Dessert - Making Trifle Safe

As you can imagine, the amount of jelly (and sometimes fruit) in a regular trifle renders it poisonous to those with a citric acid intolerance.

But, fear not! With a little work, and a few recipe tweaks, you can still enjoy a trifle this holiday.

Ok, so your whipped cream and custard are fine to stay, it is the jelly, the fruit and possibly the cake that need addressing here.

The jelly: you cannot (to my knowledge) buy any ready-made jelly without it has citric acid in. So, we have to make our own. You will need:

• squash (see the post on drinks)
• gelatin sachet (you can get these in the home baking isle of most supermarkets)
• hot and cold water

then you just make it up as per the instructions on the gelatin packet sachet. Do not forget to dilute the squash, though! Alternatively, you might be able to use apple juice, but I haven't tried with this.

The fruit: You can either leave it out, or a straight swap for apple/pear/blueberry chunks works well

The cake: You can either go around the shops checking packets until you find a plain victoria sponge that is safe, or you can make your own and ensure you use a butter that is safe. I always opt for make your own the day before you make the trifle, but that is just because I like the be 100% sure everything is edible.

Combine ingredients as per the usual order et voila!

I Want to Eat Crisps

Crisps.

Like iced buns, I never really understood why crisps were so good. They are basically potatoes in fat and salt.

Think I may have cracked it there...

Anyways, crisps are now another minefield. Fear not, though, because there are several options left open. A couple are even the 'healthy' ones!

If plain, ready salted crisps of almost any variety are your thing you're good to go and can stop reading here, because the reason crisps are off the menu at all (apart from the sodium content) is that they put citric acid in when they add a lot of the flavourings. I'm not sure why, someone told me it might help the flavours bind or something? Not that it matters, to be honest.

So, as I've just said, 'ready salted' (plain) are good.

Further than that you are very, very limited.

Although they are still the relatively plain variety, you CAN have:

pombears

sunbites



if you are so inclined

"Help, we're eating out!" - Chinese food

This is a tricky one, although not impossible.

As usual, I can only tell you my own findings. This list only applies to takeout or restaurant food. If you are using this to buy Chinese food from a store then remember to always check to packet!

So, the definitely safe list:

Starters

• Prawn toast
• Vegetable spring rolls (probably the meant ones too) but NOT the dip!!
• Prawn crackers
• Duck and pancakes, although not the veg or the sauce that usually comes with them.

Sides

• All varieties of rice (fried and boiled), unless you know it is going to have a veg with citric acid in it. In general they don't.
• Noodles (depending in the sauce!)

Mains

• Sweet chilli beef
• *insert favourite meat* and cashew nut
• *insert favourite meat* in black bean sauce
• Chicken satay 

There are probably several others that are edible - stay away from anything red coloured or lemon-y! Sweet and sour is a definite no-go, here.

Incidentally, you can also drink Chinese tea (I don't like it myself, but other people rave about it, so...)

Making a Sandwich 101

Making a sandwich is such a simple thing, right?

Yeah, right.

That is to say, it is easy once you have the right ingredients. Initially finding them, however...

Let's start from the top. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you:

The Bread



You would think bread would be a pretty safe thing to eat. In general you would be right, and both white and brown loaves are edible.

Exceptions are: anything with lemon or tomato (obvious, but it is good to state the obvious sometimes, especially where allergies are concerned!), sourdough or rye (citric acid is produced or used in the making process somewhere) and some of the very, very cheapest supermarket loaves, which contain citric acid in the ingredients list.

The Spread

As I think I have said elsewhere, many margarine varieties contain citric acid. If you have the choice, stick with butter, as these are usually safe.

If in doubt, just leave it out! I generally eat my sandwiches without the spread anyway.



The Filling

This is a HUGE topic, so I'm going to gloss.

If you are putting your fillings together yourself from scratch then just use your common and you'll be away. If, however, you want to buy sandwich fillers from the supermarket or elsewhere you're in for a tougher time. Don't assume that anything is edible until you have thoroughly checked the label. A lot of things add lemon juice (which you cant taste, and most people wouldn't even notice. I know I never used to.). There are SOME ones you can eat, but as I said; check, check, check!

Oh, and beware ye the mayonnaise - citric acid is often a preservative. If you are a mayonnaise fan I know Heinz mayo is safe enough.

Drinks - Milk and Milkshakes

Plain milk we have no problem with. Wonderful stuff, and we all know what happens to little girls that don't get their calcium, don't we?

