I love you, but your food makes me sick
February 18, 2010 8:33 AM Subscribe
How do I keep my food gluten-free when sharing a kitchen and eating space with a gluten lover?
For the first time since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease and Dermatitis Herpetiformis I am no longer living the bachelorette life. My significant other and I moved in together a month ago and so far we really dig this cohabitation thing.
I'll admit right off the bat that I'm pretty sure we did this wrong. We just put all the food together, regular and gluten-free, in the same relative spaces. Utensils, pots and pans are used in preparing both kinds of foods. I used my breadmaker and to make gluten-free loaves and regular ones. We're pretty good about keeping crumbs out of condiments and wiping down surfaces, but wouldn't you know it, two days ago I had a nasty case of "oh-crap-I-got-glutened."
So that didn't work. The obvious solution would be to make our house a gluten-free sanctuary, but my SO is a lover of all types of breads and pasta. It would be cruel of me to condemn him to gluten-free breads. And, to be honest, I'm really interested in the science of bread making, so I like baking fancy breads (even if I can't eat them).
What we need is more education on keeping our respective tummies happy:
- Which types of utensils can be shared? Can we share the breadmaker? How about a pizza stone? Cutting board? Toaster? Toaster oven?
- What materials need to be dedicated gluten-free (metal, wood, plastic, stone, silicone, etc.)?
- Are there any cool gadgets or tools that will help? I live in Fargo, ND but am no stranger to online shopping and I'm planning a trip to Ikea soon.
- Are there any books or blogs out there that have guidelines on this topic? (I have already read this one and this one.)
- If you have a similar situation, what works for you?
For the first time since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease and Dermatitis Herpetiformis I am no longer living the bachelorette life. My significant other and I moved in together a month ago and so far we really dig this cohabitation thing.
I'll admit right off the bat that I'm pretty sure we did this wrong. We just put all the food together, regular and gluten-free, in the same relative spaces. Utensils, pots and pans are used in preparing both kinds of foods. I used my breadmaker and to make gluten-free loaves and regular ones. We're pretty good about keeping crumbs out of condiments and wiping down surfaces, but wouldn't you know it, two days ago I had a nasty case of "oh-crap-I-got-glutened."
So that didn't work. The obvious solution would be to make our house a gluten-free sanctuary, but my SO is a lover of all types of breads and pasta. It would be cruel of me to condemn him to gluten-free breads. And, to be honest, I'm really interested in the science of bread making, so I like baking fancy breads (even if I can't eat them).
What we need is more education on keeping our respective tummies happy:
- Which types of utensils can be shared? Can we share the breadmaker? How about a pizza stone? Cutting board? Toaster? Toaster oven?
- What materials need to be dedicated gluten-free (metal, wood, plastic, stone, silicone, etc.)?
- Are there any cool gadgets or tools that will help? I live in Fargo, ND but am no stranger to online shopping and I'm planning a trip to Ikea soon.
- Are there any books or blogs out there that have guidelines on this topic? (I have already read this one and this one.)
- If you have a similar situation, what works for you?
Different, but - I have a life-threatening nut allergy, my husband do not. We don't have separate anything. After all, do you eat out at a restaurant? There's no way they have separate utensils for different dietary conditions.
You need to make it easy on yourself, to reduce risk AND reduce worry. Out of respect for me, he eats fewer nuts, out of respect for him, since he's diabetic, I bring much less sugar into the house. Have your SO consider mixing up their diet with more gluten free stuff.
posted by wingless_angel at 9:12 AM on February 18, 2010 [1 favorite]
You need to make it easy on yourself, to reduce risk AND reduce worry. Out of respect for me, he eats fewer nuts, out of respect for him, since he's diabetic, I bring much less sugar into the house. Have your SO consider mixing up their diet with more gluten free stuff.
posted by wingless_angel at 9:12 AM on February 18, 2010 [1 favorite]
If you use clear glass plates it's easier to be sure whether or not they are clean.
