Necessary To Replace Pots & Pans & Utensils?

[shirleyujest]

This is beyond my budget. Is this really necessary, and why when I've run everything through the dishwasher to sterilize it? Is gluten really that pernicious or ubiquitous or whatever? If we are unable to afford this will repeated washing get rid of the gluten gremlins?

[Lisa]

Pots and pans need to be replaced only if residual gluten cannot be cleaned. Scratched teflon should be replaced regardless of gluten.

I would invest in a dedicated toaster, cutting board and perhaps a colander and new wooden spoons. Most everything else can be carefully hand washed or run in the dishwasher.

But do remember, gremlins can hide anywhere.

[mamaw]

If your pots & pans are of a porous coating & scratched ( teflon or any no-stick coating ) they need to be replaced.

Stainless steel, ceramic are okay to scrub well.

Sterilizing does nothing for getting rid of gluten. Gluten can hid is small cracks & cervices such as toaster, mixer, bread maker, plastic utensils, wooden cutting boards, plastic measuring spoons & cups.

It is expensive to replace everything at once. I know many of us now get new cookware & such for gifts ie: Christmas, birthday. I'm sure we never would want these gems but now out of necessity for good health & well being we love to get appliances! Funny how an illness can change ones thoughts...

It is not the worth the risk to use things that are scratched......

hth

mamaw

[YoloGx]

cast iron pots and pans can be put through the oven cleaner cycle at 600 degrees to get rid of the old gluten. Yes it really does take a full 600 degrees. Am not sure how long one needs to have it on. I did it for an hour just to make sure. Takes a while for the oven to open afterwards in order to cool off. Then wash the pots and re-season with oil.

Bea

[Asillem4]

Bea, do you know about BBQ grills getting hot enough to kill gluten? My brain says no.

My husband and I have cooked bread on all of our grills and now that I'm not eating gluten, he insists the grill gets hot enough to kill gluten. The problem is, the last two times he's grilled for me I've gotten terrible bloating, pain, and gas like I haven't had in months. I'm exhausted for days after and in a bad mood.

If anyone can give me some scientific evidence that the heat of a BBQ doesn't kill gluten he might believe I'm not a crazy paranoid person. Or maybe I am!

[mouse]

Until someone responds with the answer, you might want to do what I do, when I am eating at friends' home and they are grilling. They always put mine on foil before placing on the grill and use separate tongs for turning.

I do know that in our last home that we had a built-in grill and I did get sick when my husband grilled on it. But, that could also be because we did not use it often and so some gluten was probably still sticking to it. I really don't know. But, when we built this townhome, we bought a new grill and no one is allowed to put anything with gluten on it. They don't get to toast the hamburger buns LOL. If they are that despirate for toasted hamb. buns, they can put them in my husbands toaster. They also know that the buns stay in the kitchen and don't come to the table as I have been cross contaminated by people being careless about passing the buns around. They have to make their sandwiches on the counter and then bring the plate to the table.

Boy, was I a rude hostess - hee, hee.

[Lisa]

Gluten is not something that can be killed. It's a protein. Excess heat may alter the gluten structure, but does not kill it. It can scrubbed and removed.

I would suggest getting new burners or grates for your grill.

[YoloGx]

If somehow you could remove the grill grate and put it in your self cleaning oven at the proverbial 600 degrees that might work--assuming it doesn't warp or melt!!

But then of course there is the matter of the cover too. You might be better off all things considering just getting a new one. Maybe one for you and one for hubby?

Bea

[hadabaday2day]

I replaced everything, but I had scratched teflon anyway, which I knew wasn't safe for anyone. If you have stainless steel it can be scrubbed with steel wool. And so can glassware. If you see those burnt on grease spot on things like casserole dishes, you can bet there is gluten in it. At least scrub well, replace anything scratched like teflon or plastic, replace your toaster and your pasta colander. And it doesn't matter if you sanitize things. Imagine pouring bleach over a piece of bread, it is clean, but it is still a piece of bread with the same protien structure. Sterilizing does nothing.

And I did buy a new BBQ grill, but they make reusable metal grates and foil grates or just use foil over your existing grate.

[Asillem4]

Thank you all so much for your advice / experience stories. I told my husband about putting foil on the grill for me when he cooks. I had suggested that before but he said it was not necessary. Maybe he'll believe you ladies!

Someday I'll have my own toaster, cooking spoons, etc. When we build our house, I'm going to insist on certain things and one will be my own area of the kitchen where breads and other gluten items are NEVER allowed.

