How does one go about marking food in an oven?

Question

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?

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 16 '18 at 23:24

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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.

answered Feb 16 '18 at 23:24

Kate Gregory

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Thank you for the answer. We would cook with just allergy-compliant ingredients if not for cost. The doctor has ordered that she abstain from gluten, dairy, soy, and corn for a month and then reintroduce one food at a time to determine if she is allergic or otherwise disagrees with it. This has resulted in a lot of costly substitutes that we’d rather avoid paying for the other five people in the house to eat. I’ll look for some small baking sheets, thanks again. – Zenon Feb 16 '18 at 23:38
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you can use a round cake pan, a pyrex "lid" or a variety of other things, especially if it's temporary. Also, with such a broad list I recommend avoiding expensive substitutes - nondairy milk, nondairy cheese etc and instead go with meat-and-veg prepared from scratch. – Kate Gregory Feb 16 '18 at 23:41
As someone with an unusual food allergy I hate it when my friends and family 'have to' forgo the things they like to 'accommodate me'. While I have to be careful that should not mean they must as well. Using the 'most restrictive' idea is unfair to others and I don't wish to carry that guilt. – Cos Callis Feb 17 '18 at 17:42
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@CosCallis that depends on your allergy. Thickening a gravy with a gluten free thickener is not a sacrifice. Using the gluten free bread to make the stuffing isn't either. But yeah, I eat regular spaghetti and make gluten free spaghetti in a different pot. I never said it was the best solution; but it certainly is the simplest. – Kate Gregory Feb 17 '18 at 22:55

Cascabel · Answer 2 · 2018-02-17T00:08:52.120

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

Aluminum foil can be rolled into a string, which you can then tie around a handle of a cooking vessel.... — rackandboneman, Feb 17 '18 at 20:50

How does one go about marking food in an oven?

2 Answers2