24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Allergy free = unusable recipes, July 24, 2008
This review is from: Allergy-Free Cookbook (Hardcover)
My son has been on an elimination diet (no wheat, soy, dairy, eggs, corn, nuts, peanuts, fish) for nearly a year, so I was naturally attracted to a cookbook promising to avoid nearly all of those ingredients in its recipes.
Like many such cookbooks, the "claim" on the cover is false. Most recipes eliminate only one or at most two of the allergens listed on the cover, and nearly all are built around plain everyday ingredients like milk, wheat, and eggs.
Each recipe contains a sidebar with suggestings for eliminating other ingredients. A baking recipe calling for milk and eggs, for example, has a sidebar saying to avoid eggs by using commercial egg replacer, to replace milk with a non-dairy substitute, etc.
Well...yes. I can do that, but in the end I'm left with the same not so great plate of cake or cookies that I would have gotten making these substitutions in a regular recipe.
Despite the fact I've turned to this cookbook again and again (I've had it quite a long time), I have not found any recipe that comes out well when *all* of the allergens listed on the cover are eliminated.
It's probably fine if you have to avoid just one or two ingredients. But then, most allergic people know how to make those substitutions, already.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best in it's Category, January 20, 2008
This review is from: Allergy-Free Cookbook (Hardcover)
This is the best book I came across on this subject. I have a child on the spectrum and he is on the Gluten,Casein and Dairy Free Diet.Recipes for this type of diet can be extremely hard to master and the end result is tasteless. Not anymore, Alice Sherwood has given us a book with recipes that work and the end result looks and taste delicious like any other type of foods.The blueberry muffins is one example. The recipes are easy to follow.The book is filled with beautiful pictures and has tons of information from shopping to traveling and dining out.A must have for anyone who has food allergy.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not what it appears, June 20, 2008
This review is from: Allergy-Free Cookbook (Hardcover)
I echo the review about many of the recipes not really being GF, DF etc. as the book says and the optional way to make each recipe isn't simple for most of the recipes. The way it's set up is confusing and many of the ingredients are expensive and unusual. This is not a book for someone who wants to find allergy-free, easier food to make, especially if they're looking to save time. It's more like a gourmet allergy-free cookbook for people that want to spend their whole day in the kitchen and have plenty of money to spend and time to read directions. And although she calls them "family" recipes, a lot of the recipes are not very kid-friendly.
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