CELIAC Archives

Celiac/Coeliac Wheat/Gluten-Free List

CELIAC@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Date:
Mon, 11 Aug 1997 11:03:00 E
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (37 lines)
<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

I'm not a chemist (disclaimer), but...

 In high school chemistry, they teach that distilled items are a "pure"
substance.  That's a reasonably good model for what you do in a high
school chem. lab.  However, after the distillation process, some solute
may be present in the final solution (in our case, the solute would be
wheat protein).  This (I believe) has to do with adhesion between the
molecules.  Alcohol boils at 80C and wheat protein does not boil - it
will break down first.  So theoretically, none would be present in the
distilled liquid.  But, some makes its way there.

 In an uncooked product containing liquids distilled from wheat, some
protein will remain. (although many consider the amount so trivial that
it doesn't matter, but I don't want to get into that argument.)  However,
in the case of a *cooked* product, *SOME* of the gluten in the distilled
liquid (in this case alcohol) will be carried away as the liquid boils
off, however, *NOT ALL* of it will be.

 I believe that the amount of solute that is carried when a solvent is
distilled is a function of the concentration of the solution, but it is
always a percentage which is greater than 0 and less than 100, so
distillation will never completely removed dissolved substances.

 In the case of vanilla dissolved in alcohol, I think that cooking will
do very little to remove any of the gluten contained in the alcohol.
 This is because other items will start dissolving in the alcohol as soon
as it hits the flakes (such as corn protein for example).  This will
cause an equilibrium situation potentially displacing some of the what
gluten, meaning that even if *ALL* of the gluten still dissolved in the
alcohol were carried away (which is certainly not the case), some very
well may have already precipitated.

 I'm not a teacher either, so I hope that this is comprehensible.  Maybe
some of the chemists and/or teachers out there could comment.

ATOM RSS1 RSS2