Whether you have celiac disease or any serious gluten intolerance, you should waste no time in refitting your kitchen into a safe place to prepare and enjoy gluten-free foods. Remember, cross-contamination is the unseen enemy of the G-free, and the smallest details do matter.
There are two different lines of attack you can take when G-freeing your kitchen. There’s the all-or-nothing strict No Gluten Allowed approach, and then there’s what I call the modified or compromised G-free kitchen, which harmoniously houses both G-free and gluten-containing foods.
Every once in a while, I think that if I could start from scratch, I would go the white-gloves route: install a gluten alarm on the front door, and permit no gluten inside my house under any circumstances. However, with the ratio of celiac to nonceliac being one to three in my family, I have chosen a compromise instead. Our kitchen, therefore, falls into the modified category, accommodating both the G-free and the G-devotees. (If you are just G-freeing your life gradually, then you can adopt an even more relaxed approach than the one that works for us.)
Sound like a complicated balancing act? Trust me, it isn’t. With a little organization (and half-serious threats!), you can easily stay G-free at home without depriving your loved ones of their favorite glutenous pastas and pizzas. Stick to a few simple guidelines, and you will remain safely G-free.
I am glad there’s no hidden camera in my kitchen, or I might just be mistaken for the most neurotic human being in the history of the universe. That’s because I wash my hands all the time, especially after coming into contact with any gluten-containing products. After making my daughter a sandwich on wheat bread, I wash my hands. After I cut up her chicken finger, I wash my hands. After I make her dessert, I wash my hands. Get the basic idea?
There’s absolutely no reason to go out and buy your own G-free silverware and dishes, but you do need to make certain that everything is washed thoroughly after each use. A dishwasher can be a great tool for keeping your silverware and dishes clean, sterilized, and 100 percent G-free. So far, relying on our dishwasher has worked fine for me: I’ve never had any cross-contamination problems with our silverware or dishes.
This tip is just a logical extension of the last two. If you are preparing glutenous substances in your kitchen, you should wash down your counters and cooking ranges more regularly than seems altogether sane. Do not let any gluten-containing crumbs sneak onto your plate.
While silverware drawers tend to be major crumb collectors, yours should be spic-and-span—and entirely G-free. It does not matter how clean that spoon is when you take it out of the dishwasher. If it comes into contact with invisible breadcrumbs in the silverware drawer, then your next G-free meal might very well leave you groaning.
Location, location, location: If at all possible, avoid positioning your toaster directly over your silverware drawer. Why? Because toasters produce crumbs, and crumbs like to lodge in those little compartments where you store your knives and forks. So if your silverware drawer is right underneath your toaster, it really does not matter how vigilant your family members are: They’ll still be inadvertently sweeping crumbs over your forks and spoons every time they butter their morning bagel. So just play it safe by positioning your toaster as far away from your silverware drawer as you can.
Labeling your special G-free foods is absolutely essential if you are sharing your kitchen with gluten. Before sticking my G-free foods in the fridge, I mark them with little labels with my name on them. (The effect can be pretty bizarre sometimes: it reminds me of a communal college refrigerator, with battling roommates staking out their private culinary territory!) Of course, everyone is always welcome to my food, but my little labels often seem to function like police tape: You can cross that line, but proceed with caution!
Whenever possible, I stock my G-free foods—pastas, dry packaged goods, and dinner ingredients—along with my family’s. But I also have my own little section in our pantry, where I store my Pirate’s Booty and Pamela’s cookies and other favorite snacks. I just find it’s more convenient for me: When a craving seizes me, I don’t have to weed through everyone else’s food before striking gold. I just go straight for the bottom-left-hand corner and dig in!
Bread is easy to keep separate since most G-free breads and waffles have to be kept in the freezer. But try not to keep your food near loaves of gluten-containing bread.
Double-stock any food that you spread across a piece of bread: cream cheese, butter, peanut butter, honey, jams, jellies—anything that a knife would go in. Even if my family and I eat the exact same brand of peanut butter, I always buy two identical containers. After all, it’s often not the actual mustard that’s the problem, but the mustard’s potential contact with gluten.
It’s important to label your spreads, too, so that family members know not to stick their crumb-encrusted knives in there. As with everything else in our kitchen, the entire family is welcome to all of my foods, but I have a strict policy against double-dipping—I will have your head if I see any breadcrumbs in my peanut butter or jelly!
You don’t need to invest in a new set of pots and pans, but I do really recommend keeping two versions of several basic items on hand—one for gluten-containing products, and one reserved exclusively for the G-free. Here are my priorities:
Spatulas: Take a long hard look at that spatula you use to flip your eggs. Peer closely at all the nooks and crevices. Let’s have an honest moment: Do those little stripes in the plastic ever really get clean, or is there always that bit of gunk that lingers even after multiple dishwasher cycles? Exactly what I thought. That’s why I have my own spatula reserved exclusively for G-free foods.
Wooden spoons: The same goes for wooden stirring spoons. Any utensil made out of a porous material like wood can be dangerous, so buy some brand-new stirring spoons and designate them G-free. As always, make sure to label them clearly. Apply this better-safe-than-sorry rule to any utensils that seem difficult to clean. Keeping a few extra spoons around does not take up any room, and the peace of mind is well worth the added effort.
Baking sheets: The baking sheet I use for making cookies with my daughter—or for heating up gluten-containing pizzas—never, ever touches my G-free foods. As with the spatulas and spoons, I just worry that there’s always some residue that never quite comes out. Trust me, you will enjoy your G-free cakes and cookies much more when you are certain that they have been made on their own sheets.
Cutting boards: Keep two cutting boards: one for bread, and one for everything else. I never use the bread cutting board for vegetables, meat, or anything else G-free. Even if your cutting board is straight out of the dishwasher, in my mind, the risk of cross-contamination is still too high.
Colander: Have a strainer to use exclusively for glutenous pasta—and never drain G-free food with it. The starch in pastas creates a filmy residue that’s almost impossible to scrub out entirely, especially on mesh strainers. So err on the side of caution and use your own G-free colander.
Egg pan: Consider buying your own omelet pan, or any sort of small pan reserved exclusively for your eggs. When making eggs, rethink using the butter from the regular family supply, as it’s most likely contaminated.
By making these simple and inexpensive changes, you have successfully deglutened your kitchen. Now it’s time to get cooking!