Chat Leftovers: A pudding problem (2024)

Also in Food this week: Smoke Signals columnist Jim Shahin visits Saison, a San Francisco restaurant that uses simple hearth cooking to turn out remarkably sophisticated food; and D.C. bar owner Derek Brown explains why he — like many other people this time of year — decided to quit drinking for a month.

You can weigh in on those stories, and more, during today's Free Range chat, our weekly hour of give-and-take about all things culinary. Tune in at noon, and bring your questions. Can't be there? You can always post a question early, then read the transcript later to see whether we've answered it. And if we haven't, check this space next week; maybe I'll decide to tackle it. Like this one, a leftover from last week's chat:

Is it possible to make lactose-free pudding? I want to make a trifle, but all the pudding mixes I’ve seen say that non-dairy milk (soy, etc.) won’t work because the pudding won’t set. Do you know a way around this? Would a lactose-free milk do the trick? Would it be acceptable to vegetarians?

The short answer: Yes, it works. I just did it myself.

This is (at least) the second question we’ve gotten in recent months about non-dairy milk being unusable in pudding mixes. It’s a phenomenon I wasn’t aware of, mainly because I rarely use non-dairy milk. I also don’t buy boxed pudding mix — until today, that is. More about that later.

Some quick research, plus many tales of woe recounted on the Internet, revealed that boxed puddings made with soy, rice or almond milk will not set up nicely but will remain soft and soupy. I’m not going to go into the chemical reasons for that, because they are way over my head. Suffice it to say that some pudding makers tell you right on the box not to use a non-dairy milk.

In the face of such strong evidence, I wasn’t going to go that route, but because the question is really about avoiding lactose, I thought lactose-free milk seemed like a good possibility.

I chose Jell-O pudding mix because it’s universally available. There are two kinds: cook-and-serve and instant, both fine for vegetarians (no gelatin, rennet or other animal-based ingredients). The cook-and-serve box warns that non-dairy and even reduced-lactose milk might not work, so the instant seemed to be the better candidate. You just whisk the milk and mix for two minutes, then refrigerate, and it’s supposed to set up in five minutes. I gave it 20 just to be sure, and it set up just fine, with a smooth and silky texture.

So that will work for your trifle. But — can I be a pill here? Why use a boxed mix when it’s so easy to make pudding from scratch? You can use real vanilla, and you don’t have to make it as godawful sweet as the boxed stuff.

Or you can troll the Internet to find recipes for vegan pudding. There are tons of them. You’ll also find folks who get around the non-dairy-milk-in-boxed-mix problem by using a box of the mix but substituting one cup of soy, rice or almond milk for the two cups of cow’s milk. They say it sets, but yikes, seems to me the artificial flavors and already excessive sugar would be unbearably concentrated. Doesn’t sound like good eats.

Back to your trifle. Now, what are you going to do about the whipped cream? Again, the Internet is your friend. Google “lactose-free whipped cream” and take your pick of recipes.

Or you could just serve cake and berries, and be done with it.