A hunting widow's plea - Gluten free recipes requested

Cafe Society
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The backstory:

My husband and his hunting buddies go north for one week every year to Hunting Camp. A place where they do not have to bathe, they can sit up 'til all hours smoking cigars and drinking whiskey, and up until this year, eat all the carb laden, fat soaked, fried in bacon grease goodies that they normally do not get at home.

One of the hunting buddies has switched to a gluten free diet, and as a show of support, the rest of the crew has agreed to a menu that sticks pretty close to his dietary restrictions. Being diabetic myself, I usually concern myself with carb and sugar counts… wheat is not really on my radar, so I’m out of my element somewhat.

They usually pre-cook everything, load it into vacuum sealed bags and reheat by boiling everything in a huge stockpot of water. They do have access to a cookstove and pans, so it doesn’t have to be pre-cooked, put preparations should be minimal.

So my plea is this… I need some Gluten Free recipes. Tried and tested and recommended. I’m sifting through Google now, and have a few ideas already: Frittatas, marinated grilled pork loins, some steamed veggies. Even a gluten free peanut butter cookie recipe.

I would like some additional suggestions for a breakfast and a dinner if you have them. Enough to feed 6 guys, and can be prepared in advance, or partially in advance to be finished over a cookstove, or a campfire.

Dopers know food.:smiley:

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Without getting into the world of gluten-free “special” foods (such as rice noodles), any recipe which calls for flour can be made with non-gluten flour such as maize or quinoa. So there’s your cookie recipe: make it as normal but using maize flour instead of wheat flour.

No beer. Beer has gluten.

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Chili

Beef Stew - just don’t toss the beef in flour. You can toss it in corn starch instead; won’t brown as well, but it will thicken quite nicely.

Most soups - just avoid noodles and barley - potatoes and rice are just fine. As, of course, are gluten free noodles, but if you use those, send 'em uncooked and let the guys cook them in the soup as it heats - gluten free noodles go from yum to mush if they sit around in liquid too long

Camper’s Pockets -Meat, veggies, potato slices, wrapped in foil pouches and cooked in the campfire

Steak/Chicken/Fish/Lamb

Bratwurst/Italian Sausage/Hot dogs - I still read the labels on hot dogs out of habit, but most of them don’t contain gluten these days. I can’t recall the last one I found that did, but it was a decidedly off brand, maybe even a dollar store brand.

Most lunchmeats - again, I read the labels. Some of them do use gluten containing ingredients in the flavoring or the liquid used to plump them up, but most of them are gluten free.

Camping breakfasts we just stick with bacon/sausage and eggs or oatmeal or leftover rice/rice gruel seasoned with sugar/stevia and cinnamon. If your friend is a strict gluten free guy, there are certified gluten free oatmeals. Oats are naturally gluten free, but the mass market ones are often run on the same processing lines as wheat, and so cross contamination is a concern. Oddly, Quaker consistently shows the highest levels of cross-contaminated gluten in their oatmeal, while some of the store brands have very little or none at all. (I’m guessing it has something to do with the scheduling of line runs in oatmeal processing factories, but I really have no idea.)

I’d be wary of making a one-to-one substitution for flour in conventional recipes. Gluten free baking is an art form unto itself, and you’ll get a lot of failcakes without some chemistry on your side. Frankly, I’d go with the biscuit/bread/cookie/cake mixes, or at least a Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour Blend, rather than just trying to substitute rice flour or corn flour or potato starch.

Behold: Gluten free beers! Life is now worth living again. :wink: