Category Archives: Food

Lactose free Walkers products

Food,

Walkers have changed some of their ingredients again (this time for the better) so a number of products that had lactose added to substitute for MSG have now had the lactose removed. This is the reply I got from Walkers:

No lactose or lactose derivatives have intentionally been used as ingredients in the
Walkers products listed below, however, these products have been made in a factory
which also handles lactose.

Last reviewed: October 2011

Crisps
Walkers BBQ Rib Flavour Crisps
Walkers Pickled Onion Flavour Crisps
Walkers Prawn Cocktail Flavour Crisps
Walkers Ready Salted Crisps
Walkers Salt & Vinegar Flavour Crisps
Walkers Steak & Onion Flavour Crisps
Walkers Worcester Sauce Flavour Crisps
Walkers Salt & Shake Crisps
Walkers Lights Simply Salted Crisps
Walkers Extra Crunchy Flame Grilled Steak Crisps
Walkers Extra Crunchy Simply Salted Crisps
Walkers Crinkles Simply Sea Salted Flavour Crisps
Walkers Max Chargrilled Steak Flavour Crisps
Walkers Max Paprika Flavour Crisps
Sensations Balsamic Vinegar & Caramelised Onion Flavour Crisps
Sensations Roasted Tomato & Aromatic Spices Flavour Crisps
Sensations Vintage Cheddar & Onion Chutney Flavour Crisps

Snacks
Baked Ready Salted
French Fries Ready Salted Flavour
French Fries Salt & Vinegar Flavour
Quavers Prawn Cocktail Flavour
Quavers Salt & Vinegar Flavour
Sensations Oriental Crackers Peking Spare Rib Flavour
Sensations Poppadom Bites Lime & Coriander Chutney Flavour
Squares Ready Salted Flavour
Squares Salt & Vinegar Flavour
Sunbites Lightly Sea Salted Flavour
SunBites Sun Ripened Sweet Chilli Flavour
Wotsits Flamin’ Hot Flavour
Doritos BBQ Rib Flavour
Doritos Chilli Heatwave Flavour
Doritos Lightly Salted Flavour
Doritos Zesty Salsa Flavour
Smiths Chipsticks Ready Salted
Smiths Chipsticks Salt & Vinegar Flavour

Our suppliers advise us that no lactose or lactose derivatives have intentionally been used as
ingredients in the snack dips below:

Dips
Doritos Hot Salsa Dip Doritos Nacho Dip
Doritos Mild Salsa Dip Doritos Fiery Red Pepper & Paprika Dip
Doritos Red Pepper & Pepperoni Dip Doritos Flamin BBQ Dip

 

Beetroot gels

Food, Personal

It has been a very long time since I posted here – sorry!

I thought I’d share some lessons learnt in the past few days having made what should have been very simple golden beetroot gel for Heston Blumenthal’s recipe of orange and beetroot jellies (the trick is that it’s blood orange and golden beetroot).

 

It transpires that the betalin compounds in beetroot (both red and golden) discolour easily under a variety of conditions including pH, oxidation, heat and light. The result is that the bright yellow colour of golden beetroot rapidly turns greeny-brown. Heston does not mention this fact in his recipe. Bad Heston.

To avoid this problem you need to do the following:

Keep the beets chilled prior to juicing.

Immediately mix in 2-5g ascorbic acid.

Pass the resultant juice through a chinois to remove any green particles.

 

Use about 8g leaf gelatine / 200g juice. Rehydrate the gelatine then heat with a small amount of water until thoroughly dissolved. Gelatine dissolves around 50C and solidifies around 25-40C. Betalins discolour above 30C. Do you see the trouble brewing? Allow the juice to warm up slightly to about 15C. Whisking all the time reduce the gelatine mixture to about 30C then add  the beetroot juice slowly.

Set in an airtight container in the fridge.

The Fat Duck

Food, Personal, Photography, Travels

I was 30 last week. Great. The good thing was that we got a last minute cancellation The Fat Duck in Bray and were there like a shot for dinner service on my birthday itself.

