Shared Appliances

[amarieski]

I can understand needing a toaster for myself, totally get that one. WHat about baking and cooking my food ina regular conventional oven as long as I use a clean pan or should I get pans just for my food? cooking eggs I would assume I can use a regular frying pan as long as its clean ......I went to make a gluten-free pizza (frozen) and cried bc I didnt know if I could put it in my oven. I know a little silly , I just want to eat something with substance or something that feels normal you know?

Dee

[par18]

Dee,

Basically we just cleaned up the pans and still use the oven. I would get a separate toaster if I were you. Cross contamination can vary with different people. I have had no cc issues. We replaced very few items in the kitchen relying on cleaning everything first and if no problem continue to use those items. I will admit the kitchen itself is gluten free and this is the biggest reason why I believe I have had no issues. If you are having to share certain cooking vessels then maybe some dedicated to you might be a better option.

Tom

[zansu]

look at the utensil in question: are there sharp interior corners or creases or scratches that might hold onto little tiny crumbs? REPLACE

is it a smooth (stainless steel) surface that can be reliably cleaned without any question? KEEP

Wood: very questionable; glass, ceramic: usually safe.

I had one muffin tin that had little grooves around the muffin cups. It's gone. the one piece silicone stayed. one baking sheet/jelly roll pan had folded/creased corners: gone. One was a flat sheet: still here.

We share a toaster oven, but we have 2 wire racks: His is the one with pizza baked on it

Some will tell you get all new. I don't have the $$ Good luck!

[gfp]

look at the utensil in question: are there sharp interior corners or creases or scratches that might hold onto little tiny crumbs? REPLACE

is it a smooth (stainless steel) surface that can be reliably cleaned without any question? KEEP

Wood: very questionable; glass, ceramic: usually safe.

I had one muffin tin that had little grooves around the muffin cups. It's gone. the one piece silicone stayed. one baking sheet/jelly roll pan had folded/creased corners: gone. One was a flat sheet: still here.

We share a toaster oven, but we have 2 wire racks: His is the one with pizza baked on it

Some will tell you get all new. I don't have the $$ Good luck!

You don't need to get new ... you can destroy the gluten with a combination of heat and oven cleaner and good scrubbing BUT if you continue to share it chances are accidents happen.

Some stuff like toasters the pop up sort are uncleanable.... its really not possible to effectively clean one without taking it into its smallest components ... so unless its a really expensive toaster throwing it out is easier than spending 4 hours taking it apart, an hour cleaning and 4 hours working out where all those stupid screws go... !

[amarieski]

Yeah I figured out how to search with "keywords" here yesterday and found some people talking about the issue after I posted, of course !

I do plan on getting these things for myself, knives with reg handles since mine are wood and in a wood holder, a muffin pan, baking sheet and pan, cheap toaster and soon a breadmachine that will cook the bread in it to save some money and space. I already have so many baking supplies and love to bake for my family and friends so I will just have to be careful when baking for them.

I did yesterday find a thread through my figuring how to learn this site, where they mentioned putting tin foil down to cook your food if cooking on a bake pan, so I did that for my pizza, I couldnt do that for cookies though. So my fustration was put aside when I ate the pizza and felt fine but I can say how fustrating this process Im sure has been for some. I give you guys credit. You never know what people go through until you try it yourself. I stil of course consider myself lucky could have been worse. My whole family is filled with auto immune disease unfortunatley so I just kinda made it into the club lol.

So in conclusion thanks to you guys Im learning , and hopefully with time I wont have to be begging for answers, I know how to research but alot on the web doesnt specify which is fustrating, this site is practically a goldmine for people with celiac disease!

all in due time right?

Dee

[kevsmom]

It's a good idea to get a new colander. The gluten is impossible to get out of all of the little bitty holes of your old one.

[gfp]

It's a good idea to get a new colander. The gluten is impossible to get out of all of the little bitty holes of your old one.

Its kinda like the oven though....

If its a cheap collander then its not worth cleaning, you can buy a replacement for a few cents... if its a good one then chances are its stainless or ceramic so you can prety much use the oven cleaner and very high temperature method.... with a wire brush etc.

I already have so many baking supplies and love to bake for my family and friends so I will just have to be careful when baking for them.

Everyone should make up[ thier own minds so I don't want to say what you should and should not do.... I would however say that changing wooden handled knives and stuff is a level of "zero tolerance" or two higher than baking with gluten flour....

I don't want to say its pointless but at the same time unless you are already at the gluten equivalent of DEFCON3 its a nice to do but is so overshadowed by having gluten in the kitchen and constantly recontaminating.....

UGGH... its hard to explain... what I'm trying to say is faced with a choice of replacing my utensils and baking with gluten I would say baking with gluten is pretty much a dead -cert for contaminating yourself and your kitchen if you do it regulary... whereas over time the effect and risk of any contamination on the wooden handled knives and even scratched pans is going to diminish so long as you don't keep recontaminating and having to start again.

One of them gives you a short term safer environment by getting rid of the knives you don't risk contamination but the risk was probably small on each time anyway and each time they are washed it is reduced...

If you do everything else right but have gluten flour in your kitchen you will never really progress....

There are also a whole load of gluten-free baking things that work just as well gluten-free... and some which in my opinion are actually better gluten-free...

An example is carrot cake - gluten-free carrot cake is for me as good as normal carrot cake... with the right mix of gluten-free flours I actually think its better but.... its certainly very very good.

Almond slices.... I find are actually better gluten-free with more ground almond and less flour..(gluten-free or not). and if you make fruit toppings again I find a simple reduction of the fruit in a good desert wine gives a almod slice better you can buy......

[dionnek]

Dee, I have to agree with gfp that if you are still baking with regular flours/mixes then that is much more risky than any of your utensils. I love to bake too, and that was my biggest thing to overcome was how to bake still for other people, but I've learned how to bake gluten-free and everyone loves everything I make (the only way they know it's gluten-free is if I'm eating it)

Also, about getting rid of things, the other thing that you might want to replace is wooden cutting boards/spoons - I've heard that they can soak up the gluten, and they are cheap enough to replace. Also, you might want to think about a toaster oven instead of a toaster - that is what we've always used so when I went gluten-free all I had to do was clean it out (very easy) and now I use foil when I am cooking/toasting something in it (since my whole house is not gluten-free - we still have regular bread, etc. but I don't cook/bake with any of it).

For the cookies, if you want to put something on your pans, use parchment paper. That's actually what I used when I cooked a home made pizza crust (used my old gluten pizza pan but put the parchment paper down on it b/c I wasn't sure about all those little holes!). Good luck!

[amarieski]

haha yeah i thought about baking for others and realized, hell Ill just inhale it all anyway right?

i have a stainless steel collander so yeah should be good i usually scrub it and handwash then d/w anyway so prob safe there lol.

wow i have alot to learn lol. by the time im done I may be 50 though lol

[gfp]

wow i have alot to learn lol. by the time im done I may be 50 though lol

Seriously it gets easier and easier.... once you get a good solid base things start to fall into place....

I know it seems really confusing now.... I realise this talk of CC sounds a bit too much..... but it all falls into place....

We are trying to give you a head start, I'm doing it based on what when I look back I wish I had done.... not what I did!

Boy did I do some stupid stuff back then.... but it didn't seem stupid at the time!