The Milk-Free Kitchen: Living Well Without Dairy Products

The Milk-Free Kitchen: Living Well Without Dairy Products

The Milk-Free Kitchen: Living Well Without Dairy Products

The Milk-Free Kitchen: Living Well Without Dairy Products

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Overview

Here is the only all-purpose, appetizers-to-candy cookbook for the millions of Americans who must avoid having milk and milk products in their diets. Included here are many easy-to-follow recipes for baked goods (which are usually laden with dairy products) for the lactose intolerant or milk-allergic sufferer who must either learn to bake milk-free or go without cakes, cookies, pies, muffins, biscuits, and puddings. The appendix also lists recipes for baked goods that are egg-free.

"Most people who deal with food intolerances day in and day out become pretty good 'scratch' cooks. I wrote this book as an all-occasion cookbook. The idea is to give you lots of choices. The Milk-Free Kitchen is focused on all the things you can have. The idea behind every recipe here is that the food should taste good. I hope you will enjoy your milk-free meals and that you and the people with whom you share them will not feel deprived or 'different'"—Beth Kidder


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781429932325
Publisher: Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 09/15/1991
Sold by: Macmillan
Format: eBook
Pages: 480
Sales rank: 955,352
File size: 518 KB

About the Author

Beth Kidder lives in central Illinois and has worked as a research technician. She is the mother of two grown children, both of whom are allergic to milk.


Beth Kidder, author of The Milk-Free Kitchen, lives in central Illinois and has worked as a research technician. She is the mother of two grown children, both of whom are allergic to milk.

Read an Excerpt

The Milk-Free Kitchen

Living Well Without Dairy Products


By Beth Kidder

Henry Holt and Company

Copyright © 1991 Beth Kidder
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-3232-5



CHAPTER 1

Living with Allergies

People with allergies live in a somewhat different world from the ordinary. Whereas a heart patient can have occasional small amounts of saturated fat without any ill effects, someone who is allergic to a food will know soon and painfully if he or she ate the wrong thing.

Living with food allergy implies a whole different way of looking at food. Constant vigilance becomes second nature. People with food allergies have difficulty at buffet meals and learn either to eat beforehand or else contribute a dish. Scrutinizing salads and examining unfamiliar stews become automatic.

If you are sensitive to nuts and you mistakenly eat some, your reaction to this accidental dose will range from a mildly upset stomach to something that sends you to the emergency room and might even kill you. Milk presents essentially the same problems as nuts do, except that milk is more widely used in western food than are nuts, and once food has been stirred the milk disappears from sight. I have learned these things as the wife of a man who is severely allergic to nuts and as the mother of two children who became severely allergic to cows' milk in their late teens, and it has colored the way I think about food.

With most allergies all you need to do is avoid the offending substance — eliminating nuts or chocolate from your diet, or keeping away from dogs, or staying indoors during ragweed season, isn't going to hurt you. However, in our culture milk is the main source of valuable nutrients such as calcium and phosphorus (not getting enough of them will hurt you) and you must find out how to deal with this. You will probably need to take calcium pills. It is important for you to get advice from a physician or dietitian.

CHAPTER 2

Living Well Without Milk or Milk Products

A certain amount of reeducation of the taste buds takes place in the person with a newly discovered allergy. Any liking for milk products vanishes when you realize that they can cause painful symptoms.

Most people who deal with food intolerance day in and day out become pretty good "scratch" cooks. Since allergists and other physicians very seldom cook for a family, don't be surprised if your physician thinks that he's helped you enormously by giving you a list of foods to avoid and a booklet given to him by a manufacturer of milk-free infant formula. I wrote this book as an alloccasion cookbook. The idea is to give you lots of choices.

This book is focused on all the things you can have.

The idea behind every recipe here is that the food should taste good. I hope you will enjoy your milk-free meals and that you and the people with whom you share them will not feel deprived or "different."

All of the recipes here can be used by someone who is allergic to cows' milk (and only cows' milk). Since a few of the recipes use cheese made from goats' or sheep's milk, someone who is lactose-intolerant may not be able to use these few recipes; however, such a person may be able to add some yogurt or well-aged cheese instead.

Since many people who are allergic have allergies to more than one thing, I devised a wide variety of recipes for this book and have suggested ways to vary the ingredients wherever possible. For example, there is a special list of recipes for egg-free baked goods for those who are allergic to eggs.

Warning: It has recently been shown that many raw eggs carry Salmonella, a bacterium that causes food poisoning if you eat the eggs raw or undercooked (still runny). Thoroughly cooked eggs are safe. Eggs that contain Salmonella do not look or smell any different from other eggs; it requires laboratory testing to tell the difference.