Cross contamination can wipe out all our best efforts to stay healthy! I had a young man scooping ice cream onto plates with cake on them the other night at my daughter's graduation party. Thankfully the cake was red velvet so I could easily see it in the ice cream when I went to scoop my own. I was amazed at his sloppiness. I know it wasn't an attempted terrorist attack but try telling my body that if I'd eaten any of those crumbs.

I wish, wish, wish my whole family would go gluten free. All of my daughters have digestive and skin issues but none of them are willing to get tested. My husband has digestive issues almost daily and has occasional skin eruptions. I know a gluten free diet would help all of us out and eliminate cross contamination issues.

[YoloGx]

Just wanted to say they now have these awesome gluten free cake mixes you can buy. You can't tell the dif. with regular cake. Try it. Bring the cake next time, you will be glad you did! I just wish I could handle sugar etc. but that is a different story.

Bea

[samcarter]

We just replaced all our old Teflon pans this weekend. For a while i'd wanted to do this--we had one saucepan that was so scratched and worn away I was sure I could never really get it clean, so I scoured and boiled the smaller saucepan and used that for any gluten-free stuff.

But now we have stainless steel, which, as has been pointed out, has no Teflon nasties and can be scrubbed or even put in the dishwasher, according to the manufacturer (Calphalon is the brand I have).

I was worried about not being able to cook scrambled eggs, but I made the BEST scrambled eggs ever in my new stainless steel pans. Just by following the instructions in the owner's instructions.

I haven't replaced my toaster, only because i just don't toast gluten-free bread, really. If I were to replace it I would get a toaster oven, because it's easier to get crumbs out of those. If you Google "toaster bags" you can find toaster bags to put gluten-free bread in so you can safely toast bread in a non-gluten-free toaster.

I would also definitely get a separate colander--so you can rinse fruit, or drain gluten-free pasta, that sort of thing---and get it in a different color and mark it clearly "GLUTEN FREE".

[shirleyujest]

Thank you for the input everybody! I'm going to get new items little by little in the meantime just use my non-porous items.

[zero]

I'll provide the contrarian view point.

I am not concerned about using the cooking utensils, pots and pans from before I was diagnosed. I cleaned them thoroughly and if there is any gluten left in the pores it is of a finite amount and it could gluten me at most a few times before it is gone. It helps to be aware of what is too much based on both short term symptoms and long term risk. The average person is diagnosed after 9 years or so and for me it was at least a couple of years so this was an acceptable risk.

That being said, I would not use the cooking utensils and so forth for gluten one day and non-gluten the next. Divide them up and keep it that way.

[YoloGx]

I'll provide the contrarian view point.

I am not concerned about using the cooking utensils, pots and pans from before I was diagnosed. I cleaned them thoroughly and if there is any gluten left in the pores it is of a finite amount and it could gluten me at most a few times before it is gone. It helps to be aware of what is too much based on both short term symptoms and long term risk. The average person is diagnosed after 9 years or so and for me it was at least a couple of years so this was an acceptable risk.

That being said, I would not use the cooking utensils and so forth for gluten one day and non-gluten the next. Divide them up and keep it that way.

Most people find that cleaning the normal stainless steel pot one used previously for gluten is just fine. I have even done well when someone at a Thai restaurant just thoroughly cleaned their aluminum pots. Its the baked on stuff on glass that is hard to get rid of in my opinion as well as of course porous surfaces like Teflon. Fortunately the iron pots and pans can be salvaged by putting in a self cleaning oven (600 degrees)and then washing the powder off. I had to get rid of my wooden bowls and chopping block etc. of course...

[stillclueless]

I'll provide the contrarian view point.

I am not concerned about using the cooking utensils, pots and pans from before I was diagnosed. I cleaned them thoroughly and if there is any gluten left in the pores it is of a finite amount and it could gluten me at most a few times before it is gone. It helps to be aware of what is too much based on both short term symptoms and long term risk. The average person is diagnosed after 9 years or so and for me it was at least a couple of years so this was an acceptable risk.

That being said, I would not use the cooking utensils and so forth for gluten one day and non-gluten the next. Divide them up and keep it that way.

You don't sound contrarian to me. We've pretty much divided pans and kept it that way. In an "emergency" I'll wash the cake pans really, really well and protect with parchment paper. I absolutely have my own gluten-free toaster which is kept on the opposite side of the counter. Someone wrote that they don't often toast gluten-free bread; I would highly recommend toasting to improve taste and texture! I was so very careful for two years and still was not doing as well as I had hoped; the culprit was a daily medication that had to be traded for a gluten-free variety. Accidental contamination happens rarely, but when it does, I'm down for about 3-5 days. Anything in the kitchen that can't be thoroughly cleaned has been replaced - it just isn't worth the risk to me.