Question for the Chef - milk, vegetarians, and allergies

[Joe Ott]

I was reading a little of your Vegetarian Blog, I was wondering, are you including milk? I admit, I have not read the whole thread so maybe you already mentioned it. Do vegetarians (vegans?) drink milk?

If you had to prepare a meal for a guest that is allergic to milk (allergic to milk proteins-whey & caseins, not lactose intolerance - that's a different animal so-to-speak) how would you prepare the meal? Consider all your ingredients that might contain milk proteins.

Have you ever had to deal with this?

Joe

PS
I know the answer, don't invite those people over

[Jeff Endress]

Joe

My experiment is not strictly vegan (no animal products). I've gone the ovo-lacto, allowing for eggs and dairy.

As for the inquiry, I frankly have not had the issue, but in many cases it may not be possible to substitute for the milk products required due the different manner in which soy milk might behave (or taste) as a part of the recipe. Best bet would to be what I generally do when I'm entertaining friends who are lactose intolerant...simply work from recipes that leave out the dairy. If your proceeding from scratch, it is far easier than if your relying on processed products.

Jeff

[dl meckes]

Bring your magnifying glass and carefully read labels. Even soy cheese can have "illegal" ingredients. All sorts of products use whey.

http://www.foodallergygourmet.com

It's worth it to buy a good cookbook dedicated to the particular group of allergies your friend suffers from. Check Amazon for used versions.

[Jeff Endress]

Bring your magnifying glass and carefully read labels. Even soy cheese can have "illegal" ingredients. All sorts of products use whey

Which demonstrates the real advantage to cooking from scratch, and eliminating, to whatever degree possible, all that processed stuff. It's so much nicer to know that the loaf of bread you baked contains only flour, water, yeast, salt and some partially hydrogenated vegetable oil

I recently was looking at the label of an apple "energy bar" my daughter is fond of. It said' "May contain Apricots". Whaddya mean "MAY"...if the company that produced it doesn't know what in blazes is in it, it would be best to avoid consuming it.

Jeff


Jeff

[dl meckes]

Whey can be found in pasta and unless you're looking for it, you don't think about it.

And no, I still don't have a pasta maker, so...

[Jeff Endress]

DL

You have a pasta maker and don't even know it.

You don't knead ( ) an extruder
Not even a vitantonio machine

All you need is a rolling pin. Just like great Grandma used to use....

Made a great grilled veggie sandwhich for dinner....
Semolina cheese bread, smoked vermont cheddar, grilled portobella mushroom caps, tomato slaces and spouts. Quite filling, hard to get in your mouth.

Jeff