Gluten-free foods are becoming more familiar these days, and many cooks are looking for gluten-free products and recipes.

What is gluten? According to John Hopkins Medicine, gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye) plants. Sometimes it’s found in oats but only because the oats may have been processed with other foods that contain gluten. Oats themselves do not contain gluten.

Gluten has a variety of functional culinary benefits. It is naturally occurring but it can be extracted, concentrated and added to food and other products to add protein, texture and flavor. It also works as a binding agent to hold processed foods together and to give them shape. It is responsible for the soft, chewy texture that is characteristic of many gluten-containing grain-based foods.

The term gluten-free is covered by legislation worldwide, and in this country is regulated by the FDA which uses an analytical approach to define gluten-free. The ...