Recipe Substitutions

For many cooks, there are times when we don’t have the right ingredients on hand to cook our desired dish. However, don’t despair, there are usually other ingredients that can easily be substituted, saving the cook a trip to the store. Here are some tips.

Milk

Many recipes call for milk, if you find yourself out of milk or don’t have enough to complete a specific recipe, make sure you stock evaporated milk. Evaporated milk or reconstituted milk can be stored for long periods of time and once mixed with water and sometimes a drop of butter can easily taste fresh and delicious.

Baking Powder

If you don’t have baking powder on hand, use baking soda and a drop of buttermilk. For a tablespoon of double acting baking powder, substitute ¼ teaspoon of baking soda and a ½ cup of buttermilk.

Self Rising Flour

Self rising flour is easy to create at home, just mix one cup of all purpose flour with ¼ teaspoon of baking soda, ¼ teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Buttermilk

Ran out of butter milk, easily make your own. You can substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 1 cup whole milk and a tablespoon of vinegar. You can also substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 2/3 cup of plain yogurt and 1/3 whole milk.

Garlic

Ran out of garlic, use garlic powder instead. About 1 clove equals 1/8 of a teaspoon of garlic powder.

Honey

You can easily substitute honey with sugar and water. 1 cup of honey equals about 1 and ¼ quarter cup of sugar and a ¼ cup of water.

Substituting Sugar

If you don’t have sugar on hand or would like to replace it due to health reasons, here are some tips:

Sugar can be substituted with maple syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, honey and molasses. However, some recipes will require sugar or a sweetener and not syrup due to baking and texture requirements.

If you are trying to reduce your intake of sugar due to health concerns, look to the many sweeteners, sometimes called sugar substitutes on the market. They include, Sweet and Low, Splenda and Equal.