A few recipes in this book, such as those for best salad dressing, mayonnaise, and rum frosting are made with raw egg. If you wish to use any of these recipes, either choose another recipe or use eggs that you know to be safe. Lightly cooked foods containing raw eggs, such as lemon meringue pie, boiled frosting, orange sauce, and even french toast may also be unsafe to eat. I developed these recipes before undamaged raw eggs were known to be carriers of disease, and have left them in the book because I hope the day will come when raw or undercooked eggs may once again be safely eaten.

Some recipes are for foods such as beef stew, or hummus, or eggplant dip, all normally made without milk products, to give you a wide variety of choices when planning a meal. There are recipes for items such as meat loaf that are often prepared with milk; the uncooked meat may be mixed with milk or with bread crumbs from a loaf made without milk. I use rolled oats instead of bread crumbs and leave out the liquid altogether. I developed some recipes to replace recipes that depend on milk or cream. For example, try chicken with bacon and sherry as a substitute for chicken sautéed with mushrooms, wine, and cream.

The recipes for baked goods were the most difficult of all to develop, as the lack of milk affects texture and keeping qualities as well as flavor. In creating these I had to change the proportions of all of the ingredients in order to come up with milk-free foods that have good flavor, texture, appearance, and keeping qualities.

I rely for the most part on foods that have been only lightly processed and are in a relatively natural condition — for example, plain wheat flour, but not cake mix.

I try to keep the salt and fat content of foods down but have certainly not eliminated either from my diet or from the book. This means that I trim fat from meat, use mayonnaise and cooking oil sparingly, and balance a rich dish with one or several that are low in fat. I use eggs and sugar in moderate quantities. I believe that sugar is bad only if eaten to the point at which it replaces other foods or stimulates overeating. If you like doughnuts, an occasional one won't hurt your body and will benefit your immortal soul.

CHAPTER 3

Some Special Cases


The Allergic Child

The allergic child presents special problems once he or she is old enough to toddle about and accept cookies and other snacks. Lateon when the child is older he or she will want to behave exactly as "everybody else" does and eat cheese pizza with friends.

Your first step is to alert any adults who may feed your child to the problem, and ask for their cooperation. Grandparents, neighbors, and the school dietitian are a good beginning. Since most people aren't aware of what foods contain milk or are milk products, you should go into some detail: "Jenny can't have milk or any milk products; this means cheese, butter, margarine, ice cream, most baked goods, and many candies. Yes, even a very little milk makes her quite sick."

School lunches should be avoided. Furnish your child with a brown-bag lunch. After-school snacks are best provided by you. Fresh fruit, pretzels, peanuts, little boxes of raisins, homemade cookies, lollipops, apple cider, and lemonade are a few possibilities.

Birthday parties are difficult because cake and ice cream will be on the menu, and such foods as hot dogs or pizza may be served. Call up the parent of the birthday child, explain the difficulty, and offer to supply Tofutti and milk-free cake for your child.

Summer camp or boarding school can be very difficult. You should ask about the possibility of a special diet for your child if you're thinking of having him or her live away from home.


When You're Invited to Dinner at Somebody's House ...

Explain your problem to the hosts when you accept the invitation, and discuss the menu. Usually you'll do just fine with simple changes that can be made only to your serving — cooked vegetables set aside for you before a cream sauce is added, your salad prepared with plain oil and vinegar dressing. You might offer to supply anything you'll eat that would be different from what everybody else is eating, and you can present the party-giver with some milk-free margarine to use in cooking. If everybody else will be having ice cream, bring some Tofutti or plain fruit sorbet.

Potluck suppers are easy. You will of course be bringing a delicious contribution, and you can eat that plus anything else on the table that appears to be milk-free, such as pretzels, pumpernickel bread, clear gelatin salad. You can bring both a dessert and a main dish. When contributing food to a potluck dinner at which some milk-intolerant guest will be present, I label my milk-free contribution "Made without any milk products." Otherwise it will be ignored by the allergic person it's intended to help.

Our experience has been that it is wise to decline brunch invitations.

Sometimes when dining out you will accidentally eat a milk product. You should carry with you any medication that will help to overcome your symptoms.

If you can avoid milk products for months or years, you may become so sensitive to milk's flavor that you can test an unknown food by tasting a tiny amount.


Eating in Restaurants

My son, Douglas, eats a great many business meals in restaurants. Here are some of his suggestions.

When ordering, tell the waiter or waitress that you must not eat any milk, cream, butter, cheese, or margarine because you are allergic to them. Ask questions about all the foods you plan to order.

