Thursday, August 24, 2023

Gluten Free Suet Crust

I decided not to go that route. Maybe next time. I was doing both a different version (in two ways) of the onion pie I got from Bird Dog years ago, and a British steak-and potatoes pie divided into two smaller pies. I wondered about lard and GF, and the Englishwoman with the recipe mentioned suet for the crust. I have seldom cooked with lard and never with suet.  The box of King Arthur pie crust mix doesn't mention either, and I can't find someone who has run the experiment.

Whenever things go awry cooking, it is usually because I am making too many changes at once, or trying too many new things.  New things often need to be stared at, which takes time and focus. So I have made the rule never more than one new thing.  I break that continually, of course, but in this case it was going to be five changes already, so I didn't add in a sixth. 

One has to show discipline cooking.

5 comments:

sykes.1 said...

The only people who need to worry about gluten are those suffering from celiac disease, which is less than 1% of the population.

Gluten is the protein that holds bread and other baked goods together. If the flour is gluten free, you have to ask what the manufacturer added to the flour to make it useable.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

If I eat gluten, I get diarrhea. It's a simple as that. I don't know where you get your information, but check the source.

Donna B. said...

I like that 'never more than one new thing' in a recipe. My rule for baking is follow the recipe the first time, then make adjustments. I've used lard but prefer butter. There's only one recipe that I use shortening in. My mother and grandmothers didn't use suet, therefore I don't.

It sounds like you might have a wheat allergy or a gluten sensitivity. It's certainly not celiac if that's your only symptom. That one symptom is certainly enough to avoid it and I would too. Do rye and barley cause the same symptom?

Assistant Village Idiot said...

It's not celiac, because trace amounts don't bother me. I also have advance warning in my stomach that I have just eaten a wheat product, even if I was unaware of it. I have developed several sensitivities over the last few years. My wife has been GF for nearly a decade now. We have a few friends who are full celiac.

I get the same reaction from beer, so I assume barley is a problem even though it has less gluten.

I am not going to bother to try suet. It's English, I didn't grow up with it, I wish them well with it. I have gradually moved away from shortening just on taste.

ColoComment said...

I have developed several sensitivities over the last few years.

...interesting that you say that. I'm 3 months into my 77th year, and it's just been in the last decade (or so) that I've developed allergic sensitivity(ies) to a few ingredients:

1) I used to regularly donate platelets using apheresis, but the sodium citrate used as the anti-coagulant began to generate a wheezing reaction during donation. It appeared cumulative (i.e., got worse over time & additional donations), so I quit donating.

2) A few years ago, after changing my shampoo, shower soaps, laundry detergent, and dryer sheets from "normal" to "sensitive," I confirmed that a then-newly-afflicting body rash was due to, again, the sodium citrate ingredient in those products. Go figure.

3) Although I drank beer, craft beers, and wine all my adult life, those now result in me wheezing like an asthmatic, so I've become a teetotaler (and quite frankly, I don't miss alcoholic beverages at all....)

Life in the "golden years," is such an adventure! :-)