I don't think you should share a toaster. They're usually full of crumbs, and the crumbs bounce around. Separate sifters would be important, because those don't always seem to get really clean. Get a cutting board that's a different color, for gluten-free use only. Watch out for crumbs that have fallen in the silverware drawer.
I'd want a separate jar of sugar in case a contaminated measuring cup gets used in the sugar (I had to get a new bag of sugar to bake with for a celiac relative, a couple of months ago, after realizing that I might have done this myself one tired day.) Probably a separate jar of jam and of peanut butter, in case bread crumbs get carried in on a knife.
posted by Ery at 9:19 AM on February 18, 2010
I don't think you should share a toaster. They're usually full of crumbs, and the crumbs bounce around. Separate sifters would be important, because those don't always seem to get really clean. Get a cutting board that's a different color, for gluten-free use only. Watch out for crumbs that have fallen in the silverware drawer.
I'd want a separate jar of sugar in case a contaminated measuring cup gets used in the sugar (I had to get a new bag of sugar to bake with for a celiac relative, a couple of months ago, after realizing that I might have done this myself one tired day.) Probably a separate jar of jam and of peanut butter, in case bread crumbs get carried in on a knife.
posted by Ery at 9:19 AM on February 18, 2010
My wife is celiac and we don't do anything separately. Gluten is not a disease that spreadsby contact. All you have to do is wash a utensil like normal.
posted by sanka at 9:21 AM on February 18, 2010
posted by sanka at 9:21 AM on February 18, 2010
Ok. My ex had d.h. (although I never lived with her), so I know what that's about. I myself have been gluten-free for 6 years, although I do not have the problem you have. I suspect that it's all going to depend on how sensitive you in particular are to gluten. Everyone is different.
Some people wig out when they get the gluten in close proximity to them (although personally in those cases I suspect they might also have some kind of grain allergy on top of gluten sensitivity, since as far as I know, celiac and d.h. symptoms only present when you eat the stuff, not just touch it or inhale a little bit of dust. But I could be completely wrong.)
I would suggest not using the bread maker or toaster for both gluten-free and glutinous breads, for starters. And don't keep glutinous and gluten-free stuff in the same containers together. I don't see how you could avoid every crumb of one getting in with the other. And since you have d.h., it's clear when you get 'hit' with gluten - whereas it is not always so clear for us 'regular' celiacs. I'm pretty sure if you're washing plates and utensils properly before you eat on them, you're fine.
If it keeps happening, get more extreme from there in terms of food separation.
posted by bitterkitten at 9:26 AM on February 18, 2010
Some people wig out when they get the gluten in close proximity to them (although personally in those cases I suspect they might also have some kind of grain allergy on top of gluten sensitivity, since as far as I know, celiac and d.h. symptoms only present when you eat the stuff, not just touch it or inhale a little bit of dust. But I could be completely wrong.)
I would suggest not using the bread maker or toaster for both gluten-free and glutinous breads, for starters. And don't keep glutinous and gluten-free stuff in the same containers together. I don't see how you could avoid every crumb of one getting in with the other. And since you have d.h., it's clear when you get 'hit' with gluten - whereas it is not always so clear for us 'regular' celiacs. I'm pretty sure if you're washing plates and utensils properly before you eat on them, you're fine.
If it keeps happening, get more extreme from there in terms of food separation.
posted by bitterkitten at 9:26 AM on February 18, 2010
One of my roommates has some kind of gluten intolerance (not celiac, but some kind of wheat allergy). We have a toaster and a toaster oven. She doesn't use the toaster, and the rest of the roommates agree to only use the toaster oven for non-bread items (like baking chicken). We share the knives and utensils and the blender and food processor, pizza stone and cutting board, but we obviously wash/wipe them after using them. The only thing we keep separate is food. We keep all of our bread, pasta, sauces, whatever in certain parts of the fridge and kitchen, and she has her own drawers and cabinets that she keeps things in, and we don't usually mix.
She hasn't complained about being sick yet (except from accidentally eating something she shouldn't, like trying somebody's food when offered without thinking).
posted by bluefly at 9:35 AM on February 18, 2010
She hasn't complained about being sick yet (except from accidentally eating something she shouldn't, like trying somebody's food when offered without thinking).
posted by bluefly at 9:35 AM on February 18, 2010
My senior year of college two of my housemates had Celiac Disease, while the rest of us loved gluten and loved baking. I'm not sure if our way was the best way, but it seemed to work.
- We each had our cupboard to store our stuff, and we would have done the same thing if 2 people hadn't been GF, but it's probably good to store things like flour in its paper bag tends to leak and spread on there own. Or just put flour in ziploc bags/dry storage containers where they won't dust all over. Also if you aren't super vigilant having separate baking powder/soda, sugar, etc. is probably good to avoid cross-contamination while baking.
- We had separate jam, peanut butter, and butter. Maybe it's because we were lazy college students but we all liked to spread condiments on bread, and then go back for more with the same knife so there were always crumbs in things.
- Kitchen utensils and pots and pans were all shared. This included pretty much every material - bamboo, silicon, metal, plastic, etc. We tried to keep them clean but again, we were lazy college students, so the GF people would sometimes re-wash them if they weren't certain. This was all hand-washing though, I don't think it'd be an issue with a dishwasher.
- At some point there were separate cutting boards (both for vegetarian vs. meat and GF vs. gluten). I don't remember if that lasted though. Probably not.
- We only had a toaster over, not a toaster, which I think was a good choice. Everyone put their own food, whether GF or not, on a piece of aluminum foil so we didn't have to wash the rack every time we used it. This seemed to work. We didn't have a pizza stone, so I don't know if it would be a problem or not, but even as a gluten-baker I usually have a piece of parchment paper between the stone and the food, which would solve the problem if there even was one.
Good luck!
posted by radiomayonnaise at 9:47 AM on February 18, 2010
- We each had our cupboard to store our stuff, and we would have done the same thing if 2 people hadn't been GF, but it's probably good to store things like flour in its paper bag tends to leak and spread on there own. Or just put flour in ziploc bags/dry storage containers where they won't dust all over. Also if you aren't super vigilant having separate baking powder/soda, sugar, etc. is probably good to avoid cross-contamination while baking.
- We had separate jam, peanut butter, and butter. Maybe it's because we were lazy college students but we all liked to spread condiments on bread, and then go back for more with the same knife so there were always crumbs in things.
- Kitchen utensils and pots and pans were all shared. This included pretty much every material - bamboo, silicon, metal, plastic, etc. We tried to keep them clean but again, we were lazy college students, so the GF people would sometimes re-wash them if they weren't certain. This was all hand-washing though, I don't think it'd be an issue with a dishwasher.
- At some point there were separate cutting boards (both for vegetarian vs. meat and GF vs. gluten). I don't remember if that lasted though. Probably not.
- We only had a toaster over, not a toaster, which I think was a good choice. Everyone put their own food, whether GF or not, on a piece of aluminum foil so we didn't have to wash the rack every time we used it. This seemed to work. We didn't have a pizza stone, so I don't know if it would be a problem or not, but even as a gluten-baker I usually have a piece of parchment paper between the stone and the food, which would solve the problem if there even was one.
Good luck!
posted by radiomayonnaise at 9:47 AM on February 18, 2010
Best answer: My daughter and I are Celiac's and my hubby and sons are not. It's just plain too expensive for all of us to be gluten free, so I know where you're coming from.
We keep two kinds of condiments. I put a great big X on the 'boys' stuff and a GF on the 'special' stuff. This is only for things that you have to dip a knife in: Mayo, butter, cream cheese, peanut butter, jam, etc. Things in a squeeze bottle are shared. If the boys run out of something they are allowed one dip with a clean knife and that's it, no spreading and then dipping again. If you don't want to buy two of everything, you could get some small plastic containers, and when you get a new bottle just separate it.
