How does one go about marking food in an oven?
One member of our household has some specific food allergies. Her food is often prepared differently, but not usually in a way where it is visually different from the rest of the food. Let’s say we’re cooking chicken thighs on a baking sheet for the whole family. My suggestion was to insert a toothpick. What’s the best way to mark her food?
Best Answer
I have spent decades cooking for people who can't have gluten, and I and several other people can't have shrimp. The simplest thing to do is to make everyone's food meet the needs of the allergic person. So for example don't bread anyone's chicken, or make a single gluten-free gravy.
That's the simplest, but it may not meet your other needs. In that case, I avoid anything that can fall off or be missed. In the case of chicken pieces on a baking sheet, I would use one large sheet and one smaller pan, and put the special portion on the smaller pan. Now you can flip and turn the pieces freely, and you don't need to worry about the juices mingling or whatever. I do this when cooking regular and gluten-free pasta, for example; I use very different-sized pots. When I run a separate butter dish to avoid crumb contamination, it's not two identical white butter plates, one of which is labelled; it's a white plate for the might-have-gluten-crumbs butter and a small clear bowl for the keep-it-crumb-free butter. These visual cues are much larger than a toothpick and can't be missed or fall out or end up on the underside or whatever.
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How do you mark food in the oven?
My suggestion was to insert a toothpick. What's the best way to mark her food?...What are the things to be remember while using oven?
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If one dish calls for a roasting temp of 325\xb0F and another calls for 375\xb0F, you can meet in the middle and cook both at 350\xb0F. Most ovens are usually off by about 25 degrees, so both should be fine. The exception is baked goods, which do require a specific temperature.IAG Oven Functions Explained
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Answer 2
Whatever works for you is best. If the allergy is serious, you'd definitely want to not just mark, which means either:
- just don't use whatever they're allergic to
- use easily-distinguishable separate dishes (if there's one piece on one and 10 on the other, that works)
Some useful things when you do want separate dishes, beyond just smaller baking pans, some of which you might already have:
- oven-safe bowls (could be for the table, or mixing bowls)
- oven-safe pots
- oven-safe glass containers
- muffin tins
- mini cake or bread loaf pans
If it's something less sensitive, where crumbs or a bit of sauce or something won't cause issues, then some options, depending on what exactly it is:
- for attaching, with sufficiently solid food: a skewer (same idea as a toothpick but bigger so it's harder to lose it) or food-safe twine
- for visual dividers: aluminum foil, parchment paper
- to be fancy but convenient, as long as it's not getting moved around much: add a piece of something that's already in the meal, e.g. a slice of tomato on top
- to be really convenient, with solid food: just cut some marks into it
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