Having read that many spices are or could be packed with wheat flour I thought it was time to find some that were reasonably priced and also gluten free. Yesterday, I found a large pot of Stonemill Ground Black Pepper - 100g pot at Aldi Supermarket at a cost of £1.09. So thought I'd pass the information on to everyone.
Does anyone else have information on spice products and prices and where they can be purchased easily?
Gluten Free Spice? was this the 6th Spice Girl who never made it? 
"I tell you what I want, what I really, really want... a gluten free yorkshire pudding...."
Doesn't it work with cornflour, salt, milk and egg? The secret is getting the pan hot enough before pouring in the mixture - at least that is what I've always been told.
It's been a few years since I've made any Yorkshire puddings - I do know however that if you're from Yorkshire you would never serve them with a meal always as a starter with mint sauce and gravy!
Here in Yorkshire, it was only poorer households who ate the huge Yorkshire Puds which were served as a pre-meal 'filler' along with very thick onion gravy (not mint sauce - that'd only be with lamb). They ate this filling dish so the family did not need as much roast and veg afterwards. My mother thought herself middle class so Yorkshires were only served with roast beef, never before and never another roast.
Before emigrating from God's own County and before being diagnosed with CD, I used to lead guided walks on the moors to celebrate 'Yorkshire Day' - 1st August - and we always used to end up in a pub with a meal featuring the 3 different ways you can have this fantastic speciality; as a starter as mentioned above with thick onion gravy, part of the main course with roast beef, and finally, as a pudding with syrup. All, of course, washed down with a couple of good pints of Yorkshire real ale - most now a thing of the past - especially the real ale.........
I'm sure I saw some today by the Foodamentalists at a Coeliac Group meeting/lecture. They seemed to be very popular.
I make my own in the way you mentioned.
I was in Cumbria once in a restaurant and a French family came in. Having loudly gone through the menu, translating as they went... the head of the household there called the waiter over to place their orders. When it came to him, he said "I vant ze roast bif and yorkshire pooding, but wizout ze roast beef". Waiter looks strangely at him and said "just a yorkshire pudding???" "Oui!"
I think the french man believed a yorkshire pudding to be some large pie type thing, not realising it was an accompaniment..
When the food arrived, the waiter served the family first, huge plates of steaming meat and veg. Then with great ceremony brought out a tiny yorkshire pudding in a ramekin, with a sprig of parsley on the top in the middle of a large plate.
The French man looked a little askance, said nothing and delicately ate it, taking 20 mins to munch his way through so he finished at the same time as his family.
We all cracked up (inc. the waiter) but I do wonder what he made of this - "ah ze eenglish, they cannot even make pies properly...." 
There's a certain man I know that would be totally aghast at the idea of putting Yorkshire pudding on his dinner plate he would think it a total ruination of one of his most favourite of dishes!
You never know your French man may well have read this traditional Yorkshire website:
imagesofyorkshire.co.uk/art...
Lard or shortening? Nay lad - they used beef dripping, from the roast that was cooking
So did we many moons ago ... before mad cow disease!
Specified Risk Material* for CJD are brain, spinal cord, trigeminal ganglia, intestines, eyes and tonsils from cows - not exactly the stuff of Sunday roast .... or dripping.
It just goes to show that cannibalism never pays, just look at Scrapie in sheep and the cannibalism disease Kuru in humans.
Back to the article - was just saying that no Yorkshireman or purist would have bought lard made from hydrogenated rendered visceral pig fat when they had the [free and] superior dripping fat juices remaining from cooking a beef joint ....
Poor man! The yorkshire pud is the best bit though. I like DS yorkshire puds - in the freezer section at Booths, although that's a very local Yorkshire Dales/Lake District supermarket, I'm sure they have them elsewhere.
For spices, and lots of other things, it's worth having a look at the Suma catalogue. They supply health food shops & veggie outlets and absolutely every product in their catalogue is clearly marked to show if it's gluten free or not.
I made Yorkshire pudding with my usual flour mix (urid, tapioca and cornmeal)and found it worked best without milk and with a bit of baking powder blissglutenfree.blogspot.co.... I suspect standard Doves Farm flour would work fine as it tends to be ok for batter type foods and works well for both pancakes and choux buns.
Doves farm works. I make with lactose watered down milk. And some baking flour. But do use egg. But not so fluffy. More of a solid cake like texture. But make them in a batch and freeze them. Just pop in the oven for a for minutes before serving and their fine.
