Recipes are the roadmap to success in the kitchen. We're going to break down a few basics that are good to know when substituting ingredients in both savory and sweet recipes.
FIRST QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU MEAN SUBSTITUTE INGREDIENTS??
Don't worry it's not math. Or at least it's not always math. What we mean by substituting ingredients is this: there are often elements of a recipe that can be swapped out for something that you have on hand in your pantry. With that being said there are some ingredients that are essential to a recipe. For example, if you're making French onion soup you're going to need onions. That's a basic example, but I trust you get the point. We're hoping these pointers are a helpful tool to help you work with what you have on hand.
Plus, substituting ingredients can also be a great way to get creative in the kitchen whether you're a seasoned cook or just starting out!
We're going to break this up into two main categories: savory and sweet or cooking and baking. This is primarily because its generally easier to substitute ingredients within savory recipes. Cooking is less about ratios and more about flavors. Whereas baking is ALL about the ratios.
You may or may not have heard this before, but baking is a lot like chemistry. There is a reason for every ingredient and it's important that each ingredient is measured. When we're mixing cookie dough each ingredient is measure down to the gram to ensure that our cookies come out perfect each time. Although I can assure you when we're testing new recipes there are PLENTY of fails.
One more quick note on substituting ingredients. We will be discussing easily substituted ingredients based on their similarity to one another in a recipe. This post is not discussing ingredient substitution based on dietary restrictions or preferences, which can be a bit more intricate.
Check back tomorrow for our first post in this series!