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Average Customer Rating: 
(3 reviews)
Editorial Review: A cookbook for the 50 million Americans who suffer from lactose intolerance. And what a collection of recipes -- 150 great-tasting alternatives to dishes that usually contain substantial amounts of milk, butter and cheese.
With The Lactose-Free Family Cookbook, you'll be able to prepare meals you thought you'd never be able to enjoy again. Imagine the taste sensations that await you with recipes like Cream of Butternut Squash Soup, Caesar Salad with Creamy Garlic Dressing, Scalloped Potatoes, Florentine Lasagna, Creamy Leek and Tomato Pasta, Salmon Mousse, Lemon Cheesecake -- even Vanilla Ice Cream!
Sound unbelievable? Believe it! With the innovative use of substitute ingredients such as purées, fruit juices and tofu, author Jan Main has created dishes so appetizing, you'll forget they're dairy-free. And without the milk and butter content, you get the added bonus of lower fat and cholesterol while ...
Customer Reviews:
5 of 5 found this review helpful:
A decent introduction to lactose-free cooking., 2007-03-29
Recently, I checked out Jan Main's The Lactose-Free Family Cookbook from the library, curious to see if it had any good recipes. Turns out, there were about 30 recipes I was interested in.
There are pluses and minuses to this book. What's good is the amount of space devoted to talking about alternative ways to up your calcium intake, and what foods provide the greatest source. Some of the information defining lactose intolerance will be old news to someone who has been dealing with it for quite some time, but to a person just encountering an angry stomach, it will probably be helpful. Also, just because I only found 30 recipes I was interested in does not mean you won't find more. Most of the recipes are easy to handle for someone who is an okay cook -- there are a lot of recipes that are basically chopped vegetables and pasta in a certain sort of sauce, as well as some salads.
However, there were enough drawbacks to the book where I think it's best left as a library check-out than an actual purchase.
#1. As the book was written several years ago, the availability of lactose-free products has increased since its publication. Main relies quite often on tofu in her recipes, which is fine for some of them, but in other recipes it would have been just as easy to substitute lactose-free products.
#2. Some of the recipes use yogurt or hard cheeses, and while there are lactose-free versions of these (soy yogurt, Kraft brand cheese-- check the label, it's true!), I just have a pet peeve about the assumption that there are a lot of people out there who can tolerate these dairy products when someone with more serious lactose intolerance (like myself) can't. However, that's just a personal criticism for the book.
#3. When I tried to make the recipe for Spanokopita, the directions were not written very well. Now, I could understand what I was meant to do since I'm a fairly experienced cook, but a more beginner-level cook might have some trouble. I haven't taken a closer look at some of the recipes I have, but a better copy editing job should have been done on this book.
My recommendation is to check this one out at the library first before deciding if it's a book that would be worth it for you to purchase. I haven't done a lot of research into what other lactose-free cookbooks are out there, but I doubt this one is the best.
13 of 13 found this review helpful:
Lactose-Free Family Cookbook, 2000-01-28
I thought this was a great cookbook: not only did it go into what lactose intolerance is, but it also offered multiple suggestions about how to meet adequate calcium requirements (as well as other nutritional requirements) when one is lactose intolerant. I tried out quite a few of the receipes and found them to be wonderful; even my friends who are not lactose intolerant loved them.
25 of 26 found this review helpful:
Wacky but useful, 1996-11-19
I categorize certain cookbooks as "wacky". The presenceof recipes with names like "pear ginger cake" or "roastedratatouille pizza", for example, will put a cookbook in the wacky category. This should not be confused with bad. Main does use yogurt and aged cheese in many of the recipes, so this is far from the best cookbook for those with true milk allergies. But both the allergic and the lactose intolerant will find the introductory material enjoyable and enlightening; Brenda Davis' explanation of calcium absorption is one of the most up-to-date I've seen in a cookbook. Nutritional information for each recipe is supplied. The presentation is attractive, and while this isn't exactly a complete basic cookbook, the directions are fairly detailed and do not assume much expertise. The layout of the recipes, notes and directions is exceptionally attractive
