don't take anything for granted...gluten hides everywhere.

I've had a bad couple of days.  Please, allow me to indulge in a little pity party for a while.  Catharsis is good for the soul.

I had some leftover ham and a hambone.  Growing up in the Midwest (with parents from Kentucky), it's practically a law that when this happens, you make soup beans.  I was in the bean aisle, thinking about what I wanted to make, when I spotted 15 Bean Soup.  Yay!  I haven't had this in darn near forever.  I read the ingredients, saw that they had no wheat or gluten, and so I tossed them in the cart.  After all, it's beans.  Come on.  Beans!  Perfect, right?

The next day, I thought...oh no, I can't have ham and bean soup without cornbread!  Come on.  You gotta have cornbread with beans.  But, I've been doing this for a couple of months now, and I realize that just because it's cornmeal doesn't mean it's gluten free.  Lots of manufacturers process corn on the same machines that process wheat. So, off I trotted to the store to find me some gluten-free cornmeal.

What I tend to forget is that I live somewhere that doesn't have a large selection when it comes to anything but the basics.  If I want to buy anything that is off the grid, I have to either drive an hour to a decent store or I have to order it online...neither of which is an option when you want to make cornbread right that minute.  I'm too used to just popping down to the local grocery store and picking up the cheapest store brand cornmeal they got and going home and just whipping up some cornbread.  Nope...not any more.

I think you can guess by now that my search was, at the least, frustrating.  There are three grocery stores in my town (well, the town next to my town, but since it's five miles away and I'm there every day I consider it "my town" too) and none of them really have a big selection of specialty foods.  And let's face it...most foods that are certified "gluten-free" are EXPENSIVE.  A bag of gluten-free bread mix is six bucks???  And it makes ONE loaf of bread???  Anyway...I didn't find a single bag of certified gluten-free cornmeal.  I did find a couple of bags of cornbread mix that were marked gluten free, but come on.  Six dollars.  And they make ONE batch of cornbread each.

I happened to have my phone with me and I did a little research right in the middle of the aisle.  I found a cornmeal, Hodgson Mill, that didn't say it was made in a gluten-free facility on the package, but from what I've read on teh interwebs they clean the machines thoroughly when they switch from grinding wheat to grinding corn.  So I grabbed some, hoping against hope that it would be okay.

I made the cornbread, and it was pretty good.  I had some with my ham and soup beans.

However, the next day...I got glutenbombed.  Oh my goodness.  I was so sick.  It had to be the cornmeal, right?  After all, beans do not have gluten in them, right?  So, I marched back to the store and, after wandering around a bit with my phone, I found Maseca masa harina.  People have said it is safe, the bag says the product is naturally gluten-free (yeah, I know that can be misleading), and apparently the facility where it is made only makes corn products, so there's no cross-contamination.  I brought that home and attempted to modify my tried and true cornbread recipe using it and my gluten-free flour from Glutino.  Needless to say...it sucked.  This is not the fault of the masa harina or the Glutino flour; the recipe just didn't work.  Wrong product for cornbread.  I'll keep it, though, because I'm sure I can find a use for it.

So, in the process of having a pity party and doing some research for this article, I had to look up the Hurst Beans site for the 15 Bean Soup link.  And guess what I found:

Q:
 I have Celiac Disease and my doctor says I cannot eat anything containing wheat/gluten...
A:
Maltodextrin is a hydrolyzed starch sourced primarily from corn. Flavor companies use acid or enzymes to modify the starch into simple sugars called maltos and dextrins. Varying degrees of sweetness can be achieved this way. Corn is in fact a grain. If corn is not of concern, then all of our seasonings except our Cajun 15 Bean Soup seasoning should be safe. If any of our seasonings are of concern, you may simply omit the packet and use your favorite spices.

We have recently removed barley from our 15 Bean Soup products. Currently none of our products contain barley. However we do package Barley and a pasta product on the same machinery, so we cannot guarantee that the product is 100% gluten. [I think they meant "100% gluten-free".] Please send an e-mail to info@nkhurst.com if you have additional questions. 

So...it is possible that it wasn't the cornmeal after all, but the bean soup, that glutenbombed me.  The wording above is kinda weird; it doesn't explain a lot and it is rather confusing.  Therefore, I plan on definitely staying far away from the Hurst Beans product line.  Some people might be able to tolerate it, but you might not, and I'm not taking any chances.  I also shot them a message via their website telling them that this information would have been great to have on the packages.

On top of it all, I read today where some recommend that you replace any cookware that might be porous, cracked, scratched, or which otherwise might be contaminated with gluten.  This includes cast iron skillets (my cornbread!!!), scratched non-stick pots, old plastic or wooden spoons that might have a crack or scratch...you get the idea.  It was enough to make me cry right in the middle of the store.

The soup went back in the fridge; my husband will eat it and enjoy it.  I had a baked potato.

Just take this away from this hugely wordy article...never take for granted that a product is gluten free.  Always, always, always do your homework and never assume.  After all, we all know what happens when you ass|u|me... [skip to about the 4:40 mark]