Help! I Don't Have Any... Cooking Options To Help When You Can't Get to the Store

by Christine Steendahl

Recipes substitutions for common cooking ingredients. For many cooks, there are times when we do not have the proper ingredients on hand to make our desired dish. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t despair, many common ingredients can be used to replace recipes standards, saving the cook a drive to the store. Here are some hints.

For many cooks, there are times when we do not have the proper ingredients on hand to make our desired dish. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t despair, many common ingredients can be used to replace recipes standards, saving the cook a drive to the store. Here are some hints.

Milk
A lot of recipes require milk. If you realize yourself out of milk or short on the amount necessary to finish a specific recipe, make sure you keep a supply of evaporated milk on hand. Evaporated milk or reconstituted milk can be kept for a long time and once mixed with water and many times a bit of butter, can easily taste just as good as regular milk.

Baking Powder
If you do not have baking powder readily available, use baking soda and a dash of buttermilk. For a tablespoon of double acting baking powder, substitute 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and a 1/2 cup of buttermilk.

Self Rising Flour
Self rising flour is easy to make from scratch, just combine one cup of all purpose flour with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Butter Milk
Out of butter milk? You can simply create 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 cup whole milk.

Garlic
Ran out of garlic? Substitute garlic powder instead. About 1 clove of garlic equals 1/8 of a teaspoon of garlic powder.

Honey
You can easily replace honey with sugar and water. 1 cup of honey equals about 1 and 1/4 cup of sugar and a 1/4 cup of water.

Substituting Sugar
If you are short on sugar on hand or would like to replace it due to health issues, here are some hints to substitute sugar:

Sugar can be exchanged with with maple syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, honey, stevia, and molasses. Although, some recipes will call for sugar or a granular sweetener and not syrup due to baking and texture requirements.

If you striving to decrease the amount of sugar you eat due to health issues, consider the many sweeteners, sometimes called sugar replacements at the supermarket. They include, Sweet and Low, Splenda, Equal, and plant based Stevia.