick.

Sounds like you are doing a great job and if he is that sensitive, like many of us, you will know when he does get glutened and should be able to back-track to what it was and fix it for the next time.

[par18]

Hi! My 3 year old son has been on a gluten-free diet since March and is doing soooooooo well on it! We couldn't be happier. I know that he's 100% gluten-free in terms of food and "products". I call whoever I need to. If I'm not sure about something I simply won't use it; the alternative isn't pleasant for any of us!

The only thing I know isn't 100% gluten-free is my kitchen. We are extremely careful about cc with utensils, plates/bowls, cups...there's no double dipping going on !! I go through utensils like they're going out of style! When we use the toaster oven or grill we always use foil, and I bake with either cupcake papers or parchment paper. I just stopped using wooden spoons after reading some posts...thanks! But, I don't use dedicated cookware, cooking utensils or cutting boards. I have calphalon cookware and either use metal or the black plastic/teflon cooking utensils. I use very HOT water to wash the calphalon as it can't go in the dishwasher, and everything else is essentially hand washed and then put in the dishwasher. Also, I have tons of Pampered Chef stuff. Do the baking stones absorb gluten? What about the plastic baby/toddler plates and bowls? Are they safe, or is cc an issue when they're scratched up? Is there anything I'm missing??? I'm sure I am; there is a major learning curve to all of this! Any kitchen tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

--Kristy

Hi Kristy,

My wife and I remodeled our kitchen about 6 months before my Dx in May 05. We simply removed almost all gluten from our new kitchen after I found out I had Celiac Disease. I cleaned the toaster ( used high pressure air from compressor in the garage) and no gluten has been inserted in it since. We did not replace a lot of plates, pans etc. and still used the old wooden spoons and tupperware. I have not been glutened one time since almost 13 months on the diet. I think the biggest reason is that almost no gluten ever comes in the house. My wife is very careful and eats almost a 100% gluten-free diet when at home. If I thought there was a chance that something that is in the kitchen would bother me I would get rid of it right now. So far I clean up the same way I did before. I wash a lot of the dishes and cookware by hand. I also do almost all of the cooking. I don't worry about cc at home because I know the enviroment I am working in. If we had a lot of gluten onsite like I'm sure a lot of homes have I probably would have had a problem by now. I spent the first couple of months on the diet being paronoid about everything. After I realized that I could exist in a gluten-free enviroment I relaxed and cooking and eating is business as usual.

The single one thing that I make a habit of in terms of things that I eat is that if I am not 100% sure about how it is made or what it is made of I just don't eat or drink it. Offending a family member or friend because I won't try something does not even come close to being a factor in my decision to abstain. I eat out every now and then (probably once a week) and so far so good.

Sounds to me like you are off to the kind of good positive start that you had hoped for. If you will just use good common sense I am sure you will be fine. Best of luck to you.

Tom

[tarnalberry]

I'm the gluten-free one, my husband isn't. That said, our kitchen is mostly gluten-free, outside of his small shelf (the tall one I can't reach anyway ) for crackers/pancake mix/cereal, his eggo waffles in the freezer, and single cutting board for bread (always left on the counter in one place - the bread/toaster corner) and only ever used for cutting bread.

We have one shared gluten/gluten-free cooking item - the pristine condition non-stick calphalon griddle. Two things are allowed to be cooked on it: pancakes and tortillas, and nary a metal utensile shall come near the thing. If I ever spy a scratch on it (and I check every time I pull it out), I will never use it for gluten-free stuff again.

I would highly encourage you guys to be as gluten free as possible, as it just makes life simpler and further reduces contamination risks. Water temperature doesn't matter - thorough rinsing certainly does. Anything that's got small scratches or pits is going to be hard to rinse well, and subject to contamination, and hence should be replaced. Baking stones, like wooden spoons and wood cutting boards, are porous, and definitely should not be dual-purposed.

By going entirely or almost entirely gluten-free with your kitchen, you won't have to worry as much about silly habits, your child accidentally getting something bad, major contamination, etc. And it's not like you'll necessarily miss out on that much. (I say that because my picky eater of a husband doesn't find it too tricky.)

[gfp]

By going entirely or almost entirely gluten-free with your kitchen, you won't have to worry as much about silly habits, your child accidentally getting something bad, major contamination, etc. And it's not like you'll necessarily miss out on that much. (I say that because my picky eater of a husband doesn't find it too tricky.)

I don't worry about cc at home because I know the enviroment I am working in. If we had a lot of gluten onsite like I'm sure a lot of homes have I probably would have had a problem by now. I spent the first couple of months on the diet being paronoid about everything. After I realized that I could exist in a gluten-free enviroment I relaxed and cooking and eating is business as usual.

I honestly think this is the bottom line.... I enjoy cooking but I couldn't relax if I worried about everything and the easiest thing is just keeping the kitchen 100% gluten-free. My gluten-free has some cookies and the odd thing all in sealed jars but she will always take them away to open.

The more you get into it the more you realise and in terms of not worrying the whole time or blaming yourself if some glutening happens somewhere it just works out much easier. The problem is if you make gluten stuff as a one-off you are careful but when its in the kitchen everyday it just takes one slip.

I buy those industrial sized paper rolls for anything suspect (visitors etc.) so as not to contaminate dishcloths and tea towels etc. Also I like using the magic foam stuff.... I feel if gluten gets into cracks and crevices its brought out by the foam...

[tarnalberry]

The more you get into it the more you realise and in terms of not worrying the whole time or blaming yourself if some glutening happens somewhere it just works out much easier. The problem is if you make gluten stuff as a one-off you are careful but when its in the kitchen everyday it just takes one slip.

This is a good point. Despite the fact that my husband dislikes most gluten-free baked goods (I've found a pancake mix he'll eat with me and a muffin recipe ;-) ), and despite the fact that we have friends over for lunch or dinner _often_, I NEVER cook with gluten. I don't serve it in the house, and go a bit wonky if someone brings over chips or a sandwhich or something that have gluten. That way, I *know* that my kitchen (aside from the odd box of triscuits that I never touch and that my husband munches on at his computer) is safe.

[wonkabar]

Thanks for the tips! I always use papertowels to wipe down the counters, table, stove, etc. I do try to remember to put the gluten free stuff on a papertowel or a clean plate while I'm getting stuff ready. I constantly wash my hands before I handle his stuff. He does have his own cabinet for his snacks and mixes. I am definately going to get a dedicated collander and cutting board. I'm not going to buy new cookware...I don't use anything non-stick to make his stuff. I'm also gonna buy some of the colored storage containers so there's no confusion for anybody else; I really like that idea. Our kitchen, obviously, is 100% gluten-free...we're close though! I'm getting there. Zachary has never had a problem with cc at home since we started the diet in March. Well, except for the quaker rice cake incident, but that's an entirely different story! Should I be concerned about the stoneware if I'm using parchment to bake?? I know that nothing is a guarentee and that cc can happen. I'm just trying to make my kitchen as "safe" as I can.

--Kristy

[penguin]

Should I be concerned about the stoneware if I'm using parchment to bake?? I know that nothing is a guarentee and that cc can happen. I'm just trying to make my kitchen as "safe" as I can.

--Kristy

It's an undertaking!!!

You should be safe using parchment on your baking stones. Since parchment is paper coated with silicon, I don't think any residual gluten should be able to get through that. I use parchment to make pizza on my old stone all the time and haven't gotten sick!