So, sometimes your milk needs jazzing up a bit.

Roll-on milkshake powder.

Unfortunately I have yet to find a milkshake POWDER that isn't freeze-dried death (at least to the citric-intolerant)

And don't you be fooled by that sneaky toffee flavour that Crusha brought out. Guess what other ingredient they added? No, I'm not bitter. YOU'RE sulking.

Moving swiftly on...

Ok, so common sense tells you that chocolate and strawberry milkshakes are out here.

Banana milkshake is usually ok. Unlucky for me that I dont LIKE banana milkshake.

Which means there are three options:

• Just drink your milk plain

• Create your own milkshake experiments. If what goes in is good, what comes out is usually better! Toffee and apple (yes, apple again...), or white chocolate and blueberry have always proven popular.

• Buy the more obscure milkshakes!! 

In this category we have...

'White chocolate flavoured milk' from Morrisons. This is good, this is very good! It is exactly what it says on the bottle. Sorry about the dreadful picture quality, I'm just trying to let you get an idea of the packaging in case you go hunting for it.

'Sticky toffee pudding flavour' milk from Tesco.If you like toffee (and milkshake!) this is worth a go. Very, very sweet - you have been warned!

And the more well-known brand:

These are relatively expensive, but worth it for a treat. Since they're limited edition I'm not sure how long they will be on the shelves, bu I'm hoping a long time:

some people have complained this is too plain, especially those who do not like to drink milk on its own. I like it, but agree there is not a lot of additional flavour from the vanilla.

Yeah, I said I didn't like banana milkshake, and if you really hate banana flavour then give this one a miss, but teamed with the toffee it is definitely worth a try. It really does taste like banoffee pie, but without the crust (obviously!)

This is simply delicious, if very sweet. Milkshakes are meant to be sweet, though, aren't they?

Drinks - Juice and Dilutable

The apple is your friend here.

In fact, apart from apples, I'm not certain there is anything else IN this category that is safe to drink.

And by no means are all apple juices/squashes safe either

I'm just saying that apart from apple (and pear - please tell me if you find safe pear or blueberry juice!) it isn't really even worth looking at the ingredients list because the fruit itself has citric acid in it, before you get to the added stuff.

Blueberry juice may appear ok on the scan, BUT 100% of the cartons I've checked have added citric acid to help shelf life. Sucks, I know.

So, for pure fruit juices you are stuck with apple, and always check the carton. If the actual phrase 'citric acid' or 'E330' aren't present then you're good to take a swig (although not before you've paid for it....)

Dilutables-wise, apple again. Are you sensing a theme here?

As usual, always check the label, but I can vouch for both this 'High Juice' from Tesco, and the equivalent drink sold at the co-op



(Although they are both packed full of sugar, and you might be best off just drinking your water plain. Still, it is nice to have options)

N.B. Homemade fruit juices (of apple, pear, blueberry) will be drinkable UNLESS the maker has added orange/lemon (as they often do). If you press fruit yourself the fruit juice will be perfectly fine (and delicious!)

"Help, we're eating out!" - Coffee House 101

Ok, picture the scene: you're out with friends, you're getting tired. Time for a sit down and a drink. You enter the coffee house.

What CAN I drink?

You're tired, you're starting to get hungry...

 Is there anything I can eat? 

Let's start with the basics:

All the coffees are out (caffeine) as are the hot chocolates (cocoa powder). However, if you are lucky enough to not be allergic to caffeine or cocoa, I can tell you that neither contain citric acid. Even decaff coffee still has some caffeine in it.

You may be able to drink the apple juice most of these places sell in bottles. Check the label, but the careful - citric acid is tricksy and has been know to hide under the name E330.

If they serve white hot chocolate that is an option.

Banana, toffee or white chocolate milkshakes are USUALLY ok, depending on the ice-cream they are using. Ask to see the packet, especially in countries other then England, because I can't vouch for what other places use as standard. Be careful of apple milkshakes (they may use apple sauce, and the preservative in that is...)



Do not assume you can eat the blueberry muffins. Some places add lemon juice.
As far as food goes, it is sandwiches (check no salad, which butter, no cheese, mayonnaise brand) or things in a packet listing the ingredients, I'm afraid.

I can now vouch for the Starbucks blueberry muffin.That is the regular one, not the skinny.Who knows, skinny one might be alright as well - but I cannot vouch for it.

I'll report back if I find other things in my wanderings, because I love coffee shops.