Substituting cooking ingredients

Since I have always cooked alot it is not unusual to find I'm out of a key ingredient, especially if it is something that is not a staple or is a fresh product. the maple syrup substitution thread made me think it would be fun to start a thread about other substitutions.

my two favorites.....

sour cream- If you are caught without sour cream a bit of cream with lemon juice in it will do the trick. 1/2 cup cream and about a tablespoon of lemon juice will thicken after a few minutes and become a great sub.

whipped cream/cool whip- I ran across this recipe when hunting for a frosting that didn't require powdered sugar. It tastes almost exactly like cool whip/whipped cream! I refuse to allow cool whip in my house but when I can come up with some suitable containers I am going to whip up a batch of this and see if it freezes well to have a 'whipped topping" minus the hydrogenated oils on hand.

combine

1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour

cook over medium heat stirring constantly till thick. cool in frig with a layer of saran wrap directly on the top to prevent a 'skin' forming.


1 1/2 cups butter
1/2-3/4 cup sugar

cream together in mixer until the mixture isn't grainy. this takes a while maybe a full 5-10 minutes. I suspect that if you have powdered sugar available it would go faster. It really does take a while. the first time I made it I wondered if it would ever get smooth!

add 2 teaspoons vanilla

mix to combine.

with mixer running on high slowly add the cooled milk/flour mixture. It almost immediatly turns the consistancy of whipped cream!

I was amazed! but I am pretty easily amused

I wonder if the whipped cream substitute would work using powdered milk (reconstituted, of course)?

I don't buy "regular" milk anymore and the instant, powdered milk works for me with everything else.

Cinebar

Wow! I am so excited to try that "whipped cream" substitute--thanks Leah!! I will be trying it dairy-free and gluten-free, so I think I have a challenge cut out for me.

My favorite (almost constant) substitution is for buttermilk:

1 tsp vinegar plus milk to make one cup = 1 cup buttermilk.

Works beautifully with rice milk or other non-dairy milks for those fluffy buttermilk pancakes and more.

cinebar - I'd bet it works fine with powdered milk.

jocelyn -  You have peaked my curiosity! let me know how it works out trying it dairy and gluten free.  what might you use to replace the flour? I'm guessing that the palm oil shortening might do the trick to replace the butter and I don't know if the milk is a crucial ingredient, I think you could get away with some other liquid.

busycooks.about.com has a boatload, and I mean boatload of substitution recipes.  I make as much as I can from scratch, and rarely buy any convenience foods.

By keeping a few key ingredients in your pantry, you can make practically everything that you want for a recipe, even sweetened condensed milk, chocolate syrup, cream of chicken soup, basic cake mixes...on and on.

I tend to do things the other way round: check what I've got, then decide what I can cook.
I rarely bake though, and that's where you can really get into substituting...
Mock cream! It was a tearoom staple when I was a child (insert name of: pre-latte, egg sandwich, pink-icing-bun-with-mock-cream establishment...),
I'm presuming yours is tastier than the xxxsmall-town Tearooms' :theirs was kind of like wads of sweetened margarine!

You can toss sugar in a food processer, a blender or do a short grind with a morter to get sugar to refine down enough to be "powder sugar."  Also, I put any left-over vanilla bean pods (that have been scraped-out) into my sugar container.  It imparts a hint of vanilla that is so nice!

Just tried Leah's whipped cream substitute recipe - gluten free and dairy free. Used coconut milk, palm oil shortening and a GF flour mix that was coconut, tapioca, etc.

The thickness was excellent, but it came out chalky due to taking a short cut with the creaming the sugar & fat step. I only had a blending stick where I was visiting, which kept overheating, so despite using powdered sugar, I didn't fully incorporate the sugar into the shortening. Chalky, sweet creamy-thick stuff was the result.

I really want to try this again. I also have a recipe for a stevia-sweetened version. Now that I know the GF-DF version can still thicken nicely, I feel more confident to try the stevia version.

The whip cream substitute is awesome. I love that recipe!

It is important to whip the butter and sugar for a long time....(or mentioned subs for the dairy ingredients........did you just sub ingredients for the substitute whip cream...Ha! that is so funny) ....whip for like about 5-10 minutes since whipping the sugar crystals in the fat creates the fluffiness. the cooked flour and milk are just a stabilizer so any starch thickened with a liquid will work. make sure the thickened starch is totally chilled or it will just melt the fat and not turn out well........

I have done crazy things with that recipe.......it will take any flavouring and makes a kickass frosting. I use it for almost every birthday cake I make

I recently discovered "Smoked Salt"
I Have been using it to replace the flavor of Bacon. I put some in a potatoe salad and it adds that same flavor that only bacon can. a bit sprinkled on a baked potatoe is really good. I realized it is totally vegetarian/vegan too.
it tastes good on carmel too!