Challenge for all you savvy keto cooks: Replacement for sweet kernels of corn in recipes

[PaulL]

every known keto thickening agent

Be very careful with the xanthan gum. Start with a minuscule amount. You can always add more, but you can’t add less . . . HAHAHAH!!

[Just_Juju]

Lolol yeah, I’m learning. I made a homemade keto syrup last week and it only called for 1 tsp of xantham gum which was added to 1/4 C water first and left to gel up a bit before adding to the rest of the syrup. But I think 1 tsp was still way too much. I’ll start with 1/4 tsp next time.

But it did teach me a few things I didn’t know through the experimentation. No matter how little you add it will always create teeny clumps when you first stir. But after soaking 5 minutes when I whisked again they came right out … but it was still too thick of a gel because when I added it to the syrup it created a ton more teeny clumps again. I got a fair amount out by whisking like a maniac for ten minutes, but in the end I had to strain it. Two more cups of water did not keep it from becoming a gelled syrup rather than a pourable one.

[Shinita]

I came late and I see the others already wrote what i thought: If it’s just a little amount, you may squeeze it in… I ate chocolate covered banana almost every day on keto in the first months… Why not? It was almost no carbs, my vegs, on the other hand… Yeah, they had to go eventually.

Some dishes are impossible on keto and it’s fine, one can have other favs, it’s no big deal not to have many of our favs anymore.
Some have a little carby stuff but a small but satisfying portion has so little so it’s fine.
And sometimes substitution is possible. But if it’s something specific, especially regarding flavor, I usually can’t find a substitute that is even remotely similar. Maybe I find one that works while being different…

I have lots of more or less fancy keto/paleo stuff too I was curious and tried out zillion things. Some were even useful and I keep buying them, I just super rarely use them. It’s fine, they don’t spoil in 1-2 years…

I am not sure I ever had gravy in my life, I doubt it’s a thing in my country so I am pretty fine without that. We like stews though and that requires onions and lots of paprika here but that isn’t very carby either (some people uses more onion than meat, well, not us. that would be horribly sweet! we use a quite small amount. so it’s fine).

It’s very useful to have extremely low-carb staples if one likes some carbier items… I have read so many times that spending 10 or 15g carbs on some small stuff (like a small dessert… I find extreme low-carb desserts perfect most of the time but sometimes one wants it different, I get it) is a bad idea as we need to spend very little carbs on the vast majority of our food then. I see no problem with that if I want my carby thing and have no spectacular desire towards my carbier staples (like eggs and sour cream. liver too but I don’t eat much from that).

So… If some items sounds dangerous, plan and be careful. But small amounts may work.

I never met xantham gum (just in recipes but never in webshops, it seems it’s not a thing here) but konjac flour (glucomannan) is tricky too. I realized I need to mix it with some other powder before I add liquid or else it WILL be clumpy and nothing will help afterwards. It’s good gelatin is nicer. And agar-agar is even easier to handle, warming up makes it liquid again anyway if one totally messes it up BUT it has a stupid texture, not the jelly I want.

When I experiment with a new recipe (either an existing one or something I made, it’s usually the latter, normal people don’t seem to have my preferences and tastes), I do it in tiny So I never throw out a lot of expensive ingredients (though I don’t use expensive ingredients anymore… and I don’t throw out my stuff ever, it’s always at least borderline edible somehow. I am experienced. oh all that time in the kitchen and now I don’t use the vast majority of my recipes as they were vegetarian and now I try to do carnivore… and interestingly, my vegetarian carnivore recipes were created after I forgot about those fancier plant ingredients that just make life more complicated. too many variations to try).
When I make some more complicated stuff, I test the different parts in tiny and then I make the big thing. (Carnivore made me spoiled, I make great food with almost zero work but I have plans for some more elaborated, still simple stuff. I never had ice cream cake and I totally will try it. I just never feel any desire for it on carnivore. Sigh. Not even off carnivore. Sweet pancakes, yes, ice cream, nope.)

[Janie]

It seems pricey but 2 oz is 12 tsp, so you can get 24 pans of cornbread out of one bottle.