Choose Asian foods or an Asian restaurant whenever possible; people from the Far East use little or no milk in cooking. However, some trendy Chinese restaurants use milk products, and dim sum and other appetizers may contain butter or cream cheese.

Truly kosher fleishig restaurants are an excellent choice. A kosher restaurant will serve only fleishig or only milchig food so if the restaurant serves meat (fish is pareve and doesn't count), it will be safe for you to eat there. Kosher-style is not the same thing as kosher, it is imitation kosher. See here for an explanation of kosher food.

In good Mexican restaurants — not the fast-food variety — the cheese or sour cream will usually be clearly visible and therefore easily avoidable. Beans, especially refried beans, may be prepared with a milk product. Fajitas are a good choice.

You should avoid French and Italian restaurants, although good Italian restaurants may use olive oil instead of butter if requested to do so.

Indian restaurants are not a good choice. They use a great deal of yogurt and ghee (clarified butter) in cooking, and since the dishes are very complex, it is nearly impossible to tell by inspection what's in them.

Plain American cooking is a good bet. If there is milk or cheese in a main dish, you will often be able to see it. Fruit pie is usually milk-free in less expensive restaurants, but a good restaurant or home cook may use milk products in the crust or dot the filling with butter before putting on the top crust. Avoid "French" or "Dutch" fruit pies.

Grill restaurants or the grill side of a menu are good choices. Ask the waiter to have your meat, fish, or chicken cooked with oil instead of butter or margarine. However, you must ask questions. Local cooking tradition may dictate that the chicken or fish be soaked in milk before it's grilled or fried.

Fast-food places are poor choices for people with food allergies. The person who serves you may not know what is in the food. Generally speaking, the hamburgers are milk-free but the hamburger buns are made with milk.

Dark beer may cause problems for you. Some mixed drinks are made with cream, and so are some liqueurs.

Breads served in restaurants are usually milk-free, and rye bread is nearly always milk-free. Whole-grain breads are more apt to be milk-free than are white breads. Avoid muffins and other quick breads.

Pass up appetizer dips, and stick to nuts or pretzels. Many restaurants stir sour cream into their guacamole. Since many sheep's- or goats'-milk cheeses are made partly with cows' milk it is best to avoid them, but see the list.

Clear soups are usually a good choice; of course you should avoid cream soups, chowders, and French onion soup with cheese floating on top. Although homemade bean soups are usually made without milk, restaurant bean soups often contain milk products.

A salad of mixed greens is probably safe for you to eat; any bits of cheese should be easy to see if you look closely. Beware of croutons since they may have been flavored with cheese or fried in butter. Ask to have the dressing served on the side so that you can take a small taste, or ask for a bottle of oil and one of vinegar to dress the salad yourself. Or omit the dressing entirely and sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the greens; undressed, lightly salted salad is surprisingly good.

Avoid fried foods that have been rolled in crumbs or dipped in batter. Avoid complex dishes such as stews, meatballs, pasta, and any other sauced dishes. Steak or roast beef or boiled ham served plain probably holds no milky surprises.

Sandwiches made on rye bread or French bread are usually a good choice. Avoid any sort of salad sandwiches and choose instead ham, pastrami, or other plain meat.

Pasta salad often contains milk products. Potato salad is usually milk-free but may be unsafe at restaurants. Be wary of coleslaw.

Some items labeled nondairy, such as coffee whitener, contain milk products, so read labels carefully.

It is a good idea to skip dessert, unless plain fruit is available.

Airlines will supply a milk-free meal if you request it. Since this meal is apt to consist mostly of lettuce with a few carrot sticks, it is very dull indeed. Choose instead chopped steak (hamburger) or chicken and scrape off any coating or stuffing. Avoid fish.

It is nearly impossible to avoid milk products in college dining halls because they are likely to buy food preprocessed in large containers. The best solution might be for you to live someplace off campus where you can do your own cooking.

CHAPTER 4

Cooking Without Milk


Substitutes for Milk and Milk Products

Cooking is fun, and cooking around a milk allergy can be an interesting challenge. Here are suggestions for substitutions so that you can adapt recipes to make them milk-free.

Instead of milk, use water, fruit juice, wine, liqueur, soy milk, coconut milk (see here), canned or fresh tomatoes (in soups or stews), beef broth, chicken broth. In baked goods use water plus egg plus sugar, or milk-free infant formula.

Instead of cream, use fruit juice, wine, liqueur, a dessert sauce, a milk-free nondairy creamer. In baked goods or frostings try egg or milk-free margarine.

Instead of whipped cream, use softened tofu-based ice cream substitute, fruit cream, a milk-free nondairy whipped topping, a dessert sauce.