Hi I use doves plain flour and soya milk with eggs and make sure the oil is nearly smoking before i pour it in. They come out quite well a little bit more solid than normal yorkshires but my sons love them as does my partner as they do crisps up well.
Asda label a lot of their spices gluten free.
Marks and Spencer ditto.
Holland and Barratt have the 'warning' on the back of theirs.
I've only recently been diagnosed with CD, but have never been told anything about spices having gluten in them. After reading this I've had a quick rummage through my cupboard and haven't seen anything on any labels saying mixed with anything. Does that mean they are okay? I thought they had to disclose on labels. I'm really lost, it's a gluten minefield.
We have all been caught out this way. From what most of us are able to gather unless it says gluten free it is best avoided - check out the government website: food.gov.uk/safereating/all...
Scroll down to 'If someone has coeliac disease what foods do they need to avoid?'
.... part of this quotes as follows: "Bear in mind that cereal products can be in foods that you might not expect, such as stock cubes, spice mixes, gravy granules, soy sauce, burgers and sausages."
I've already thrown out spice 'mixes' the packet mixes for chicken, etc as they said contain wheat/gluten. Same with soy sauce which only noticed at last minute when cooking (now replaced via health food shop) and gravy granules, (again replaced via Sainsburys). I knew about sausages and burgers, various sauces, etc. But still unsure about individual spices, they have ingredients listed which states the spice enclosed, also on some of them it says allergy advice - may contain nuts, etc but nothing about wheat/gluten. I thought they had to list all ingredients, including packing agents as per a European law or something. (please excuse my ignorance if that's totally wrong).
I suppose it may depend on whether they were packed/obtained in this country. It may be difficult to ascertain if they are packaged abroad especially in countries outside of the EU. In truth, I am not certain so look for gluten free on the label rather than take the risk.
Actually an EU ruling means that food producers don't have to say whether additives like Dextrose, Glucose, Maltodextrin, Glucose-Fructose syrup etc are made with wheat (yet they mainly are). These either fall within the <20ppm or are deemed safe through 'processing'. This ruling was based on a study of a very small cohort of subjects.
Back to the spices, if they are a single spice then there is no reason for them not to say "Gluten Free" (like the Asda ones I mentioned). The Julian Graves/H & B ones I recently saw bore a safe front ingredient listing but had the "produced in a gluten handling environment" message on the back in tiny print. Personally I want to be well, so I don't take that risk.
Best thing about this disease (?) is that we now cook from scratch and everything tastes so much better. You can make your own version of the packet mixes, much more cheaply too.
@Droid please do not live in fear or confusion. Since the new EU law came into play in January all food items that are packaged and sold to consumers have to state if they contain gluten & the source i.e. contains gluten (barley malt). Therefore all you need to do now is read all the ingredients in full & the 'allergy' box or other labelling to ascertain if an item contains gluten.
A new term 'no gluten containing ingredients' is confusing as this is really a get out clause for manufacturers. The FSA site states that it doesn't mean anything legally. A well know brand of high end crisps now uses this phrase. Unfortunately it doesn't mean that the food is gluten free or that the way it is produced is free from cross contamination. So we tend to avoid this new labelling. Instead looked for items that state they are 'gluten free' or items that do not contain any gluten. For example some ready meals or sauces like mayonaise won't state they are gluten free - yet they naturally are. But the new law doesn't allow them to use that phrase. So instead read the ingredients and check the allergy box. If there is no gluten mentioned (and remember it may be called barley, wheat etc not gluten) then it should be safe to eat. However if in doubt then always contact the producer directly.
For more information visit our facebook page: we regularly feature hero gf brands
Ive used the Juvela white mix to make yorkshire puds and they were very good - just a little softer than normal but crisped up well - Im from yorkshire so Ive never tried the ready done ones - couldnt bring myself to put them in the trolley!
Yes getting the fat really hot is one of the keys but the other is not to use all milk - use semi skimmed and a quarter of the quantity should be water - or if you're using whole fat milk do half milk and water. this works for the GF ones too.
last Christmas my Yorkshires were cooked separately and in foil but one of them got lost and mixed up with all the other normal ones - no one owned up to it so it must have tasted the same as the 'normal' ones!
Fiona - thanks very much for this facebook link, sounds interesting.
Gill
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