this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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me_irl
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Just use hard cheese like gouda, emmentaler etc. - you can make it yourself or buy deepfreeze pizza with that (they usually disclose the type of cheese they use). And most deepfreeze pizzas here contain so little cheese that even the ones based on mozzarella aren't really an issue unless your reaction to lactose resembles an allergy more closely than an intolerance.
Fo sho. Im not entirely cut off from pizza, I still probably make 5 or 6 of them a year. It just comes with significantly uncomfortable digestive consequences now, so pizza has gone from "beloved staple" to "rare treat" for me. What i really miss is cheap pizza like the $1.50 slices from costco. It's just never worth it for me anymore now that it comes with guaranteed digestive discomfort the next day
You still get "significantly uncomfortable digestive consequences" from the pizzas you make yourself? What kind of cheese do you use?
I still make them with the same recipe I perfected before I became lactose intolerant, haha. I tried replacing dairy or using lower lactose substitutes at first, but that ended up being more effort for a pizza that I personally didnt enjoy as much. Ultimately I'd rather significantly reduce my pizza intake than compromise on my ingredient preferences. I'd probably feel differently if I were actually allergic, but as is my only consequence is pain and I can handle that
Weird, I actually prefer hard cheese over mozzarella. It has more inherent taste and browns faster.
Ever tried lactase pills, do those work for you?
I dont like the way hard cheeses melt as much. I love varieties like parm or asiago as an accent sprinkled over the main cheese, but imo nothing compares to a 4:1 mozz/gruyere mixture for pizza.
Sadly lactase doesnt seem to do anything for me. I've been lactose intolerant for a few years now and tried a lot of the things people do to mitigate it; ultimately the only thing that worked for me was significantly changing my diet. Silver lining, I make really good fried rice now
I wonder if you didn't randomly gain a milk protein allergy instead of lactose intolerance. Generally if someone's lactose intolerant, just taking some lactase should help (as long as the dose is taken as directed & is high enough) since it breaks down the lactose to simpler sugars.
Lactase wouldn't do squat for someone with a milk protein allergy, though.
This is certainly possible. I've never seen any kind of medical professional about this issue, I just started getting really sick all the time and experimented with my diet until I singled out dairy as the thing that was making me sick. At this point I've got it well enough under control and I've changed my eating habits to the point that I dont think anything would change for me if I learned I had an allergy as opposed to an intolerance
Yeah I wonder if this might be a whey allergy or something.
have you considered writing a food advice column titled the fried rice advice friend? because i'd read it.
Thanks :) food blogging would be a pretty wild jump for me career wise, but I have no idea what the future holds and I am at somewhat of a crossroads in my life right now. If I ever did start a food blog though, I'd definitely model it after this dude https://www.seriouseats.com/j-kenji-lopez-alt-5118720 He is guilty of the "3 pages of text before the recipe starts" you find across food blogs, but his preamble is usually a mixture of food science and experiments/variations he tried while making the recipe.
As far as fried rice goes, here are the things I wish somebody had told me when I first started making it.
Rice selection makes a big difference. If you dont know where to start, I'd suggest going with jasmine rice. Also, in case you are like me and grew up with minute rice, you have to wash most kinds of rice before cooking it.
Start with day old rice from the fridge. If you dont have day old rice, make a fresh batch, spread it out on a baking sheet, and set it in the freezer uncovered for 30 minutes. Your rice needs to be cooked normally before you can fry it, but the drier it is before you start frying the better it will turn out
Dry toast your rice over high heat. This is the hardest part to get right, it takes a fair amount of technique and practice. The goal is to get it lightly browned and fragrant (rice gets a delicious nutty aroma when toasted). Ideally you want a wok and some kind of fuel burner to get it really hot, but I have a cast iron skillet and a stove top so that's the method ill describe. Preheat the skillet so that its nice and hot before the rice ever touches it. I use medium-high heat (6 out of 10 on my range), but I also preheat my cast iron in the oven so im likely working with a bit more heat than you'd expect from 6 on a range. Once your skillet is hot, spread the rice in the dry skillet in an even layer. From here its tough because the rice needs pan contact to toast but you can't let it burn. In practice that looks like spreading out the rice, leaving it alone for 45-90s, then stirring it all up and letting it sit for another 45-90s. Keep repeating that cycle until its lightly browned and smells delicious. The cooking also speeds up over time, so the first cycle you can leave it closer to 90s but by the end even 45s might be too long to let it go before stirring. This is the hardest, but also the most important part; dont get discouraged if you dont get it right the first few times. I think I was 40 or 50 batches of fried rice in before I was completely happy with my rice toasting technique
This is actually all you need to know. Try your rice, maybe with a dash of salt or a splash of soy if you want. Once you've got the technique right, this fried rice base should taste good all by itself. From there, making any variety of fried rice is as simple as "make fried rice base, add in other stuff and stir fry for just long enough to heat everything through"
Oh dude, I'm part of Kenji's cult following too. Thanks for the advice, I haven't tried toasting it. I'll be making it Wednesday I think, so we'll see how it goes!