Everything was just perfect – the food utterly out of this world (and I think would have been even more amazing if I didn’t know quite a lot of the courses already), service impeccable, decor was muted yet somehow suited the mentalness of everything else.

I didn’t take pictures of every single course (most people did take cameras though) but I snapped a few. You can see other peoples’ up on Flickr.

Lactose free Walkers products

Food, Personal

Walkers recently changed their Salt & Vinegar flavour to include milk-derived lactose, which is a bit of a bummer for those of us that are lactose intolerant (mine is Crohn’s and not hippy related you understand) as it was one of the very few fattening snack products that were.

I emailed them and they’ve changed the formulation to exclude MSG (why?) and added lactose. Anyway, they were fairly good at responding with a list of lactose free products, which I shall share with you now.

 

Walkers Products suitable for Lactose Intolerants

May 2009

Crisps

Walkers BBQ Rib Flavour Crisps
Walkers Pickled Onion Flavour Crisps
Walkers Prawn Cocktail Flavour Crisps
Walkers Ready Salted Crisps
NEW Walkers Roast Gammon Flavour Crisps
Walkers Steak & Onion Flavour Crisps
NEW Walkers Sweet Cumberland Sausage Flavour Crisps
Walkers Worcester Sauce Flavour Crisps
Walkers Salt & Shake Crisps
Walkers Lights Simply Salted Crisps
Walkers Sensations Balsamic Vinegar & Caramelised Onion

Flavour Crisps
Snacks

Walkers Baked Mango Chilli Flavour
Walkers Baked Ready Salted
Walkers French Fries Ready Salted Flavour
Walkers French Fries Salt & Vinegar Flavour
Walkers Quavers Prawn Cocktail Flavour
Walkers Quavers Salt & Vinegar Flavour
Walkers Sensations Oriental Crackers Peking Spare Rib Flavour
Walkers Sensations Poppadom Bites Lime & Coriander Chutney Flavour
Walkers Squares Ready Salted
Walkers Squares Salt & Vinegar Flavour
Walkers SunBites Original
Walkers SunBites Sun Ripened Sweet Chilli Flavour
Walkers Wotsits Flamin’ Hot Flavour
Doritos Chilli Heatwave Flavour
Doritos Lightly Salted
Doritos Sizzling BBQ Flavour
Smiths Chipsticks Ready Salted
Smiths Chipsticks Salt & Vinegar Flavour

Please Note:

This list is published using the best possible information that is available at the time of compilation. Whilst we take every care, Walkers Snack Foods cannot accept liability for any errors that may inadvertently occur. Recipes may change so always check ingredients on the pack.

Shopping Lists

Food, Personal, Random

It’s always great to find other people’s lists in your trolley.

I espcially like the juxtaposition and shoutyness.

MEAT.

PIES.

BURN CREAM

Best be careful when taking the pies out of the oven I guess…

shopping list

Liquid

Food

To help try and reign in my Crohn’s, tomorrow seems me start a polymeric diet. This involves having nothing but liquid "food" for 4 weeks.

fortisip.jpg
Look, 8 of these a day!

They come in "fruit juice" or "milk shake" styles, annoyingly all sweet. I use inverted commas because it’s so artificial – it contains about 1.5kcal / mL (a Mars Bar has about 300kcal) and apparently is nutritionally balanced.

Stay tuned for a food critic’s review of the "flavours"…

Death Smoothie

Food

I’m very concerned – what I assumed to be an exceptionally healthy drink may actually cause me irreparable damage. Curses!

Also, I wasn’t aware that Bees made pollen?

Truffles

Food

This evening, my boyfriend had pasta with finely sliced black truffle. To me it smelt like petrol, but the texture was very odd as I risked life and limb in using the mandolin to slice it up.

This tiny pile cost the best part of £5, but apparently didn’t taste all that nice. Perhaps he should save up for the ludicrously tasty fresh variety…