Instead of cream cheese or sour cream, use soft tofu beaten with a little lemon juice and mayonnaise, milk-free margarine, mayonnaise.

Instead of butter, use oil or milk-free margarine (see here). Do not use oil for baking except as specified.

Instead of ice cream, use tofu-based ice cream substitute (like Tofutti or Tofulicious), milk-free sherbet, fruit cream.

If you can't find a substitute for an ingredient, sometimes the opposite of what the recipe calls for can be used; for instance, chicken broth or wine instead of cream in beef strogonoff. Cream thickens and smooths a sauce; wine or broth will thin it and sharpen the flavor. I was happy to find my milk-free recipe for beef strogonoff an improvement over the traditional version using sour cream.


First the Bad News ... Foods to Avoid

You may not recognize some of these milk products, such as whey, or sodium caseinate, which are not sold as such at your local supermarket. They are contained in processed foods like bread, TV dinners, or chocolate chips. The only reliable way to find out whether a food contains them is to read the label on the package.

Butter
Butterfat
Buttermilk
Cheese, but see pages
17 to 18.
Curds
Cream
Ghee
Ice cream
Ice milk
Milk
Milk fat
Milk solids
Nonfat dry milk
Simplesse, the new artificial
fat substitute, is made of
skim milk and egg whites.
Watch for it as an ingredient
in ice creams and
other desserts.
Sour cream
Whey
Yogurt


Foods Usually Made with Milk or Milk Products

When buying food at a store, read all labels carefully; when eating at a restaurant or a party, ask questions.

Appetizers and dips
Au gratin foods
Batter-dipped fried foods
Beer, dark
Biscuits
Bread and rolls, except for the ones listed as not usually containing milk
Cakes
Candies
Casseroles
Cheesecake
Chicken, fried; sometimes this is soaked in milk before being cooked, and
sometimes it's coated with milk-containing cracker crumbs or bread
crumbs.
Chocolate (the hot beverage)
Chocolate, milk
Chocolate, semisweet or bittersweet; but sometimes not. Check the label
each time you buy it; at least one manufacturer uses milk products at some
seasons but not at others.
Chocolate, white; it is made from cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids.
Chowder, except for Manhattan clam chowder, which is made with
tomatoes instead of milk
Cocoa (beverage; hot cocoa). Powdered cocoa used in cooking is a
chocolate from which most of the fat, cocoa butter, has been removed. It is
safe for you to eat if it has not been mixed with milk products.
Coconut milk, sometimes (see here)
Cold cuts
Coleslaw
Cookies
Corn chips; many are flavored with cheese.
Crackers, some
Crêpes
Custard
Dips
Doughnuts
Eggnog
Fish, fried
Fritters
Gravy, especially gravy for fried chicken
Kosher food in which the heksher mark is either followed by a D or labeled "milchig"
Margarine, except for a few safe brands; some are listed here.
Mashed potatoes
Mayonnaise; it is sometimes mixed with milk or cream. Meatballs
Meatloaf
Muffins
Omelets
Pancakes
Pastries
Pies with a creamy filling, such as chocolate pie, lemon meringue pie, cream pies, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, squash pie, or sweet potato pie
Potato chips flavored with cheese or sour cream
Potato salad
Puddings
Salad dressings, especially creamy dressings
Sauces, creamy
Sausages, including frankfurters and lunch meat
Scalloped anything
Sherbet
Soufflés
Spaghetti sauce; it's often made with cheese.
Tortilla chips
Turkeys, self-basting (whether these turkeys contain milk products varies)
TV dinners and other convenience foods
Vegetables, cooked; they are often tossed with butter. Waffles


(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Milk-Free Kitchen by Beth Kidder. Copyright © 1991 Beth Kidder. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents

Title Page,
Preface,
Introduction,
Living with Allergies,
Living Well Without Milk or Milk Products,
Some Special Cases,
Cooking Without Milk,
Appetizers,
Soups,
Fish and Shellfish,
Meat,
Poultry,
Gravy and Other Sauces,
Dried Beans,
Pasta and Pizza,
Eggs, Granola, and Sandwiches,
Pancakes and Waffles,
Vegetables,
Grains, Rice, and Potatoes,
Salads and Salad Dressings,
Some Friendly Advice on Baking,
Brads and Rolls,
Quick Breads and Coffee Cakes,
Muffins and Biscuits,
Doughnuts,
Fruit Desserts and One Mousse,
Pies,
Cookies,
Cakes,
Baked and Steamed Puddings,
Frostings,
Dessert Sauces,
Candy,
Beverages,
Beth Kidder - A Holt Paperback Henry Holt and Company New York,
Appendix,
Index,
Copyright Page,

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