If a dish, pan, or utensil has been washed then it's been de-glutened and there is no problem. I would be cautious with wooden cutting boards though, you might want to get your own plastic one.
Get your own toaster. We picked up a cheap one at Target for $12. It is worth the loss of counter space. Don't make bread of both kinds in the bread maker. It needs to be either gluten-free or not. If I bake something now it's gluten-free, so we don'l keep any wheat flour in the house. I'm too afraid that it would get everywhere.
At our house breakfast and lunch are segregated. My sons have 'regular' cereal, and my daughter has her 'special' cereal. At lunch I make my daughter a sandwich on her gluten free bread, using the gluten free condiments. Then I make my sons' so that their crumbs don't get all over. Speaking of crumbs, I am really careful to wipe down the counters after.
Dinner is totally gluten-free. I am not a short order cook! There really hasn't been much of a difference in our dinners except that we eat more rice now, and less processed foods. Occasionally we make pizza, and in that case we make the GF one first, then the 'regular' one. Or we use separate pans. You can share your pizza stone as long as it gets washed in between, or you use it first. Same goes for the toaster oven pan. If I'm making grilled cheese or something like that on the griddle I just make the GF stuff first then wash it after dinner.
posted by TooFewShoes at 9:51 AM on February 18, 2010 [1 favorite]
We keep two kinds of condiments. I put a great big X on the 'boys' stuff and a GF on the 'special' stuff. This is only for things that you have to dip a knife in: Mayo, butter, cream cheese, peanut butter, jam, etc. Things in a squeeze bottle are shared. If the boys run out of something they are allowed one dip with a clean knife and that's it, no spreading and then dipping again. If you don't want to buy two of everything, you could get some small plastic containers, and when you get a new bottle just separate it.
If a dish, pan, or utensil has been washed then it's been de-glutened and there is no problem. I would be cautious with wooden cutting boards though, you might want to get your own plastic one.
Get your own toaster. We picked up a cheap one at Target for $12. It is worth the loss of counter space. Don't make bread of both kinds in the bread maker. It needs to be either gluten-free or not. If I bake something now it's gluten-free, so we don'l keep any wheat flour in the house. I'm too afraid that it would get everywhere.
At our house breakfast and lunch are segregated. My sons have 'regular' cereal, and my daughter has her 'special' cereal. At lunch I make my daughter a sandwich on her gluten free bread, using the gluten free condiments. Then I make my sons' so that their crumbs don't get all over. Speaking of crumbs, I am really careful to wipe down the counters after.
Dinner is totally gluten-free. I am not a short order cook! There really hasn't been much of a difference in our dinners except that we eat more rice now, and less processed foods. Occasionally we make pizza, and in that case we make the GF one first, then the 'regular' one. Or we use separate pans. You can share your pizza stone as long as it gets washed in between, or you use it first. Same goes for the toaster oven pan. If I'm making grilled cheese or something like that on the griddle I just make the GF stuff first then wash it after dinner.
posted by TooFewShoes at 9:51 AM on February 18, 2010 [1 favorite]
I know a family that includes one teenager with Celiac and several members who eat gluten. The mom once mentioned that they don't keep separate utensils but nothing that has touched an ingredient or container with gluten ever touches gluten-free ingredients (i.e., if a non-gluten-free family member is making a cake and scoops a cup of flour, that measuring cup goes into the sink and they use a different measuring cup to measure the cocoa powder so that no gluten gets into the gluten-free ingredients). I never realized how second nature it is for me to reuse a measuring cup or leveling knife--it looks clean, I've shaken off (most of) the flour, I'll go ahead and scoop something else. If your SO shares any of my bad kitchen habits, it would be worthwhile to think about human behaviors as well as utensils if you're not keeping two separate kitchens.
posted by Meg_Murry at 9:52 AM on February 18, 2010
posted by Meg_Murry at 9:52 AM on February 18, 2010
Celiac here. I used to live in a shared house with four other people that revolved around cooking and baking. I found that creating a couple of rules (with the agreement of everyone involved) helped my situation immensely.
