Okay, this is a new page but there are plenty of people asking about “egg free” things that I feel compelled to put this up here though it is incomplete. I will be adding to this as I have time. For now, this is in no particular order.

Updated January 27, 2008.

READ LABELS!

Even if you’ve already read labels and know that a product has been safe in the past, recipes change. I was eating bread with dairy in it every morning for breakfast for about 4 days before I had the sense to check the label to see if per chance the recipe had changed. Sure enough!

Blogs:

Only Sometimes Clever Karen Joy deals with different food allergies at her house. Check out her blog if you are on a gluten-free, dairy-free (GFCF), and/or peanut-free diet. From Karen:

[M]y household is gluten-free, dairy-free (GFCF), and peanut free. We also used to not use soy, carob, tree nuts and citrus, but my 6yo son who has all the digestive problems seems to be tolerating those much better. However, the gluten, dairy and peanut problems will likely remain permanently, barring the miraculous. We are, however, soy-reduced, and use virtually no carob or tree nuts. That’s not the same thing as being “free” from them, though. I guess I’m very hesitantly and slowly putting those things back in our diets

Ray Nwam’s blog contains articles on a variety of allergies, including food allergies.

Dairy:

Learn the different names for dairy.

Oh, incidentally, EGGS ARE NOT DAIRY. I don’t know where this myth started, but I have had college educated people argue with me about this. It is simply not true! Eggs are a byproduct of birds. Dairy is a byproduct of mammals. Don’t be fooled by the fact that eggs are sold in the dairy case. That does not mean they are dairy, just that they are sold in the same section as the dairy. Otherwise a number of other things would also be considered dairy, like o.j., flour tortillas, and refrigerated dough products (many of which contain dairy). **

Non-dairy does NOT mean milk free. Read labels and ask questions!

• Food Allergens’ Other Names

Making instant pudding can be done with rice, soy or other milk-free milk. When you do that, though, you need to reduce the amount of milk. Start with 2/3 the amount called for.

Tofutti makes some great diary substitutes. We like their Better Than Sour Cream, Better Than Cream Cheese, Cuties, and their ice cream substitutes. Their pizza is pretty good, imho. (It is reminiscent of the Chef Boyardee pizza mixes in a box that my babysitter used to make.) I can’t remember if we’ve tried the fudge pop things or not.

Soy Garden* is what we use in place of butter. It melts and tastes like butter. It is also non hydrogenated. I have used it in my vegan buttercream frosting and the frosting is great! *The link goes to the general Earth Balance product page. Earth Balance margarine is NOT milk free. As far as I know, Soy Garden is the only milk free product on that page. I want to clarify that to save you some possible agony.

Some beef bullion is processed on equipment that also processed dairy products so beware. I have not seen any warnings on canned beef broth. Making your own stock is not terribly complicated or time consuming. You just have to have time to chop meat and veggies and to keep your eye on the pot on the stove.

Egg Free:

For baking, if it’s for 1 or 2 eggs, Ener-G Egg Replacer is good. You can also experiment with baking powder and baking soda. For something with more than a couple of eggs, like angel food cake which has 6 - 12 eggs (whites?) or more, you’re going to want to make something else. As far as I know, there is no way to replace that many eggs.

Baking time and temp will need to be altered. Baking longer on a lower temp is a good idea. It seems like 25 degrees F cooler than the temp in your instructions is a good place to start. That’s all I’ll say about that until I try baking something egg free again.

For cooking, eggs can be left out of lasagna and meatloaf. For Lasagna, just don’t add the eggs. For meatloaf, I’d have to ask my Dad what he does. I think he may add extra breadcrumbs or saltines. I’ll ask and revise this.

For scrambled eggs, someone somewhere suggested frying tofu the way that you would fry scrambled eggs. I have tried that and just about blew chunks. The texture was so gross that I was shuddering and gagging for several hours later. That may be a conditioned response due to eggs making me so miserably ill. If someone else wants to give it a try and report back here, that would be great.

For potato salad, we either leave the hard boiled eggs out and go with a potatoey potato salad or use cubed tofu. I love Vegenaise in place of mayo. Homer likes Nayonaise when Miracle Whip type salad dressing is called for.

Check out Jeanette’s website, www.EggFreeBaking.com, for some great recipes. I’ve made the Brown Sugar Shortbread several times now and that recipe is a keeper! I need to check out some of her muffing recipes. She has also published a couple of books that are available for purchase from her site.

Chicken free:

Most people aren’t aware that there is even an allergy to chicken. Well, there is so there ya go! Many times, pork can be used in place of chicken.

I’ve updated this and tried to clean it up but it needs work. Still, I hope this is helpful to someone out there.

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Eosinophilic Disorders:

Though technically EO disorders are not the same as food allergies, I am including these links in honor of our very brave Louisianan friend, Elijah, who has Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis.

American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders

Campaign Urging Research for Eosinophilic Disease

Thanks to the Today Show’s lack of information about EO disorders, there is an extremely long thread with many stories of children suffering with this. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great that they mentioned it at all, but a serious disease like that requires much more information than what was given, imho, much of which can likely also be found here: Eosinophilic Enteropathy and other Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders