Customer Reviews

Allergy Cooking with Ease: The No Wheat, Milk, Eggs, Corn, and Soy Cookbook

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This book offers so many recipes and substitutes that are near-perfect for those with multiple allergies. I have a child who is allergic to 60 foods - including wheat (and most other grains), sugar, tomatoes, eggs, corn and many more common foods and spices. Other books offer great recipes, but often contain an allergen that I don't know how (or there isn't) a substitute for. If you have only one or two common allergies, you can probably find a book that has great-tasting recipes (and more commonly-found ingredients) that are free of your allergen. But for a child with multiple food allergies - this book has made living with food allergies an easier part of everyday life by offering recipes with similar taste and appearance to what everyone else is eating.

The recipes in this book are good at avoiding most of the allergens listed and would probably best suit people with allergies to grains, gluten, soy and eggs. I bought this book to cook for my toddler who is allergic to dairy and soy thinking that I could substitute any goat's milk with rice milk, but nearly every main recipe includes goat's CHEESE, for which there is no substitution. Acoording to the Food Allergy Network, 90% of people with a cow's milk allergy also have a goat's milk allergy, so clearly these recipes are not for those people. People with ture dairy allergies need to be very careful wtih this book!

Good information on how different grains behave when substituting for wheat. Disappointing for Italian recipes. I am allergic to cow's milk, but tolerate buffalo milk mozzarella, which is what it is made of in Italy (Mozzarella di Bufula). The book makes no mention of this important substitution. Also, Pecorino Romano, like imported Feta, is made from sheeps milk, not cow's milk, as stated in the book. Sheeps milk yogurt was not mentioned either. Unfortunate since many people are turned off by the strong taste of goat milk products. Also, some people will tolerate foods that are cooked as some proteins are denatured or broken down by cooking. The book makes no mention of that. Also, some people might not tolerate tomatoes, but can tolerate a mock tomato sauce by pureeing red roasted peppers with or without artichokes as a sauce base. Most of the tomato sauce recipes contained tomatoes. Still the book is very thorough on grain substitutions.

Dumke's book (and others written by her) are not written for those with real wheat and milk protein allergies. Spelt and goat's milk are not allergen free! These products can be very dangerous for those with severe wheat and dairy allergies. Spelt is simply an ancient form of wheat! Goat's milk is a milk protein! I could understand if the book was for wheat and lactose intolerances, but for those with true allergies, these recipes could be deadly!

I am allergic/sensitive to a huge list of things and I found this book great! I have only really used the baking recipies, but I found the cookies, muffins, biscuits, etc. great. You can't really expect them to be just like the food you used to be able to eat, but they are so much better than stuff from other allergy-free cookbooks. I haven't tried any of the meal recipies b/c they're not very exciting. If you want something special there, try to find The Allergy-Free Cookbook edited by Maggie Pannell, which I didn't see here on Amazon. I wasn't looking for perfection, but the variety in Allergy Cooking with Ease was great, and now I have a chocolate chip cookie recipie without gluten, corn, sugar, dairy, or eggs. I reccommed it.

I purchased this book along with at least 3 other books catered to allergies and this was by far the LEAST helpful and worst tasting of the 4. Although it uses flours like arrowroot and quinoa, it lacks enough ingredients to give the foods flavor. Most recipes had less than 4-5 ingredients in them which means you basically taste the bland flour. My kids would rarely eat more than a few bites and they actually like many wheat-dairy-egg-yeast free foods. Shop around before you spend money on this. The only beneficial thing is the explanation of some of the ingredients, where they came from and what family they are in which you can probably find elsewhere.

When my daughter discovered her seven-year old daughter was allergic to wheat, soy, dairy, corn, Baker's Yeast, eggs, and chocolate, I was stymied. My daughter works outside the home and does not have time to do recipe-type cooking. As Grandma, I have had to fill in. Along with Internet sources, this book has been a tremendous help to me. Glad, too, to have discovered Vitamin C Crystals and various kinds of flour, which I didn't know existed.

In response to Kila Day's comment in a previous review that the title of Allergy Cooking with Ease was misleading, the book now has a new, shorter, and more accurate subtitle. ALL of the recipes in the book are free of wheat, cow's milk, eggs, corn, and soy. Of the 358 recipes and recipe variations in the book, 332 are also free of yeast, 348 are also free of sugar (most of the desserts are fruit-sweetened), 261 are also free of all grains, and 267 are also free of gluten. Although a few of the recipes call for alternative milk or cheese, often as an optional ingredient, 333 of the recipes do not. Obviously, most of the recipes are free of all of the allergens listed in the original subtitle.

I am sorry to have disappointed Kila and the reviewer who said that too many allergens were avoided in the book and hope that the new subtitle will make things more clear. Although I obviously can't please all people at all times, the original and revised versions of Allergy Cooking with Ease have many fans and satisfied owners (~40,000). Until the recent publication of my book The Ultimate Food Allergy Cookbook and Survival Guide, Allergy Cooking with Ease was my best seller.

I DO understand where Kila is "coming from" and sympathize. After thinking "I can't eat this" about most foods, if someone sees a few recipes they can't eat in a book, they immediately jump to the conclusion that they can't eat anything. With her "eleven kids too many," it's easy to understand why Kila may be doing things very quickly and without having looked at the book thoroughly.

Also, to avoid further confusion, the subtitle of the book can be changed in the "official" listings immediately, although it may take a few days for the changes to show up. However, there are quite a few books printed with the original cover design at this point. A revised cover is forthcoming but is not possible immediately. I apologize for the confusion to Kila and any other readers.

My 16 month old son is allergic to Milk, Soy & Corn and this book was by far the worst I bought. I bought 8 books hoping to find some info and recipies I couldn't find on the internet but the recipies were very exotic and not appropriate for a toddler and were not truely allergin free. I did better at the Food Allergy Network site and should have only bought their cook book.

This book was a godsend for me. It has recipes with many alternative grain/grain substitute choices. I cannot eat wheat, rice, or potato - and this was a revelation - after a trip to the health food store to stock up on alternative flours - I had turkey gravy, and pancakes the following morning (made with barley flour, yum!) So far everything I've tried has been delicious. Great book - I used a library copy & now I'm ordering it