1) I had my own pasta strainer (for rice pasta), wooden cutting board and wooden utensils. These were hands off for everyone else. (Gluten, sticky molecule that it is, likes to stick into the crevices of the wood)
2) We designated one counter the "baking" counter. Therefore when people were tossing flour around it only stayed in one part of the kitchen, and I didn't do my food prep. there. That's where the bread was stored also. Utensils were not to be dipped in flour and then dipped into other bins (sugar, etc.)
3) We had a dishwasher. To keep dishes from being coated with gluten in the machine, bowls and baking dishes that were "Doughy" had to be hand-washed. That just made sense anyways.
These may sound silly but I went from getting mild attacks every few days to nothing. The rules were reasonable enough that my housemates were happy to follow them. In terms of food storage, nothing was really stored together, but it had been that way prior to my diagnosis.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 9:53 AM on February 18, 2010
1) I had my own pasta strainer (for rice pasta), wooden cutting board and wooden utensils. These were hands off for everyone else. (Gluten, sticky molecule that it is, likes to stick into the crevices of the wood)
2) We designated one counter the "baking" counter. Therefore when people were tossing flour around it only stayed in one part of the kitchen, and I didn't do my food prep. there. That's where the bread was stored also. Utensils were not to be dipped in flour and then dipped into other bins (sugar, etc.)
3) We had a dishwasher. To keep dishes from being coated with gluten in the machine, bowls and baking dishes that were "Doughy" had to be hand-washed. That just made sense anyways.
These may sound silly but I went from getting mild attacks every few days to nothing. The rules were reasonable enough that my housemates were happy to follow them. In terms of food storage, nothing was really stored together, but it had been that way prior to my diagnosis.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 9:53 AM on February 18, 2010
So that didn't work. The obvious solution would be to make our house a gluten-free sanctuary, but my SO is a lover of all types of breads and pasta. It would be cruel of me to condemn him to gluten-free breads. And, to be honest, I'm really interested in the science of bread making, so I like baking fancy breads (even if I can't eat them).
I'm in your SO's position, as Mr. WanKenobi has celiacs. 90% of the time, at home, I don't eat gluten--and certainly not in a form likely to cause cross-contamination (so if I use the toaster with a glutinous product--which happens really rarely--the racks all get a good washing, not just a wipe down. I would definitely not share a bread machine.) I love pasta, but I don't consider this cruel--because, first of all, it's much, much, much easier to eat foods we can both eat, and because secondly, he's so visibly uncomfortable when he gets glutened (usually from eating out--his vice, not mine) that I wouldn't want to cause him that pain.
We pretty much rely on decent gluten-free alternatives. This millet and flax bakery is amazing (and does mail order!), and we both have decent bread, pizza, and bagels from them on a regular basis. And there are really, really good gluten-free pastas out there, particularly if you're not also sensitive to corn (which the mister is--dang). The existence of these products has me feeling not particularly condemned at all. Seriously, it's not the end of the world to have to accomodate the person you love's serious medical condition.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:54 AM on February 18, 2010
I'm in your SO's position, as Mr. WanKenobi has celiacs. 90% of the time, at home, I don't eat gluten--and certainly not in a form likely to cause cross-contamination (so if I use the toaster with a glutinous product--which happens really rarely--the racks all get a good washing, not just a wipe down. I would definitely not share a bread machine.) I love pasta, but I don't consider this cruel--because, first of all, it's much, much, much easier to eat foods we can both eat, and because secondly, he's so visibly uncomfortable when he gets glutened (usually from eating out--his vice, not mine) that I wouldn't want to cause him that pain.
We pretty much rely on decent gluten-free alternatives. This millet and flax bakery is amazing (and does mail order!), and we both have decent bread, pizza, and bagels from them on a regular basis. And there are really, really good gluten-free pastas out there, particularly if you're not also sensitive to corn (which the mister is--dang). The existence of these products has me feeling not particularly condemned at all. Seriously, it's not the end of the world to have to accomodate the person you love's serious medical condition.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:54 AM on February 18, 2010
(But really, for great emphasis: Sami's Bakery. The mister's gone from a skinny little dude before he moved in to a healthy weight and we eat bagels on a regular basis at a decent price. Other gluten free breads depress and horrify me. We are well fed, rather than depressed.)
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:58 AM on February 18, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:58 AM on February 18, 2010 [1 favorite]
My son has celiac - no one else in our household does. We buy wheat bread and cereal and other than that the house is entirely gluten free. While we buy local, artisanal bread I have it sliced in order to reduce the spread of crumbs on surfaces. I am an avid baker but now do no baking with gluten containing ingredients - just easier to not worry about cross contamination. We tend to do things like use a spoon to dip jam out (that then doesn't touch wheat bread) so no contamination. I don't make wheat pasta at home any more but if you're going to have it in the house the one addition I make to the other suggestions is to get separate colanders and strainers - as mentioned above, gluten is a sticky molecule and it hard to get out of those small spaces.
Check out gluten free girl for great recipes. Around here there's a great local list-serve which is mostly focused on the local food scene in terms of shopping, restaurants and the like - gluten free Ann Arbor - maybe there's such a list in your area?
posted by leslies at 1:18 PM on February 18, 2010
Check out gluten free girl for great recipes. Around here there's a great local list-serve which is mostly focused on the local food scene in terms of shopping, restaurants and the like - gluten free Ann Arbor - maybe there's such a list in your area?
posted by leslies at 1:18 PM on February 18, 2010
For bread and other products, check out Kinnickinnick, who are based in Edmonton; their bread is good and they ship really quickly to the US. Glutino is also awesome, particularly on the english muffin and bread front; my boyfriend is gluten-abled (ha!) and he likes it lots, as long as it is toasted (actually, 99% of everything we eat together is gluten-free and he is perfectly happy with it). Both of those brands can be purchased from glutenfree.com.
Actually, on the "recommendations" front, I would advise you to always toast your bread a bit - it tastes way better that way.
Squeeze bottles of condiments are your friends - most of the "usual" stuff comes that way now, and they are pretty hardy against contamination. And be seriously careful about anything that can get crumbs in or on it.
Finally, I would recommend following recipes like those on glutenfreegirl.com and sharing them with everyone you can - it's one way to make them realize that gluten-free food is (or at least can and should be) every bit as tasty as "regular" food and then they will happily eat anything you put in front of them. I am actually MORE into food now, since I put more effort into everything I make and becoming gluten-intolerant has guided me to foods that I might not have known about before that are awesome.
Feel free to MeMail me if you have any specific questions about food types or recipes and I'd be glad to help you out.
posted by urbanlenny at 9:19 AM on February 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
Actually, on the "recommendations" front, I would advise you to always toast your bread a bit - it tastes way better that way.
Squeeze bottles of condiments are your friends - most of the "usual" stuff comes that way now, and they are pretty hardy against contamination. And be seriously careful about anything that can get crumbs in or on it.
Finally, I would recommend following recipes like those on glutenfreegirl.com and sharing them with everyone you can - it's one way to make them realize that gluten-free food is (or at least can and should be) every bit as tasty as "regular" food and then they will happily eat anything you put in front of them. I am actually MORE into food now, since I put more effort into everything I make and becoming gluten-intolerant has guided me to foods that I might not have known about before that are awesome.
Feel free to MeMail me if you have any specific questions about food types or recipes and I'd be glad to help you out.
posted by urbanlenny at 9:19 AM on February 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
They will be able to help you with all the gluten free stuff.
posted by majortom1981 at 9:01 AM on February 18, 2010