How to Make Gluten Free Hot Pot & Shabu Shabu
Hot pot is a method of tableside cooking that involves by dipping raw ingredients into a flavorful..
The short answer is that malt vinegar may be safe for some with gluten intolerance, because the gluten proteins have been broken down by multiple fermentation cycles, but it’s currently unclear how to correctly test gluten levels in hydrolyzed products. Because of this, celiacs should avoid malt vinegar until hydrolyzed product testing improves.
Malt vinegar is one of those foods that most people with celiac disease write off, but it’s gluten content is more debated than I realized! In fact, Coeliac UK listed malt vinegar as gluten free until 2020, which conflicted with the official stance in the US. Coeliac UK has since updated their official labeling to exclude malt vinegar, because it’s made from gluten-containing grains and also because proper testing cannot yet be completed for fermented products that have not been distilled.
Malt vinegar is made by brewing malted barley into beer. Then it’s inoculated with a vinegar mother culture and completes a second round of fermentation to become vinegar. Distilled vinegar is made the same way, but with an important additional step: distillation. Distilling removes proteins, which renders the vinegar gluten free, no matter the grain used. The same goes for distilled alcohol. Malt vinegar isn’t distilled, so any gluten proteins that haven’t been broken down by the double fermentation would remain in the finished product.
Because the process for making malt vinegar includes malting the barley, brewing it into beer, fermenting it into vinegar, then further diluting the vinegar with water, it’s possible that not many intact gluten proteins remain in the end product. Certain people with gluten intolerance may feel comfortable taking their chances with the vinegar, but try at your own risk!
In the meantime, there are a couple relatively good subs for malt vinegar that are confirmed to be gluten free. There’s even one company making their own gluten free malt vinegar with alternative grains! You could also attempt to make malt vinegar at home from a subpar batch of GF homebrewed beer, if you enjoy experimenting with fermentation.
Gluten Free Malt Vinegar Substitutes:
* Title image courtesy of SPICEography.
